I also purchased the Crown XLS 1500, not primarily for 2 channel stereo, but for a small rehearsal PA system. On a whim, I decided to try it in my main living room 2 channel system. I currently use a pair of Channel Islands D-200 class D with a pair of SP Tech Timepiece 3.0 speakers, which are low efficiency but highly revealing speakers. The Crown sounded like a tin can. Then I hooked up an old pair of cheap high efficiency Tannoy PBM speakers and they sounded just fine. My point is that if you have really revealing speakers with neutral upstream components, then the Crown may not be a good idea. If you have less expensive speakers that are colored or warm sounding by nature, then the Crown may work just fine. It's totally speaker dependent.
