Is my amp the problem?


I recently decided to bi-amp my speakers so I purchased a crown xls 1002. (225w 8 ohm). I am driving a 10 woofer. It sounds horrible. I can't seem to get it to put out much power despite its rating even when I make all the right adjustments. Its a class D amp. Is that my problem? It just doesn't seem to have any Ba**s. Lol. Advice is appreciated.
jimbones
Another good x/o is the First Watt B4. All discrete (no opamps), zero feedback. More flexible than the Bryston, with far more available frequencies, and the highly-desirable 4th order-24dB/octave slope, which the Bryston does not provide. $1250 retail, often on sale at Reno Hi-Fi for less.

Yep, saw that one.  There's a B4 on audiogon/reno-hi-fi for $995.  I didn't mention it because it actually has a lower input impedance of 10k ohms.  Also, I'm highly suspect about the power supply -- it looks like a basic laptop power supply, so you may have to buy/build a high-quality high-current linear DC power supply to get any sort of performance out of it.    I also read that is uses bare JFET transistors with zero feedback instead of full op-amp circuits.  The JFETS are biased into Class A, so this crossover will definitely draw some power supply current.  I can't comment on the performance of this specific device, but I have seen instances where a bare JFET will sound nice but not have enough brute force to provide enough gain for bass/midbass punch, especially without negative feedback.  JFETs in preamp circuits can sound nice - they tend to have a nice rich/lush type of sonic signature, but they are not as crisp/clear as bipolar devices (this is largely a personal preference on sound signature here).

The Bryston power supply provides +/-24V (for a total of 48 volts), so the analog circuits definitely have a lot of current to play with for good bass/midbass power.  And I confirmed that the circuits are all Class A discrete and use bipolar devices instead of FET based.

There's always the Pass XVR-1, which is probably the best of the best, but at $5k+, I suspect it is out of range here.

Okay, further research on the Krell KBX.  It looks like this thing has the crossover frequency/slope hard-coded into the unit by Krell factory and cannot be modified.  Krell no longer services these things (possibly), so it may be difficult to impossible to change this KBX to work with you system.  And there is no way to "experiment" with different frequencies/slopes, so I'm going to give this KBX a big NO on the recommendation.
Oh, if you do decide to look at the Bryston, be aware they come in several variations.  Some have RCA inputs/outputs. Some have XLR.  Also, some models have a hard-wired power cord and others have IEC inlet so that you can upgrade the power cord.  The $900 agon is hard-wired power with RCA.  There is another that's on auction with RCA and IEC power cord.
New development: A buddy of mine with more equipment than shelves to use this stuff (lol) lent me a Antimode 2.0. Apparently it has a Xo in it. Input impedance not specified.