Crown DriveCore XLS1500 Power Amplifier

I've always been skeptical of pro audio amps for home hi-fi use. The image I've always had of them was something that powered blaring, out of balance monitors at weddings when people sang karaoke. But for some reason I paid attention when someone in an audio forum extolled the virtues of his Crown XLS1500 amps, saying that they sounded no different than the hi-fi audio amps he has owned. My curiosity led me to look at the product page on Amazon, where I saw the sale price which to me seemed insanely low for a stereo amp that put out 300 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Further reading on various audio forums around the internet, as well as professional reviews, convinced me to order one and try it out. It seemed weird to me to have an amp that weighed less than 9 lbs and took up half the space of the amp I was using, which weighed 70+ lbs and put out the same 300 watts per channel. I hooked up the Crown, listened, and... it sounded no different than the amp I had been using. Sound quality was excellent, and it handled dynamics with ease. There are LED warning indicators on the face of the amp. The first green one shows when the amp is receiving a signal; the second green one when it is at 20 db below clipping level; the third when 10 db below clipping, and then there is a red LED to show when it is clipping. I played music at as loud a volume as I would ever listen to it and the second LED never lit up. Loud or soft, the sound was clear and clean and no different from the amp I had been using. I ended up buying four of these altogether, to use in a 5.1 system. Three of the amps are bridged to mono mode and power the left, center and right speakers, and the fourth amp is in stereo mode and powers the two surrounds. What I love is that they sound great yet I can lift all four amps at the same time with ease. All four together weigh about 35 lbs. The drawbacks? Only one - the amps are sort of ugly. I've gotten used to the way they look now, but they definitely do not look as good as the hi-fi amps I was using. The construction quality is not as robust, either but then I don't move them around or abuse them, and they do the job they were intended for, very well. They stay very cool - lukewarm at the warmest. The fan has come on when in use but it is a variable-speed fan and the loudest I have heard it is just a very low whirring sound that I can hear only with my ear right up to the front grill. Otherwise it is inaudible. There is also some hiss from the tweeters when the amp is on with no source playing but that hiss is faint and becomes inaudible about 6-8" from the tweeter. Oh yes - another drawback is the lack of an input for a power trigger so I have to get up and manually turn these on. But then that's no different than what I used to do in the "old days" when I had a turntable. As for the amp being ugly, the newer 1502 model remedies this with an attractive black faceplate but the price is a lot higher, too. I'll settle for the 1500. Excellent performance in a lightweight, compact package. I'm very pleased with these amps.

In a nutshell: I was going to buy the newer 1502 version but when these went on sale it was a no-brainer! Careful shopping might find these for $199 each. Snap these up before they are all gone! Long version: I've been a "budget audiophile" for years, enjoying older, used amps and speakers for a fraction of the cost. I've owned all the big Yamaha iron, most of the Adcom lineup, some McIntosh, etc. and my speaker collection has been graced by everything from Vandersteen, Dahlquist, Snell, Polk reference, Magnepan, Martin Logan and the best of the AR Teledyne era, to name some of them. Eventually the DIY bug bit me and after a few trials and tribulations I sold my last pair of Martin Logan SL3 to make room for a pair of ugly birch plywood boxes housing professional 18" woofers with 8" "full range" drivers mounted to another slab of plywood standing on top. Next to go were my vintage Yamaha M-80 and M-65 amps I had been using for a couple of years. I tried newer amps including an excellent 50wpc "T-Amp" that you can also find on Amazon. I stumbled across a very long thread on the XLS series of amps on an audiophile forum and the more I read, the more I got interested. When I found out that the XLS were being replaced by the new, "improved" XLS2, I really started shopping. The new version offers lights you can turn off, an input gain switch, a bit more flexibility on the crossover section, and a black face, which I really liked. THEN I saw the original XLS series were seeing some massive discounts as they were being phased out... Careful shopping landed me a pair of XLS 1500 for $199 each. No, the lights aren't too bright, especially lower to the floor as I have them. Input gain troubled me a bit but after reading a good gain matching tutorial I got my Yamaha HT receiver to feed these amps just what they wanted, without messing about with XLR balanced/unbalanced conversion, etc. Tutorial linked below: http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-theater-receivers-processors-amps/35677-gain-structure-home-theater-getting-most-pro-audio-equipment-your-system.html I LOVE these amps! Great signal to noise ratio (the 1500 and higher are slightly better than the 1000, for some reason) and way more clean power than I will ever need. Damping factor of 200+ means that my 18" woofers (H-frame open baffles) get the kind of control that is even silly to ask of an AVR or older, home stereo amp. Even at theater level volume the clipping light has never even lit up. Control, punch, weight, and dynamics that only a few years ago I would have been contemplating $1000+ worth of second hand amps to achieve... with a warranty and pro-use build quality! Fan??? Oh yeah! There is one of those too! I had previously considered the Behringer iNUKE DSP amps but after reading how loud the fans in those were (most do a fan conversion to them for home use), I'm glad I went with the Crowns... These amps never even feel warm to the touch and I have yet to hear the fans. I imagine they DO come on, when I'm watching a movie or have the tunes jamming loudly, but *I've never heard them*. Don't want them to be on all the time? Pick up the Tripp Lite Outlet Eco-Surge Protector Power Strip, plug your AVR (or preamp, or whatever) into the "master" outlet and the Crown(s) into the slave outlets. When the AVR comes on, by remote, the Crowns click to life too! Highly recommended.

