So I’ve now lived with the Crown XLS 1502 for a while. I can’t tell if it’s just psychological or what but it doesn’t sound as crystal clear as my memory of the Vidar is. If I put my ear up to the speaker there is a slight hiss/hum which is reduced by lowering the gain. It is nearly eliminated by changing the input sensitivity to 1.4 and putting the gain at 12 o’clock. However if I do this I can turn my pream(Schiit Saga S) all the way up and barely hit 80db.
I have read that using the balanced inputs eliminates any hiss or hum. I have also heard that a high gain preamp is needed to provide enough headroom to keep the noise floor low.
So the question is now: what preamps pair best with an amp like this? Are there cheap, high gain, balanced preamps out there? I haven’t been able to find much.
Hi Everyone! I'm new here and saw this post so I will share my experience with the Crown XLS 1502. I will probably get some heat for this post but it's what I'm hearing.
I have the Crown XLS 1502 and 2502. Both are very nice sounding amps after you let them run in for over 100 hours in full range mode. When I first got the XLS 1502 I hooked it up to my newly aquired Clearfield Continentals by Counterpoint, very revieling speaker and cost almost $4K back in the early 90's , so not a cheap speaker. I was really disappoint in how small and sterile the amps sounded paired with these speakers when I first turned it on, I know break-in is needed on some amps so I let it run for around 35 hours and it was alot better sounding. I went on to another 80 hours and the amps was just so nice sounding, nothing like it sound when I first hooked it up. I did a side by side comparison to my VTA-120 Tube amp and the Crown came very close to The VTA-120, I mean really close.
The best sound im getting with the Crown XLS is using the Schiit Saga + with this amp and amp set at 0.7 on the input. Remember, the Saga is a Tube Buffer with with Volume Control and no gain so front end Sources should be of good output. I never get my Saga's volume passed 2-3 Oclock on its volume knob, just too loud for me. My Speakers are 4 ohm 87db. So that's pretty good. So a Tube preamp or Tube Buffer with volume control is probably the best match for these amps. Big difference between the bypass and Tube Buffer mode. In tube mode no hint of any harshness and just very nice sounding music.
I'm not saying the Crown is the all be all amp, just saying to let it run for some hours before giving up on it. I had a buddy come over and I didn't tell him about the Crown amp being in the system, he had heard it with the VTA-120 hooked up. So when he came and after few mins I put some tunes on and he said the VTA-120 was really sounding nice. I started to laugh and then he noticed the Crown was hooked up and he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was really floored that this $300 PA amp was sounding that good! So much he bought one and at first said the same thing I said when he first turned it on and wanted to take it back. I told him to let it run-in for about 100hrs. He called me the following weekend saying how he was just loving the way the amp sounds after breaking it in for that amount of time. He is a happy camper and so much he bought another XLS-1502.
I have heard the Hypex Class D amps and they sound really good, but I'm happy with the Crown XLS 1502's and how it's sounding my system and no urge to go out and buy a more Expensive Class D amps.
Hope this helps!
