No and no
Crown XLS 1502.... real life test.
I was at guitar center yesterday cruseing the used pedal case and noticed they had the XLS1502 was on sale. With there 45 day return policy, that i have used with great success in the past, i bought the amp.
With my Logan’s the crown was very clear and full. 525 watts at hand per channel brought the speakers to life. I adjusted the input to around 3 o’clock seemed to be a good match. I went thru a few cd’s and they all sounded great with Steely Dan winning the show...
I put the Mac back in the loop and noticed the soundstage was a bit bigger and a good amount more subdude.
This was my first foray in the class D world and I was surprised at how good it sounded. At 329.00 its kinda hard to beat. I have no idea what the current measurements are but the XLS made the Logan’s sing. If i read the article correctly, doesnt the JBL Everest’s come with XLS amps? That’s the way it read... please correct me.
Anyway, it was a fun afternoon and the Crown is going back today. I haven’t bought the 10t’s yet... prob June is when I can pick them up... I will buy another crown then to use when I send the 7100 to a mac repair center to get a checkup... I have a gut feeling something is amiss with her. All in all I really enjoyed the XLS and in a blind test i feel it would hold up to many good amps that cost $$$$$.
I want a 300 watt Mac but at 3-4 thousand dollars that is a big stretch for this retired chef... lol
BTW... the XLS was DEAD silent ... nothing!
6f46e9d1 45ca 46fd 8370 73d2abece53b
With my Logan’s the crown was very clear and full. 525 watts at hand per channel brought the speakers to life. I adjusted the input to around 3 o’clock seemed to be a good match. I went thru a few cd’s and they all sounded great with Steely Dan winning the show...
I put the Mac back in the loop and noticed the soundstage was a bit bigger and a good amount more subdude.
This was my first foray in the class D world and I was surprised at how good it sounded. At 329.00 its kinda hard to beat. I have no idea what the current measurements are but the XLS made the Logan’s sing. If i read the article correctly, doesnt the JBL Everest’s come with XLS amps? That’s the way it read... please correct me.
Anyway, it was a fun afternoon and the Crown is going back today. I haven’t bought the 10t’s yet... prob June is when I can pick them up... I will buy another crown then to use when I send the 7100 to a mac repair center to get a checkup... I have a gut feeling something is amiss with her. All in all I really enjoyed the XLS and in a blind test i feel it would hold up to many good amps that cost $$$$$.
I want a 300 watt Mac but at 3-4 thousand dollars that is a big stretch for this retired chef... lol
BTW... the XLS was DEAD silent ... nothing!
6f46e9d1 45ca 46fd 8370 73d2abece53b
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- 53 posts total
@kclone The Crown line is Harman's pro-equipment line of amps, so not a lot of features designed for home use. That doesn't mean they don't sound great, but they don't do integrated amps, preamps, etc, that's all left to Mark Levinson. I do find it a bit odd that they don't have a series of home-oriented gear at a lower cost. They used to market that under Harman/Kardon along with their receivers, but they seem to have pretty much pulled entirely out of that market. I have my XLS 1502 paired with an Emotiva PT-100 preamp. It's inexpensive, very well built (aside from a cheesy remote), and does everything I need a preamp to do, may be worth checking out. |
Hey @roxy54 The Crown amplifiers use their own DriveCore technology. They call it Class I or BCA (Balanced Current Amplifier) https://www.crownaudio.com/en/technology Without seeing the schematics or at least a block diagram it is very difficult to tell how different it is from traditional Class D which have at least a few common modules. So far all I read is "patents, yada yada, proprietary design yada yada..." I will say this, based on the pictures, they sure do look extremely light and small even when compared to Class D designs. Best, E |
- 53 posts total