Crown XLS1002 Pro Amplifier Review

[amirm]

I think I'll do some homework on how they would thrive here Central FL?

It needs some cool weather. Where you are may work: https://www.flgardening.com/growing... trees are easy,as wide in Florida conditions.

 

[Absolute]

Jeebus, I did not expect to be educated in food stuffs in a Crown review

On another note, I've just set up the Crown CDi 4/1200 DriveCore BL in my DIY M2 system, possibly replacing 4x Hypex Ncore 400. A few hours of testing reveals good sound, a little bit too much hiss and insane authority in the lower frequencies. It'll be interesting to see whether or not the Crown can replace Ncore for tweeter-duty, but it certainly sounds very good straight off the batman.

Any chance for reviews on the higher end Crowns anytime soon, Amir?

 

[amirm]

Any chance for reviews on the higher end Crowns anytime soon, Amir?

None has been sent in. Which one you had in mind?

 

[Absolute]

None has been sent in. Which one you had in mind?

I'd be interested in seeing if the CDi DriveCore or Itech series perform any better or if you just get more power and functionality when you go up the ladder. I'm not particularly familiar with the different series in Crown amps, but I like the look and functionality of the new line;

https://www.crownaudio.com/en/product_families/cdi-drivecore-series-amps

Oh, I'd gladly send in the one I have for testing, but I suspect it will be both expensive and cumbersome to send from Norway.

 

[twofires]

Now don't laugh but I could not figure out how to pull out the safety plugs they put in the darn binding posts! There is no way to grab then and I did not want to put a mark on them by using a sharp tool.

You mean the little plastic plugs in the binding posts that block banana plugs until you remove them? The trick is supposed to be to turn a wood screw in them a couple of turns and then yank them out. Much easier with those open ended types than with the closed ones that were in the back of my Marantz - if you were ever being attacked with woodscrews, the plastic Marantz uses would make a great shield as it is utterly impervious to them.

 

[MZKM]

I'd be interested in seeing if the CDi DriveCore or Itech series perform any better or if you just get more power and functionality when you go up the ladder. I'm not particularly familiar with the different series in Crown amps, but I like the look and functionality of the new line;

https://www.crownaudio.com/en/product_families/cdi-drivecore-series-amps

Oh, I'd gladly send in the one I have for testing, but I suspect it will be both expensive and cumbersome to send from Norway.

Looking at the specs for the CDi 2|300, Crown states a bit better THD & SNR but slightly worse IMD & crosstalk.

 

[Wombat]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Crown XLS 1002 rack mounted pro amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The 1002 costs US $339 including Prime shipping from Amazon.

Note: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Harman and hence Crown products. We use fair bit of Crown amps in custom installs usually to power in-ceiling speakers and such. Member wanted to buy it through us but the margin on it was no more than a cup of coffee (relative to online sites) so I suggested he buy it elsewhere which he did.

Not sure what to say about the look other than it is made to have some style while being rugged:

View attachment 84694

The LCD with bluish backlight reminds me of displays on electronics back in 1980s. I guess at this price they had to cut every penny.

I was relieved to see binding posts besides speakon connectors:

View attachment 84695

Now don't laugh but I could not figure out how to pull out the safety plugs they put in the darn binding posts! There is no way to grab then and I did not want to put a mark on them by using a sharp tool. The manual says only European units have it but clearly that is not correct. Anyway, I resorted to using the SpeakOn connectors for my testing. For input I focused on XLR inputs.

I set the gain to max to get the nominal 29 dB I have standardized on for testing amplifiers.

There is a fan in the back and some inside. But none came on that I could hear above the sound of my PC during testing. Nothing shut down even when the amp was pushed into clipping. Some kind of limiter would kick in after short period to keep the power level at max. Temperature of the case didn't even rise above room temp.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
Performance was stable during a 5 minute warm up time so I ran with them:

View attachment 84696

Strange to see higher order harmonics dominating the distortion profile (FFT to the right). Ratio of noise+distortion to signal as expressed in SINAD is what I expect decent pro amps to produce:
View attachment 84697

Slightly below the average of all amps tested.

Signal to noise ratio is in the same range:
View attachment 84698

Crosstalk is reasonable:
View attachment 84699

Frequency response test shows that everything is digitized due to inclusion of DSP functionality in this amp:

View attachment 84700

Power into 4 ohm is healthy as is the case with most pro amps:
View attachment 84701

I was disappointed to see one channel be much worse than the other though.

Letting distortion go higher we get higher power output:

View attachment 84702

The burst/peak power is not higher because of the limiter I mentioned in the intro.

Using 8 ohm load gives a more behaved response than 4:
View attachment 84703

This indicates the one channel is starving for current than the other (likely longer path to the power supply).

I was unhappy to see distortion shoot up at higher frequencies:
View attachment 84704

Fortunately in practice there is not much energy up there so you will be operating in low wattage area where distortion is quite a bit lower.

Finally, I removed my AES filter to get the spectrum:

View attachment 84705

Switching frequency is around 380 kHz and decently attenuated.

Conclusions
Competent pro amplifiers target for good enough noise and distortion. The Crown XLS 1002 falls in that category so if you were expecting to have anything better for so little money and so much power, you would be disappointed. But otherwise the amp does what it targets to do.

I am going to put the Crown XLS1002 on my recommended list for non-critical applications or for driving subwoofers and such.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

The job last night after helping my wife can more tomatoes was to dehydrate these beauties:

View attachment 84706

They are called "blush" tomatoes and were invented in San Francisco in 2011! They are oval with the most beautiful coloration as if they are peaches. Once ripe, they have an incredible sweet and slightly sour taste. Once dried, they become like slightly sour and sweet candy. The rains are attacking them right now aiming to kill what is left of the plants but I picked another 10 pounds or so today.

