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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!
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roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,703 posts
 

Update...

The Crown XLS 1502 that I bought came a few days early. I have already given it a good audition, compared it to my Mac on my less efficient speakers, and the verdict is...it's going back.

I'll start by saying that this would be a really good choice for a young person on a budget, like a college student, or just someone with a lot of other things more pressing that require their hard earned dollars. However, to my ears, it is not a destination amplifier; not that I really expected it to be.  So, sonically it wasn't very good, but I was surprised that it didn't seem more powerful, given that it was driving a 4 ohm load that would have put it at over 500 watts per channel. It didn't sound any more dynamic than my old Mac 2105 at 105 wpc.

So...the sonics. Not really bad. Everything was ok, and instrumental separation was quite good, but that was almost part of the problem. If my 8 watt 300b integrated would be considered a model for musical "wholeness", and I think that it is, then the 1502 would be towards the other end of the spectrum. It was hard to quantify, but somehow, after listening to a number of different discs of jazz, rock etc.; I came to feel that the parts of the music were a little disjointed, not all of one piece. It was a little distracting. In addition to that, the upper vocal range and lower treble were slightly prominent and somewhat dry sounding. The trait that I found most distracting was really hard to describe, but easier to feel. I noticed, especially during slower more intimate passages of music, like Suzanne Vega's "Small Blue Thing", that even when music was slow and thoughtful, this amp subliminally made it feel "busy" to me.

To conclude, it was not possible with this amp to suspend disbelief, because it didn't sound close enough to reality. Returning to the Mac 2105 last night was like coming home. I am glad that I tried it, and I certainly won't let this experience keep me from experimenting with better quality class D amps in the future. I am sure this is a great amp for it's intended purposes of DJ gigs and sound reinforcement.

John   

roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Thank you roxy54 for your test and review! To quote an old Queen song "And another one bites the dust". 
guyboisvert
42 posts
 
@roxy54
This Crown amp is a low budget pro amplifier.  It comes with full protection, pro in / out connect, fan, remote start, DSP, etc.  It packs many mandatory features and power for the money.  And it's Crown, a pro audio leader company that's been there for a long time.

So this amp is a typical low power DJ amp.  Soundwise, it's commercial pro stuff.  Don't expect to get marvelous and clean sound out of this.  As a retired DJ (and now electrical engineer), i'd say that it's in the right spot for the money and use.  We typically use those amps at high volume with DSP in front: EQ, multiband compression, etc.

If you expect to get more HiFi sound, this is not the right product.  Then for higher sound fidelity Class D, go Peachtree, ICEPower, etc.  Soundwise, any decent HiFi amp will beat the Crown hands down.
guyboisvert
42 posts
 
@speceroo You put the Crown at the right usage / place!  The Mivera Purepower seems to use Audio Bricks (B&O before) ICEPower modules.  Sure it'll sound better than the Pro Crown, it targets HiFi home systems.
https://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/2057154-mivera-audio-purepower-amp-takachi-case.jpg 
See inside, the ICEPower module, Mivera is just a packager.
cshadow
21 posts
 
This is a revelation, however I am having a hard time believing this amp is this good.  I just picked up a pair of kef reference 1's and did what I knew I shouldn't- assume my current amp would do them justice. 

Big mistake.  My musical Fidelity m6i-even at 200 watts per, is woefully incapable of properly driving these speakers.

Is it possible that the crown could make these sing?  My other option is the $6000.00 Hegel h360, but spending that right now is not in the cards.

Thoughts?
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