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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Showing 2 responses by mofojo

I have a xls1500 the earlier model. Little dry to my ear but nothing offensive and well balanced on it's own. With a tube preamp I tthink it sounds very good indeed. Currently its powering a old Paradigm servo 15 sub that I blew the amp up on. Does a great job with that as well. 
I have an xls and a dci4/300. The DCI new is around 2k but you can find them used for CHEAP like I did. Crazy damping factor and tons of power. The bass is better and highs less grey than the XLS. Super fast as well. I think for the right speaker it's a really great amp. 

I've had some other class d amps I did not like at all.