CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Da Rules Da Rules 1. Read all safety and operating instructions 3. WARNING: Shock before operating the CE-Series amplifier. hazard. To reduce the Follow all instructions carefully and heed any risk of fire or electric warnings given.
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 7. Do not attempt to service 10. CAUTION: Do not locate this unit beyond instructions sensitive, high-gain contained in this manual. equipment such as Refer all servicing to the preamplifiers or tape Crown Service Department. decks directly above or below the unit.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Unpacking Your CE-Series Amp Please unpack and inspect your amplifier for any damage that may have occurred during transit. If damage is found, notify the transportation company immediately. Only you can initiate a claim for shipping damage. Crown will be happy to help as needed.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Did You Remember To Quick Start! You’ve waited a long time for this! We know you just can’t wait ® CE-Series amplifier. And you to crank up your new Crown sure don’t want to flip through pages of tech-talk just to find out where the “ON”...
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! ® o Get Your Speakons CAUTION: Excessive output levels may toast your speak- ers. Crown’s CE-Series amplifiers have such low distor- tion, you may not realize the actual level being reached until it’s too late. Please exercise caution and drive your speakers responsibly (or at least warn your neighbors!).
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Contents Da Rules ............... 2 Unpacking Your CE-Series Amplifier ..... 4 Features ..............5 Quick Start ............6 Welcome ............. 10 Detailed Install ............ 14 Operation ............27 Other Issues: Balancing the Line ..........31 The Dastardly Duo: Hum and Buzz .....
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Illustrations Typical Stereo Hookup .......... 7 The CE-Series Amplifier ......... 10-11 The Big Picture: Controls, Indicators and Connectors ........... 12-13 Mounting Dimensions .......... 14 Mode Switch ............15 Input Sensitivity Switch ........15 Typical Input Wiring ..........16 Neutrik Speakon ®...
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Welcome Thanks for buying this CE-Series amplifier. Here at Crown, we appreciate your support, and we think you’ll find that you’ve also done yourself a favor by choosing Crown. That’s because the CE-Series amps are REAL Crown amplifiers, designed by dedicated Crown engineers to fit your needs AND your wallet.
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Your CE-Series amp also comes with a standard SST module Fig. 1.1 (System Solution Topologies) that gives you the choice of bar- The CE-Series Amplifier rier strip, -inch phone, or 3-pin XLR connectors and works great in most situations.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2 Detailed Install Follow these instructions for a detailed explanation of CE-Se- ries installation procedures and options. If you just want to get up and running as quickly as possible, see the Quick Start section on page 6. 2.1—Begin with the amplifier turned off and disconnected from the power receptacle.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2.3—Set the mode switch. Turn off the amplifier before mov- ing this switch. The Mode switch should be in the “Stereo” position when you’re running in Stereo Mode. Stereo Mode allows independent inputs on the left and right channels to feed separate speakers at the output.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2.5—Connect the inputs of the CE-Series amp to your mixer, equalizers, or signal processors ahead of the amp. Three types of balanced input connectors are provided, allow- -inch phone or 3-pin ing you to choose barrier strip, XLR connectors.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2.6— — — — — Connect the outputs of the CE-Series amp to your loudspeakers. You will need two (2) Neutrik Speakon ® NL4FC connectors to interface with this amplifier.* You will also need high-quality two- or four-conductor speaker cable with the appropriate end-connectors to fit the in- puts on your speakers, a pair of needle-nosed pliers and a 1.5-mm hex key to assemble the Speakon connectors.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Fig. 2.6 Wiring for the Neutrik Speakon NL4FC Connector priate slot of the connector insert (B) as shown in Figure 2.6. Use a 1.5-mm hex key inserted into each side slot to tighten the connection. 2.6.4a—If the Mode switch is in the “Stereo”...
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2.6.4b—If the Mode switch is in the “Bridge” position (for mono configuration), connect the load across the positive (+) terminals of the connector as shown in Figure 2.8. Re- fer to Figure 2.11 for complete system setup. For Bridge- Mono Mode, non-inverting output, Ch1+ is the positive (+) and Ch2+ is the negative (–).
