AHYoung Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 heres the situation. need to replace a crown 3600 in a fixed instal thats died after over 10 years of solid service. Its the bottom end of an old deltamax rig driving into { non ev triple} jbl 15 bins so it needs to provide 1500 - 1800w both sides driven. If crown still made a macrotech vz3600 that would be the obvious choice, but they dont and the macro I tech 5000 is overpowered and overbudget. Its a fixed instal so weight isnt an issue neither is onoard processing. Whats important is that it needs to work without breaking. any suggestions ideally informed by actual experience would be appreciated... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenalien Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Get it repaired; it should then be good for another 10 years if properly maintained and ventilated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHYoung Posted July 17, 2012 Author Share Posted July 17, 2012 Whoever is crowns approved repair agent basically couldnt fix it or more accurately it would cost a lot to fix and they coulnt guarentee that something else wouldnt fail pretty much immediately. ten years in a nightclub takes their toll and general circuit rot has overcome the beast. its fully ventilated but breaths the same sweaty smokey air as the customers.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePaGuy Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I could not disagree more,we have been having crown and Macrotech amps repaired by Sound Technology ( The UK Service Centre ) for at least 4 years now,every one we have removed from a 5 to 10 year install has been serviced and repaired to a very high standard, at a reasonable cost, we then sell them on to other customers and have never had one returned.They use only crown matched output devices and have all the tools needed to set up the amp as if it came out of the factoryDo yoursellf a favour and contact Sound Technology to book it in for repair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHYoung Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Sound tehnology have tried and failed im sure the wouldhave if they couldhave. In brief again - a simple question, old amp burst, manufacturers approved agents cant fix it, it needs replaced id be interested in opions as to what. Not being a complete idiot, the repair routes been fully explored with the people best placed to preform the service, so it needs replaced. Lets not debate the hypothetical nature of repairs that cant be done. the simple question is with what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Another 3600 off ebay? They're not renowned for going wrong, you've established this. It's a fairly severe thing that's happened but there are hundreds still in service, so why look at anything else. Or a 5000vz as a bit of an upgrade. there's not a massive price difference second hand. And please, it's 3600vz and 5000vz the vz isn't at the start, or in the middle, it doesn't have an L in it. It's not a Crown AMCRON it's a macrotech, its a 3600vz. That is all. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHYoung Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 if you want the full sorry story, it does feature an amp off ebay that was sold as being immaculate and turned out to be also beyond economic repair after a few weeks of use. The trouble with ebay as its very like the second hand car market, it may look the part but under a clean and tidy exterior its beeen hammered for years and everythings seriously corroded internally. Hopefully the tale has a happy ending as a replacement plus spare have been procured at a fair price. Time will tell but im in a possitive mood about it all as all my investigations have led me back to the fact that there actually isnt a direct replacement, so another one of the same {plus a spare} is the wayforward Whats surprising is that there actually hasnt been any usefull suggestions to what seemed a fairly straightforward question for the active sound proffesional, all we have really learned is the exact syntax of the nomenclature of the unit which is something at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatfrog Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 MC2 E45 would be a pretty decent choice to replace it with. Falls within the power category and doesn't have as big a price tag as a lab gruppen. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 there are very few reasons why a macrotech can't be economically repaired..given their initial cost. The 3600 (MA3600VZ) was one of the later sizes to be made, essentially a baby 5000. If it's been to Sound Tech for repair assessment, there'll be an engineers report whether it was scrapped or repaired. We for a start would gladly like to quote to repair it, in 20 years I've personally only written off two: both for mains transformer burn-outs (due to overvoltage) that pushed the repair over the customer's available budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 Whats surprising is that there actually hasnt been any usefull suggestions to what seemed a fairly straightforward question for the active sound proffesional, all we have really learned is the exact syntax of the nomenclature of the unit which is something at least. Actually, I thought what we may have learnt from 4 people including myself is that despite there being a lot of amps on the market, the one you have is probably the right tool for the job and changing to a different model is likely to be unwise. If we learn to accept that the one you have is beyond economical repair then we're stuck with getting hold of another identical one. The E45 as Alan says would be a more than adequate replacement, the E25 in fairness is a closer output on paper to the 3600 although this seems to fall short of your requirements so perhaps you're thinking of killing two stones with eleven birds and replacing with something with a slightly higher output. Sticking with the Crown route the XTI4000 are same output on paper as a 3600, with the larger 6000 being higher powered. Of course the Macrotech 5000VZ will work into whatever you ask it which is similar output on paper to the E45. Big old and heavy you have Crest CA12 at the same output, and CA18 at a higher output. QSC's RMX5050, If you want newer you can look at QSC's PL range, or the Itech, Macrotech I, there's simply so many to choose from. However, all in all, there is likely a valid reason why Myself who uses Macrotechs in their dozens day in day out, Kevin who has worked on them and everything else for years, and Steve from SSE have pointed you in the direction of getting yourself another 3600. Call them a 3600VZ, a VZ3600 or a packet of dry roasted peanuts called Nigel, unless you decided to give yourself a bit more headroom and get a 5000VZ, I'd get another 3600VZ. Steve might actually be your man, if I remember correctly they have shifted a number of 3600's fairly recently. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHYoung Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Any in the interest is completeness, what you replace the thing with is ---- another old one exactly the same, with a second unit procured at the same time to replace the replacement if that ever becomes an issue. Both work and normal service is resumed. What ive learnt is that you dont get a high quality mid powered unit anymore, you can pretty much get something "cheap" thats got similar paper specs, or if you dont want "cheap" you end up with something overpowered { now theres a whole different arguement that not worth having} and consequently overbudget, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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