Power Amplifier, 650-Watts (XLS2002)

I have to be honest..... this amp is not perfect, but it has really surprised me. I bought this amp to run a Dayton Ultimax 15" sub in a sealed enclosure that I built for HT use. The sub is running at 4 ohms which will let the Crown XLS2002 deliver it's full power. It does plenty good once I added the Rolls Match RCA->Balanced converter to increase the output voltage to the Crown. Before I did that, even with setting the Crown to high sensitivity and increasing the output gain on my Marantz receiver to +10, I had to turn the amp to almost full gain in order to get solid output. With the Rolls in the chain I have MORE than enough headroom. It seems like these amps really need a LOT of input voltage to get their max output. I also have two QSC amps, the GX5 and RMX1450a, and they are easier to work with for input voltage. They have louder fans but they really are brutes.So, on to my surprise. This thing sounds great in full range! While I was testing the afore mentioned QSC amps on the sub, I though I would disconnect my B&K ST2140 stereo amp from my listening room system to see how the Crown sounded. I was pretty surprised! My Vienna Acoustics Mozart speakers are VERY clean and very revealing of the upstream equipment used. Even my wife and 15yr old daughter can hear differences in cables I've used, and they could really care less :) This amp is very neutral and clean sounding. No bass humps that make some other amps sound more full or ballsy, it just sounds natural. Okay, I might argue that it ... could.... be a bit light on the bass reproduction, but there are so many other room variables and other amps that enhance the bass artificially too..... so it's hard to say exactly where neutral lies in my system. This thing just sounds extremely clean... period! Its not laid back, it sounds really fast on transients like percussion instruments. The dynamics sound very realistic and uncompressed on GOOD recordings. My only complaint with sound quality is the noise floor with this amp. It creates a constant hiss from the speakers at less than 12" away. I cannot hear it while seated about 8 feet away, but I know it's there. The QSC's have some too but less for sure.After I heard this little 10 lb amp I ended up buying another one for a DIY speaker build ...... and it STILL blows me away when I listen to it. If you're wondering like I did, the QSC amps also sound good, but they seem to have some bass bloat around 60-120 hz if I'm guessing. The GX5 has less than the 1450a but it's there. They are POWERFUL and HEAVY with their big transformers but their sound just wasn't as sweet as the XLS Drivecore 2 amps. The RMX 1450a will drive the HELL out of my subwoofer, but the fan will have to be modded if I keep the QSCs... especially on the RMX 1450a. It sounds like a loud PC fan, and it's impossible to ignore. The GX5 is about 1/3 the fan volume, but t's not bridgeable so it may not hang around much longer. At normal listening distances (living room) you might hear the GX5 in REALLY quiet parts but it's more like the whir of a PS3 or Wii. The XLS is silent... period, at normal operating volumes for a house in full range mode.Overall, I couldn't be happier. I think I'll get A TON of mileage from these little amps. I've been a self proclaimed audiophile for 20 years and have worked in the industry. I've also listened to systems WELL beyond $250,000. One of my best friends has one of those systems that I've listened to a lot, so I'd like to think that I know what I'm hearing. The only downside I can think of with these amps is that you would really need to leave them powered on all the time if they were in a system that was used often, because there is no way to easily trigger them on with a consumer surround receiver/preamp. On the plus side though, they are class D and consume way less energy while idling. Maybe I'll measure that later to get an exact number. When I finally build my full home theater you can bet it will have a handful of these amps in it!

For my living-room theater I purchased 5 xls models:Two xls 2502 for two front and one center speakers, three xls 1502 for surround + atmos speakers, all Martin logan 4ohm speakers.ML EDGE for Front and Center and motions FX for surrounds and atmos.All running from a Yamaha CX-A5200 pre for a 5.2.4 set, and it sound awesome, previous setup was a rotel class D but crown and Yamaha has blown me away.Like:Absoluut no sweat with the 4 Ohm ML speakers, gain is set on 12o'clock and stays as cool as the Rotel RMB 1575 (5*250W, 8 Ohm), even in our tropical climate, with an average day temp of at 90F and evening temp at 80-82F and without AC on.The average internal temp, readable via the display, is 110F to 114F, and fan runs quiet. Only for the front speaker amp the XLS 2502 fan sometimes comes on and runs for about 30-45 seconds and then keeps quiet.- Very light amp, Weight 10.8 lbs. for the XLS 2502- XLR and RCA inputs- Remote power trigger but not direct compatible with standard 12V triggers. I have not figured out how it works, but I use a APC surge protector, G5BLK 9-Outlet G-Type 15-Amp Rack-Mountable Power Conditioner with delay, If this APC product had 12V in and out triggers it would be a world beater in the home audio market at this price point.- Display can be shut off or on delayed sleep- Selectable input sensitivity; 1.4Vrms for XLR and .775Vrms for RCA connections, so if your receiver has only RCA outputs like a Yamaha 3080/3070/3060/3050 en so on you will be fine.- Looks, let me explain. First I was checking out the QCS PLD4.5 Series, as they are 4channel amps in order to reduce the number of amps, but they were silver dominant and this did not entirely fit with the look of the Yamaha 'black' amp and I tried to keep the look for living room consistent as I like to keep my equipment visible from the seating position.- All lights can be shut off so no annoying lights when enjoying your movie, but the wife likes blue crowns lights so I bought three other XLS units for the surround speakers- XLS 1502/2502 have a lower noise floor then the xls 1002 unit, that why I chose the upper models- Bridgeable mode: 2500W 4ohm or 1200W 8Ohm, I use bridge mode for the center speaker, I seams like a lot of headroom, but if it is possible why not.- Detachable 6 ft heavy power-cord, looks like a computer cord, but is heavier, this should be a little longer.Story why Crown poweramps and not: the Yamaha associated amplifier:The Yamaha MX-A5200 with 11ch. was simply too large and reading from reviews will get hot and has significant lower output. Pricewise was it almost the same as the 5 XLS'sFor the crowns, I was afraid of the hum or noise since my previous amp was a dead quiet Rotel combination rsp 1570 + rmb 1575, which was in use rocksolid for more than 10 years, but I went for crown as the reviews on amazon and on avsforum and more were very positive, it feels like the crown has more control of the Martin Logans vs the Rotel, this is my opinion and find it hard to find the correct 'audio' wording for this.The fan runs all the time, but, you need to keep your ear very close to the amp in order to hear them.

Exceptional value for the price, clean sound, easy to install and setup.

Clean power source for my Cerwin-Vega XLS-12 tower speakers. Sounds much better now.

I've only tested it and I Will update this review soon. This is what you really call an actual Amp. Before this I got the Gemini Sound XGA-5000 and that amplifier was just awful in everyway possible it was heavy not a deal breaker and was so loud ok big deal but it's rated power was just way below what it was rated. My Yamaha 350watts 8ohm mixer was the living Junk out of the Gemini Sound XGA-5000 Bridge mode rated at 1100watts Fake spec(which I used only for bass test). Now back to this amazing crown my 18 inch subwoofer 800watts RMS took this amp crown like a champ Finally I could hear the subwoofer taking more power than it could handle and that made me so happy. Now I have 2 crown Amps I feel like a king :)I will add pictures soon.

I bought this to power a Skar EVL-18 subwoofer for my home theater. I am leveraging bridged mode, pushing 1550 watts @ 4ohm. Sound quality is excellent, and powers an 18 inch sub with authority. This is not my first Crown purchase, and will not be my last. Crown offers a quality product at reasonable prices. I highly recommend the Crown XLS amplifier series amps. This is my second XLS series Crown, and love it. Go with Crown, and you will not be disappointed.