A crystal amplifier for driving a crystal to oscillate at a resonant frequency including a controlled current source, a primary amplifier core, a high gain amplifier core, and a controller. Both amplifier cores are coupled in parallel, and each has an input coupled to an amplifier input node and an output coupled to an amplifier output node coupled across the crystal. The current source provides a core bias current to the source node. The controller enables the high gain amplifier core and sets the core bias current to a high current level to achieve a high negative resistance at a startup time, and then disables the high gain amplifier core and sets the core bias current to a lower steady state current level after oscillation is achieved. A level detector may be used for detecting oscillation and for determining when to adjust the core bias current.