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Crown XLS 1500

For giggles I'm putting together a budget system. Starting with a pair of PSB Gold-i's and using an Audible Illusions M3a's secondary variable outputs. Anyway, I needed to come up with cheap power and current that could drive low impedance upper bass, e.g. dips at around 2.6 ohms. I didn't want to toast my Rogue M120's.
After researching I came across some good reports on the Crown XLS 1500 and decided to pull the trigger for a whopping $239, new! I was hoping to get it last Thursday but no such luck. The amp arrived the other day, or a day late for the Grateful Dead Chicago run. I had to use a self powered PA for my outside, projection, big screen system. A bit of a disappointment but in the end it worked out better as I didn't have to worry about the PSBs getting messed up.
Anyway, I plugged the unit in yesterday and gave it a quick listen and cold, out of the box I was not happy but figure it needed to burn in so I kept it playing for about 30 hours and then gave it a listen. I still was not happy, feeling that it sounded rolled off in the highs, a bit muffled in the lows and somewhat canny sounding in the mids. I was starting to feel that I wasted my money and that the saying that "there is no free lunch" was true. However, I was willing to let it burn some more.
So, while cooking the amp, and casual listening, I decided to make a new run of Canare 4s11 speaker cables, which I was planning on using for the new system but felt that ultimately this might be waste of my time because it was beginning to look like a failed system. 45 minutes later my cables were done and I put them in, replacing the temporary double run of Monster XP I made, which was left over from the outdoor deck system. After install I turned the amp back on and then turned up the wick. Holy cow!!!!! All of a sudden everything opened up and snapped into place. I now had extended highs, articulate bass and clean and sharp midrange. What a difference. This is what I was hoping for when this straw was pulled.
I won't give a full report until I get some more time in but for $239 new I can already say this is a great deal. This amp sounds good and delivers watts without strain. It out does the Adcom 555 I owned back in the day, which could poop out when pushed hard. As to some of the reported noise, yes, if I put my ear right up to the tweeter there is some low, low level buzzing. I can not hear it from a foot away, or needless to say, from my listening seat.
Lesson learned; don't judge a component until your rule out other variables. My guess is that the Monster is high capacitance and caused all kind or uglies with the system. Ridding myself of these cables brought me from Kansas to the land of OZ!
For those that care, I'll report back in a few to let you know how things develop.
raymonda
czarivey
5,691 posts
 
Raymoda, you've brought an excellent point of building a system on the budget using pro components. I try to expand the ideas of saving funds and be somewhere in the same nirvana by spending 10 or more times less.
Has anyone researched Alesis RA100 amplifier mainly used for near-field monitors? New model RA150 is sold for $140 shipped at Amazon. Biamp with same model and you're capable driving most of consumer market speakers with ease.
dave_72
1,399 posts
 
On the same token, die hard "boutique" fans don't consider Bryston true high end but consider it pro or semi-pro gear. I don't know anyone besides you Czarivey, that considers Bryston a boutique brand. Yes, they did jack up the prices to a lot of people's chagrin, but they're still the solid engineered units that they used to be, don't use ultra fancy metalwork on their amps, and sound better than they have in the past.
coli
291 posts
 
Yeah, boutique consumer audio market is full of snake oil sellers *cough* Direcstream *cough*

Mass market consumer audio market is not as bad though. I'm also increasingly fond of the pro market, their stuff just works, 100% of the time. No break-in of your brain BS either. Sounded perfect right out of the box.
raymonda OP
855 posts
 
Josefm

(The stock RCA in and banana-speaker post exhibited that harshness you are hearing. If you look inside, you will see that the banana post connects to the circuit board via a two piece plated brass metal strip which are bolted together to complete the circuit. THe SpeakOn is a single continuous silver plated conductor per pin into the circuit board.)

I made the change to speakon this week and it did wonders. It eliminated the harshness. Thanks for the tip!
phd
1,280 posts
 
I own the Crown XLS 1500 and I will tell you that this amp is a major overachiever and is ridiculously good at its price point! It is a Class D switching amp with a switching power supply and the chip is designed by Texas Instruments. It will sound as good as the preamp you choose to pair it with, although it does have level controls on the front and can be used without a preamp if you choose. Further it is a very transparent and detailed. An audiophile friend recommended this amp to me and stated he will never part with his, neither will I. Must allow this amp to burn-in for 400 hours before reaching any final conclusions also using a good aftermarket power cord with the XLS 1500 makes a heck of a lot of difference!
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