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Output Wiring Tips 1. Although this amp has Speakon connectors to minimize wiring mis- takes, we encourgage you to choose carefully when selecting speaker enclosue connectors. 2. To prevent possible short circuits, wrap or otherwise insulate ex- posed loudspeaker cable connectors.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Fig. 2.13 Detailed Neutrik Speakon NL4FC Connector Assembly: Bushing onto Connector Housing Assembly 2.6.7—Slide the bushing along the cable and screw onto the end of the connector combination as shown in Figure 2.13. Note that the bushing features a special locking construction which will prevent disassembly of the NL4FC connector once this cap is tightened into place.
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 2.7—Turn on all equipment ahead of the amplifier such as the mixer or preamplifier. Adjust their signal levels to their optimum “signal to noise” settings as defined in their op- erating manuals. 2.8—Plug the amplifier into the power receptacle, turn on the amplifier and adjust its level controls to a desired setting.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 3 Operation Operating a CE-Series amp is very straight-forward. Indicators See Figure 3.1 for positions of front-panel controls and indica- tors. Fault: OFF is good. This red indicator will blink under five dif- ferent conditions: 1.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Controls Level: You can adjust each channel’s output using the level control on the front of the amplifier. To decrease the level, ro- ∞ tate the control counter-clockwise (to “ ”). To increase the level, rotate it clockwise (to 0). The level control knob may be pulled from the front panel and the holes plugged with the supplied caps, if you wish, to minimize tampering of control settings.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Power: The power switch is located on the front panel so you can easily turn the amplifier on or off. When the switch is de- pressed left, the amp is off. If you ever need to make any wir- ing or installation changes, don’t forget to also disconnect the power cord.
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Input Sensitivity: A two-position Input Sensitivity switch is lo- cated on the back panel near the input connectors. Your am- plifier is shipped from the factory with this switch set to the 1.4-V position. At this setting, a 1.4-volt input signal will drive the amplifier to full power into an 8-ohm load when the level controls are turned to maximum.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 4 Other Issues Balancing the Line A balanced audio circuit typically will have both positive (+) and negative (–) legs of the circuit isolated from the ground circuit. These balanced legs exhibit identical impedance char- acteristics with respect to ground, and may also carry the au- dio signal at the same level, but with opposite polarities.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! The Dastardly Duo: Dr. Hum and Mr. Buzz If you have noticeable hum or buzz in your system, you may want to check your cable connections to see if the unwanted noise is being introduced via a ground loop. To determine the proper wiring, first check whether the output from your source is unbalanced or balanced (if you don’t know, refer to the unit’s back panel or instruction manual).
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Fig. 4.3 Balanced Input Wiring Check Figure 4.4 (following page) to see if your cable has been wired with the proper shield and ground connection. If the ca- bling is incorrect, you may be able to avoid the ground loop (and associated hum) by plugging all of your equipment into the same AC circuit (on the same breaker).
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 5 Advanced Features & Options Crown SST Module On the back panel of your amplifier, you will notice that the input module is removable. This module may be replaced by other SST (System Solution Topologies)—modules which will customize the equipment to better serve your needs.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Crown’s advanced SST crossover plug-in module is easily ex- changed with the existing module by removing the four corner screws and unplugging an edge connector. The crossover module offers the following features: • Stereo biamp. •...
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! • CD horn equalization. • Mono summing of low-frequency output for driving subs. Crown plans to release additional accessory plug-in modules offering a range of advanced features and capabilities. Watch for new releases. CH 1 AMPLFIER INPUT BALANCED OUTPUT...
