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Micro-Tech 600/1200/2400 Power Amplifiers
4 Operation
4.1 Precautions
Although your amplifier is protected from internal and
external faults, you should still take the following pre-
cautions for optimum perfromance and safety:
1. Improper wiring for the Stereo, Bridge-Mono and
Parallel-Mono modes can result in serious operat-
ing difficulties (see Section 3.3).
2. WARNING: Do not change the position of the
stereo/mono switch unless the amplifier is first
turned off.
3. CAUTION: In Parallel-Mono mode, a jumper is
used between the red (+) channel 1 and 2 red
output binding posts. Remove this jumper for
Bridge-Mono and Stereo modes, or high distor-
tion and excessive heating will occur. Also,
check the stereo/mono switch for proper setting.
4. Turn off the amplifier and unplug it from the AC
mains before removing the back panel cover plate
or before removing and cleaning the dust filter.
5. Use care when making connections, selecting sig-
nal sources and controlling the output level. The
load you save may be your own!
6. Do not short the ground lead of an output cable to
the input signal ground. This will form a ground loop
and may cause oscillations.
7. Operate the amplifier from AC mains of not more
than 10% above or below the selected line voltage
and only at the specified line frequency.
8. Never connect the output to a power supply out-
put, battery or power main. Such connections
may result in electrical shock.
9. Tampering with the circuitry by unqualified person-
nel or making unauthorized circuit changes may be
hazardous and invalidates all agency listings.
Remember: Crown is not liable for damage that results
from overdriving other system components.
4.2 Indicators
The amber enable indicator is provided to show that
the amplifier has been turned on (or enabled), and its
low-voltage power supply and forced-air cooling sys-
tem are working. It does not indicate the status of the
high-voltage power supplies. For example, the enable
indicator will remain lit during unusual conditions that
would cause the amplifier’s protection systems to tem-
porarily remove power from a high-voltage power sup-
ply (see Section 4.3).
The amber
ODEP
indicators confirm the normal op-
eration of Crown’s patented Output Device Emulation
Protection circuitry. During normal operation, they glow
brightly to show the presence of reserve thermody-
namic energy. They dim proportionally as the energy
reserve decreases. In the rare event that there is no
reserve, the indicators turn off and
ODEP
proportion-
ally limits the drive level of the output stages so the
amplifier can continue safe operation even when con-
ditions are severe. (For a more detailed description of
ODEP
, see Section 4.3.1.)
The
ODEP
indicators also turn off if the amplifier loses
AC power, the power switch is turned off, or the low-
voltage power supply fuse blows. The
ODEP
indicator
for the affected channel will turn off if a high-voltage
power supply fuse or breaker blows, or if the channel
activates transformer thermal protection. Conditions
that activate “drive protection” do not affect the
ODEP
indicators (see Section 4.3.3).
4.3 Protection Systems
Micro-Tech
amplifiers have extensive protection sys-
tems including
ODEP
, ultrasonic/RF protection, drive
protection, and power supply fuses or breakers.
4.3.1
ODEP
Crown invented
ODEP
to solve two long-standing prob-
lems in amplifier design: to prevent amplifier shutdown
during demanding operation, and to increase the effi-
ciency of the output circuitry.
To do this, Crown established a rigorous program to
measure the
safe operating area
(SOA) of each output
transistor before installing it in an amplifier. Next, Crown
designed intelligent circuitry to simulate the instanta-
neous operating conditions of those output transistors.
Its name describes what it does: Output Device Emu-
lation Protection or
ODEP
. In addition to simulating out-
put transistor operating conditions, it compares their
operation to their known SOA. If
ODEP
sees that more
ODEP
CH1 CH2
POWER
OFF
Fig. 4.1 Indicators
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