One good thing about this amp is its light weight comparing to other brand name in this class i.e., Behringer which weighs a few more pounds, but others do weigh seriously...lots more. I don't see the point of extra pounds unless that directly relates to the over quality. One thing I absolutely dislike of this amp is the 3' long power cable, so impractically short. What a ridiculously dumb idea, probably meant for rack, but I can't see a 6' power cord would compromise its fitting into a rack. I've already run into issue with it the first day. Durability? Time will tell.

The XLS1500's power can noticeably improve your home listening experience. I tried a different path for stereo music/TV after yet another expensive 7.x receiver stopped working. Our Polk Rti A7 towers have been paired with Yamaha, HK, Marantz, Onkyo, and Pioneer receivers (with various room correction eq), with and without a sub and biamplification. I've never been in love with the A7s, but they are ok at balancing difficult tradeoffs of clean sound, reasonably flat frequency response, musical bass, and the ability to play loud rock, jazz, classical, and vocal when needed. I have a EE background, so like the technology of "class D" amps and wanted to see what much higher power would sound like. I was a bit worried about how "pro" equipment might sound based on some wedding DJ experiences, but figured for this price it was worth an experiment. I run RCA or headphone from files and streaming on Android, Apple, TV, etc. through an inexpensive mixing board (more below) and am not using a subwoofer. Typical TV and background music listening levels work well, meaning there is no static, hum, etc. added by the amp -- but the power on tap is irrelevant in this case. As the volume goes up, the available power makes a significant difference with increased dynamics (tighter bass and transients) and higher clean SPL. These speakers can't recreate the SPL of an Iron Maiden concert and the midrange drivers can't go as loud as I'd like with female vocal Christmas music, but I can cleanly play most music louder than most people care to hear it. But that isn't very often -- what I most enjoy is the increased dynamics during mid-level listening. You can run the amp straight off RCA/headphone, but as others have noted depending on the level of the output and sensitivity of your speakers you may not get loud enough. If needed, a simple mixing board like Behringer XENYX502 and some patch cables can address for $50. So if you have 2 good speakers, for $200-350 with the XLS1500 or XLS1000 and maybe a mixing board, you can have a stereo power solution that outperforms any receiver, including $2K+ models. Stop worrying about irrelevant power differences between 80 vs 130 watt receivers that use 20th Century amplifier technology to heat your room; what really matters is the ability to quickly provide peak power and support low impedance when needed. We're converting our dedicated home theater over to several XLS1000s when I sort out a simple digital preamp solution that doesn't involve a receiver or $500+. In terms of these amps exceeding most home speaker power ratings, as long as you are careful to turn down the volume as soon as you hear distortion, you will be safe. Most speaker damage occurs from under powered amplifiers distorting the signal sent to the speakers. You may have to be careful with the speaker overheating and starting to distort if the drivers get too hot from extended loud listening, but for most home mid-level listening you may be cruising along at 25 watts -- what makes the music sound better is that brief "transient" sounds can now leverage 10+ times that power.

I bought this amp to drive my mid-range speakers in a 4-way PA (2 drivers per channel total 8 ohms, I did not use internal crossovers). On the bench the amp seemed to do the job, however out in the field the amp wimped out. As soon as the amp was powered up the temperature protection circuit tripped. The concert was an outdoor concert (5 days), and on the first day it was humid in the high 80's, and we could not get the amp to run for more than 5 seconds without a temp out. Even fans didn't help. Had to swap out to the Crown for a QSC that we were using for our stage monitors in order to get the mains going. We did not have a single problem with any of our QSC amps temping out. This amp is pretty lightweight, and I am guessing that the heat sinks are too small. You really need to consider your environment before you buy this...

