1extreme, i believe the lesson learnt here is that Crown amps are very good if you chose wisely where to use them - as a brute amp to drive a bass cone/panel. Most of the time Crown amps are used in professional settings - studios, traveling bands, concerts, PA systems, malls, etc.
In RMAF 2013 that I attended, Scaena was driving their stand-alone bass speaker (which had 3 12" or 15" woofers one-on-top-of-the-other) with a series of vertically stacked Crown XLS amps. I remember that Scaena demo as being very good sounding (was in the Hilton across the street).
They are class-D amps - that class-I designation is just marketing. The class-I, if i understand it correctly, is what Crown calls a "grounded bridge" circuit on the output stage. Usually you have the push output devices connected to +VCC or +B & the pull devices connected to -VCC or -B & the center is where the speaker binding post it & it is usually floating but in Crown amp's case, that center terminal on the black speaker binding post (NOT the red binding post - only the black) is grounded. Crown holds a patent on this particular design & claims that it allows all of the +/-B voltage to appear at the speaker binding post (unlike all other amps). They claim that is one technology that allows them to get these very high output powers. Just FYI.
In RMAF 2013 that I attended, Scaena was driving their stand-alone bass speaker (which had 3 12" or 15" woofers one-on-top-of-the-other) with a series of vertically stacked Crown XLS amps. I remember that Scaena demo as being very good sounding (was in the Hilton across the street).
They are class-D amps - that class-I designation is just marketing. The class-I, if i understand it correctly, is what Crown calls a "grounded bridge" circuit on the output stage. Usually you have the push output devices connected to +VCC or +B & the pull devices connected to -VCC or -B & the center is where the speaker binding post it & it is usually floating but in Crown amp's case, that center terminal on the black speaker binding post (NOT the red binding post - only the black) is grounded. Crown holds a patent on this particular design & claims that it allows all of the +/-B voltage to appear at the speaker binding post (unlike all other amps). They claim that is one technology that allows them to get these very high output powers. Just FYI.