Power Sharing Feature | Crown Comtech D-Series Amplifiers
Video Manual Series
In this video, we take a closer look at the Power Sharing feature on Crown ComTech D‑Series amplifiers and how it helps system designers and installers get more flexibility out of their amplifier channels.
Power Sharing allows available amplifier power to be dynamically shared between banks of channels, rather than being locked to individual outputs. This makes it easier to support a wide range of speaker layouts and load requirements without oversizing your amplifier or redesigning the system.
📌 Topics covered:
-What Power Sharing is and how it works
-How power is allocated across channel banks
-Practical examples
Whether you’re designing a new system or optimizing an existing installation, understanding Power Sharing can help you build more efficient, scalable, and flexible audio systems with Crown ComTech D‑Series amplifiers.
In this video of the Crown Comtech D-Series video manuals, we’re going to introduce you to the new power sharing feature available with these amps.
Power sharing lets neighboring amp channels share available power between them. That means instead of each channel being limited to a certain amount of wattage, groups of 2 or 4 channels can share the amount of watts available. The CTD-2125 allows for 250 watts to be shared between its two channels, while the CTD-4125 and CTD-8125 allow up to 500 watts to be shared among groups of 4 channels. Let’s look at a few application examples to see how this could work.
On the 2 channel amp, the power can be shared across both channels. The maximum power is 250 watts. Let’s imagine a simple 70 volt restaurant install where most of the speakers are in the main dining area. We could have 6 JBL Control speakers tapped at 30 watts each on our first amp output, for a total of 180 watts on that channel. Then, maybe we have two more of the same speakers, also tapped at 30 watts that go from the amp’s second output to a bathroom area. This would result in a total power of 240 watts, so this system would be able to handle this setup.
On the 4 and 8 channel versions, power can be shared across 4 channels with a maximum power of 500 watts. Let’s expand our restaurant example a little more now. Output 1 is sharing 9 70V speakers tapped at 30 watts each. Output 2 has 2 speakers tapped at 7.5 watts each. On output 3, we added a group of 70V pendant speakers totaling 200 watts. Finally, output 4 has a small group of ceiling speakers only totaling 12 watts. As long as the power drawn is within the 500 watt limit, this configuration will be able to support these speakers.
No special configuration or settings need to be changed to utilize the power sharing feature. Power can be shared between low and high impedance channels, but make sure to verify that each amp channel output mode is set appropriately for the speakers on that output. Do not combine low impedance and 70 volt speakers on the same amp output.