This amplifier is 250 watts rms. The 1550 watts is the dynamic power that it will put out for a few seconds if playing a sine wave at full power. It will not play 1550 watts rms continuous. If you look at the back of the amplifier it says 250w near the power supply. That means this amplifier consumes 250 watts. There is no way it would put out over 250 watts continuously (unless for a few seconds) if it only consumes 250 watts. It is impossible for anything to continously to put out more power than it consumes. Not a single person I asked was able to explain how this amplifier can put out 1550 watts continuously if it only consumes 250 watts because it just isn't possible. I even looked at my subwoofer's excursion decrease over time after turning it up. At first I can believe it is really putting out 1550 watts at 4 ohms bridged based on the actual excursion and WinISD's calculated excursion from the power. Then a few seconds of playing at maximum power to where the red clip indicators turned on, the excursion decreased down by atleast half. Based on WinISD it is about 8mm excursion at 1550 watts at around 26hz for my subwoofers. 250 watts brings down my subwoofer excursion to around 3.2mm excursion at 26hz. Based on looking at my subwoofer's excursion and WinISD, I can confirm that this amplifier is 250 watts continuous and 1550 watts dynamic which it will only hold for a few seconds and then quickly drop to 250 watts within seconds if playing at its full power. The power drop probably won't be noticeable for most people unless listening to audio with constant bass notes. Usually you get what you pay for. But with this amplifier, you pay more than the watts you get. For $300 it sounds reasonable for an amplifier to put out 1500 watts continuously. But $300 for an amplifier that only puts out 250 watts continuously is just a rip-off. I remember looking at the picture of the rear of the amplifier before I bought it. I thought that 250w printed near the power plug on the amplifier was a typo or that it was too bad to be true. But it turned out true: this amplifier is only 250 watts rms continuous. I have more proof this amplifier is not 1550 watts continuous. If this amplifier were 1550 watts and 90% efficient then it would consume 1700 watts which is 14 amps of power if the voltage is 120. My computer uses around 3 amps of power. The lights in my room use around 2 amps of power. My reciever is putting out 100 watts total for two 8" mid woofers and and 100 watts to six 3" speakers. If the efficiency is around 75% then my receiver consumes 300 watts or 2.5 amps. The breaker to my room is 15 amps. So drawing 21.5 amps should blow the 15 amp breaker but the breaker never tripped even when turning on all the lights to my room and with the music playing at full power. If this amplifier really was 1550 watts rms then I would know it because the breaker would have tripped. I opened up the amplifier and found only four small output transistors. Output transistors are what put out the power to the speakers. My 20 years old receiver has 8 output transistors that are about twice the size. You can not get high power from a few small output transistors so that is how you know there is no way this amplifier can put out anywhere close to 1500 watts rms continuous.

I am thrilled with these amps. I am running a stack of them in a 7.3 system driving Polk A7s, A3s, an A6 center, two Polk powered subs and a monstrous 13 cu. ft. sub of my own design I call the ILSW Mod.1(insanely large subwoofer). While I have always been happy with the Polks I didn’t know how good they could be until I drove them with these amps. I was using a 135 W/CH Onkyo Rcvr. which is now serving as a preamp/processor. While they do have cooling fans I have never heard them and honestly even driving the hell out of these amps I don’t think they have even come on. They are silent and without any coloration that I can discern. I am old enough that I grew up in the analog world but I have fully embraced the digital revolution. I was delivered at home with my father’s home built Hi-Fi playing in the background. ( pre stereo and pre solid state) and have been through all kinds of equipment over the years. In fact I still have two functioning Crown units from 1973, an IC 150 preamp and a D-60 stereo amp. I don’t think you will find anything near this price with all these features; balanced and unbalanced inputs, throughput for daisy chaining amps or sending signal to other rooms or recording equipment, 24db/ octave (4th order) variable state Linkwitz-Riley crossovers and the ability to be configured as low pass, high pass, bypass and xover in either stereo or Y input mode. Y input allows you to bridge channels, giving you 1050 watts into 8 ohms or 1550 watts into 4 ohms. While any golden eared analog and vinyl junkies who have not already stopped reading this may be rolling their eyes, if you search among high end audio and home theater forums you will find many embracing this audio gear which is originally designed for musical instrument and sound reinforcement duties (Pro Audio). I just can’t say enough about these amps and while I love my Polks too I have designed and am starting to build an entire set of HT speaker using Morel drivers. I can hardly wait.

This thing is great.. At the moment I have it bridged @8ohms powering a jbl 1014d 10in subwoofer in my home theater. It's phenomenal! I could run 4 15s if I wanted. There are many wiring options giving many different subwoofer configuring opportunities.. And I love that. Movies and music are spot on delivering sub sonic chest pounding bass from the depths of the darkness! I run Sewell Silverback 12 gauge cables with banana plugs no problem.. Oh yeah.. It's only 9lbs or so and does not even get warm.. And you can't hear the fan at all.. Buy this thing! I had this amp bench tested due to some reviewers claiming that the amplifiers ratings were false saying that it didn't make stated rms power to 8 or 4ohm loads. This claim is false. I had the amp tested extensively by a professional. He was so impressed he ordered one from Amazon right there on the spot from his phone! The amp actually exceeds the stated rms power by a few watts but does roll off drastically below 20hz but no biggie., an eq will quickly fix that for the theater side of things. It's a power horse that will deal with dirty A/C lines.. Buy this bad boy! -Update- March 3 2016- The people with gain structure and audible hiss issues are sadly mistaken.. Do your research.. This is the perfect pro amplifier for home use.. I'm using the Art Cleanbox Pro with Yamaha RX 377..ive stepped up to 4 Infinity Kappa 120.9 12in subs all being pushed by this one 1500 in stereo.. 2 subs per side @ 2ohms a channel.. The results are astonishing.. Each sub is sealed with 1.5 cubes each.. I plan on getting another one and run each mono but we'll see.. This is great..