Impressed with a Crown XLi 2500 class A/B amplifier

Rpower53

New Member
Trying out a new Crown XLi 2500 amplifier for my JBL 250Tis and I am very impressed with it's sound quality. I expected it to control the speakers well and it does with the bass lines more prominent and controlled. But I was hoping that it would be very revealing as well and it is, which I did not expect. This amplifier is 500 watts per channel of class A/B sound not class D as some other Crown amps are. Weighs in about 30 pounds with a HUGE torroidal transformer inside. Must allow a couple of weeks of break in to come to full clarity as it sounds rather closed in right out of the box. I am thrilled at the sound of this amplifier and for $399 delivered it is a no brainer. It may well be replacing my Parasound A23 which is a very fine amp also. Highly recommended.



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Very light Class A bias if it's really class A/B good for 500 watts and only 30lbs... The Adcom GFA-555 is 34lbs and "only" good for 200 watts in to 8 ohms. Likely over-rated like many modern Crown amps. Not saying it's bad by any stretch, just probably not 500 watts.
 
Very light Class A bias if it's really class A/B good for 500 watts and only 30lbs... The Adcom GFA-555 is 34lbs and "only" good for 200 watts in to 8 ohms. Likely over-rated like many modern Crown amps. Not saying it's bad by any stretch, just probably not 500 watts.

Over-rated, you have example?

I recently measured one of the 9lb XLS 1000s. Rated power 215wpc, I measured 227. A reputable company in pro audio will not be around long if their amps do not do what they are advertised to do.
 
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I bought the Xli 800 for $229.00 delivered from Amazon as a temporary amp to power my Polk SDA 2B...if it sucked I'd send it back. It dosnt and I didn't. Very responsive to cable and power cord changes. I only hear the fan whisper with my head right against the amp.
 
Crown XLS 1502 here, no complaints, never heard the fans. Use it everyday for HT & 2 channel. It's no Krell but damn sure does work and sounds good to me for $ to power ratio.
 
Run a XLS 2500 driving a pair of KEF LS50's. After reading some posts be I think Mr Mobious (sp) he was driving some hi end speakers with a XLS series amp. So one came up om Barter Town NIB $300. That was a WOW moment, replaces a Mac 2100. Never heard the fans come on, the amp is in a enclose space with little ventilation, I just open the door when the amp is running, it will run for hours without the fans coming on. Amazing amps always on the lookout for another.

Graham
 
I'm using a Crown XLS1500 in bridge mode to drive my 4 ohm subwoofer (at $200, I couldn't pass it up). It's effortless; I've never seen the -20 lights come on, even when playing some extreme pipe organ with 16 Hz pedal, and I mean LOUD. I've actually gotten the fan to come on at a slow speed, but it's completely inaudible. There's a test mode which spins the fans up to max - they're still not loud, and I suspect they'd be impossible to hear over the music if you were putting that much signal into it. Even when pushing peaks in the 90-95 dB region, the amp reports device temperatures of about 45C.

Incidentally, re: ratings. Class D amps like the XLS are typically rated for a tone burst at the specified power. You can't physically pull 1500W from most household outlets anyway, unless you have a 20A circuit and a short run from the box. According to Data-Bass, my sub is only good for about 2kW peak anyway before it starts to disintegrate, and that is an output of ~115 dB. Oh, incidentally, there is some talk online about the XLS series having a designed-in rolloff below 20 Hz. I tested mine at a solid 100W continuous (not burst) and it was essentially flat down to 10 Hz. I didn't have a load rated for much more than that, but I'm going to test it again when I do.

What impresses me almost as much about the Crown as the power, is that it's designed to protect itself as well as the speakers. V-I limiting, thermal limiting, power supply and output relays, PWM-controlled fan, switchable peak limiter... If my Dynaco amps ever get to the point that they're unrepairable I will be looking at Crowns to replace them...
 
Generally speaking, music doesn't pull continuous power like a test tone would so the limitations of the normal AC mains isn't as big a deal as somtimes it's made out to be. As well, the mains circuit breakers will pass many times their rated capacity for durations long enough to support quite large peak demands.
 
I got a com-tech 210 in pretty good condition for $25 to drive a pair of Paragon the regent (4Ω) on my HT, and I'm impress with this thing.
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In all fairness, the Crowns are often used for house PA systems where they DO get pushed pretty hard, and are fed from high current circuits (since there are often multiple amps in a stack). When (not if) they get cranked, it's nice that the amp can take care of itself.
 
I got a com-tech 210 in pretty good condition for $25 to drive a pair of Paragon the regent (4Ω) on my HT, and I'm impress with this thing.
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One of my little experiments was using a pair of MT1200s in parallel bridge mode for low impedance operation. Rated power that way is 1300 watts per amp, @ 1 ohm load. Tried them on my Thiel CS3.6 that run 2.5-2.7 ohms over most of the audio range. Didn't really notice any audible difference though over some 2 ohm rated amps. I guess the Thiels just were not bad enough load to reveal a big benefit of running the amps in parallel-mono mode.

Unfortunately with some of those Crown amps like the older MA and MT, the fans are somewhat noisy (after all, they were intended for commercial use, not home duty) and can't reasonably be subbed due to the unique "fanformer" transformer/cooling fan arrangement.
 
Rated power that way is 1300 watts per amp
That's a LOT of juice!Good stuff.
This midget is rated for 125 for 4Ω load, no fan, I think this speakers load are around 3/4Ω with no big swings... kind of ''FrankenHT on budget" setup, but It looks promising, I have yet to make a proper installation.
I can't help to think to make some little mods, maybe more reserve for the PS, binding posts and RCA connectors. But since I have more projects that I would like I thing I just let it be.
A fun pic of the little amp

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Over-rated, you have example?

I recently measured one of the 9lb XLS 1000s. Rated power 215wpc, I measured 227. A reputable company in pro audio will not be around long if their amps do not do what they are advertised to do.
I completely agree the Crown class A/B amps should exceed their specs , they have made good amps for decades only the Chinese amps overate their wattage !!
 
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