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Fault Monitoring The Fault (RJ11) jack, which looks like a telephone plug, is located on the back of your CE amplifier. It gives you an easy way to remotely monitor the amplifier’s fault status. To set up a circuit that will cause an LED to light whenever a fault status occurs, you can simply use the suggested circuit shown in Figure 5.2.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Handle Kit Handles complement your amplifier’s appearance, aid in trans- portation, and the placement or removal from racks. They are available from Crown’s Parts Department (Part # 125489-1). Tamper-Resistant Hole Plugs Your CE-Series amplifier comes with a set of tamper-resistant hole plugs, which allow you to “protect”...
The actual compressing is accom- plished by an opto-isolator which affects the gain in the signal path. Fig. 6.1 COMPRESSOR TO CLIP CE Series CONTROL INDICATOR Amplifier Block Diagram TRANSLATOR BALANCED...
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! The signal next enters the main amplifier error amp where it is mixed with a small portion of the output signal in such a way as to control the amplifier’s overall output performance. Warning: Details of closed loop amplifier design are beyond the scope of this description and if discussed, would surely put most readers to sleep! Following the error amp is the LVA stage, which is where the...
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Voltage & Current circuit. This circuit protects the devices from extending beyond their safe area of operation, but allows the devices to provide high bursts of peak power with music, al- lowing your amplifier to deliver more punch. When all is said and done, this amplifier output topology offers a good combi- nation of low quiescent amplifier heating and great distortion performance at high powers for a reasonable complexity, reli-...
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They are protected by the front-panel line circuit breaker and controlled by the front-panel power switch. And there my friends you have it, the guts of the CE 1000/CE 2000 from Crown Audio! Page 43...
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 7 Specifications Note: All specifications relate to all models of CE-Series ampli- fiers. All measurements are at 26 dB, 8 ohms, 1 kHz at rated power unless otherwise stated. Frequency Response: ±0.1 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz at 1 watt. Phase Response: ±15°...
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CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Controls Level: A detented rotary level control for each channel located on the front panel. Power: An on/off rocker switch located on the front panel. Input Sensitivity: A two-position switch located on the back panel near the input connectors. Can be set to 1.4 V for full output into an 8-ohm load or a fixed voltage gain of 26 dB.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Input/Output (Spaghetti Control) Input Connectors: One Neutrik Combo connector for each channel which features a balanced ¼-inch phone jack and a 3-pin female XLR connector, in parallel with a barrier strip ter- mination. Input Stage: Input is electronically balanced and employs pre- cision 1% resistors.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! Protection CE-Series amplifiers are protected against shorted, open or mismatched loads; overloaded power supplies; excessive temperature, chain destruction phenomena, input overload damage and high-frequency blowups. They also protect loud- speakers from input/output DC, large or dangerous DC offsets and turn-on/turn-off transients.
CE-Series Amps with an Attitude! 8 Service Your amplifier should only be serviced by a fully trained techni- cian at an authorized service center. CAUTION: To prevent electric shock, do not remove cov- ers. No user serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to a qualified technician.
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If you have any questions, please call or write the Crown Tech- nical Support Group. Crown Audio Division Technical Support / Factory Service Plant 2 SW, 1718 W. Mishawaka Rd., Elkhart, Indiana 46517 U.S.A.
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WORLDWIDE SUMMARY OF WARRANTY The Crown Audio Division of Crown International, Inc., 1718 West Mishawaka Road, Elkhart, Indiana 46517-4095 U.S.A. warrants to you, the ORIGINAL PURCHASER and ANY SUBSEQUENT OWNER of each NEW Crown product, for a period of three (3) years from the date of purchase by the original purchaser (the “warranty period”) that...
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Crown Factory Service Information Shipping Address: Crown International, Inc., Factory Service, Plant 2 SW, 1718 W. Mishawaka Rd., Elkhart, IN U.S.A. 46517 Phone: 1-800-342-6939 or 1-219-294-8200 Fax: 1-219-294-8124 Owner’s Name: __________________________________________________________ Shipping Address: _______________________________________________________ Phone Number: _______________________ Fax Number: ___________________ Model: _______________________________ Serial Number: _________________ Purchase Date: __________________________________________________________...