You came here to learn about audio but you are also learning about gardening and preserving food as well. Surely that deservers a raise for me in the form of additional donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Can you intercept gear from Madrona for a day or two for testing?

 

[kipman725]

Far too heavy to post in but comparing specs the MA5002VZ gets >105dB SNR (A weighted) wheras the XLS1002 > 97dB (A weighted). Which considering the lower output power of the XLS1002 seems comparable.

 

[Dwander]

Anyone know what would be the real wattage rating for a 4 ohm load in Bridged mode?

 

[Severian]

I use one of these to power my main speakers, crossed at 80Hz by a t.Racks DSP, and I've always been very happy with it. My current speakers are rated at 98dB efficiency and they are dead silent (in nearfield) when nothing is playing.

 

[MediumRare]

Anyone know what would be the real wattage rating for a 4 ohm load in Bridged mode?

Here's Crown's claim:

Amir measured 340 into 4 ohms at 1% THD and 280 at the elbow, so deducing the 1,100 would also be at 1% THD.

 

[Dwander]

Here's Crown's claim:
View attachment 84754
Amir measured 340 into 4 ohms at 1% THD and 280 at the elbow, so deducing the 1,100 would also be at 1% THD.

Thanks, Trying to decide to push forward with this as Subwoofer amp, or look for more power.

 

[MediumRare]

Updated comparison of the XLS 1002 and XLS 1502 (with Amir's revised stats for the XLS1502 running at 4.7 volts). They are pretty similar.

 

[CDMC]

Not SOA, but for $289, it looks like a great value. For someone on a tight budget that wants a decent amp, this would let them allocate a few hundred dollars more towards speakers where it would be a significant difference.

 

[PG55]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Crown XLS 1002 rack mounted pro amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The 1002 costs US $339 including Prime shipping from Amazon.

Note: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Harman and hence Crown products. We use fair bit of Crown amps in custom installs usually to power in-ceiling speakers and such. Member wanted to buy it through us but the margin on it was no more than a cup of coffee (relative to online sites) so I suggested he buy it elsewhere which he did.

Not sure what to say about the look other than it is made to have some style while being rugged:

View attachment 84694

The LCD with bluish backlight reminds me of displays on electronics back in 1980s. I guess at this price they had to cut every penny.

I was relieved to see binding posts besides speakon connectors:

View attachment 84695

Now don't laugh but I could not figure out how to pull out the safety plugs they put in the darn binding posts! There is no way to grab then and I did not want to put a mark on them by using a sharp tool. The manual says only European units have it but clearly that is not correct. Anyway, I resorted to using the SpeakOn connectors for my testing. For input I focused on XLR inputs.

I set the gain to max to get the nominal 29 dB I have standardized on for testing amplifiers.

There is a fan in the back and some inside. But none came on that I could hear above the sound of my PC during testing. Nothing shut down even when the amp was pushed into clipping. Some kind of limiter would kick in after short period to keep the power level at max. Temperature of the case didn't even rise above room temp.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
Performance was stable during a 5 minute warm up time so I ran with them:

View attachment 84696

Strange to see higher order harmonics dominating the distortion profile (FFT to the right). Ratio of noise+distortion to signal as expressed in SINAD is what I expect decent pro amps to produce:
View attachment 84697

Slightly below the average of all amps tested.

Signal to noise ratio is in the same range:
View attachment 84698

Crosstalk is reasonable:
View attachment 84699

Frequency response test shows that everything is digitized due to inclusion of DSP functionality in this amp:

View attachment 84700

Power into 4 ohm is healthy as is the case with most pro amps:
View attachment 84701

I was disappointed to see one channel be much worse than the other though.

Letting distortion go higher we get higher power output:

View attachment 84702

The burst/peak power is not higher because of the limiter I mentioned in the intro.

Using 8 ohm load gives a more behaved response than 4:
View attachment 84703

This indicates the one channel is starving for current than the other (likely longer path to the power supply).

I was unhappy to see distortion shoot up at higher frequencies:
View attachment 84704

Fortunately in practice there is not much energy up there so you will be operating in low wattage area where distortion is quite a bit lower.

Finally, I removed my AES filter to get the spectrum:

View attachment 84705

Switching frequency is around 380 kHz and decently attenuated.

Conclusions
Competent pro amplifiers target for good enough noise and distortion. The Crown XLS 1002 falls in that category so if you were expecting to have anything better for so little money and so much power, you would be disappointed. But otherwise the amp does what it targets to do.

I am going to put the Crown XLS1002 on my recommended list for non-critical applications or for driving subwoofers and such.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

The job last night after helping my wife can more tomatoes was to dehydrate these beauties:

View attachment 84706

They are called "blush" tomatoes and were invented in San Francisco in 2011! They are oval with the most beautiful coloration as if they are peaches. Once ripe, they have an incredible sweet and slightly sour taste. Once dried, they become like slightly sour and sweet candy. The rains are attacking them right now aiming to kill what is left of the plants but I picked another 10 pounds or so today.

Great looking tomatoes!
We just finished 50lbs of Roma tomatoes my personal favorite

PG55

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Crown XLS 1002 rack mounted pro amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The 1002 costs US $339 including Prime shipping from Amazon.

Note: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Harman and hence Crown products. We use fair bit of Crown amps in custom installs usually to power in-ceiling speakers and such. Member wanted to buy it through us but the margin on it was no more than a cup of coffee (relative to online sites) so I suggested he buy it elsewhere which he did.

Not sure what to say about the look other than it is made to have some style while being rugged:

View attachment 84694

The LCD with bluish backlight reminds me of displays on electronics back in 1980s. I guess at this price they had to cut every penny.

I was relieved to see binding posts besides speakon connectors:

View attachment 84695

Now don't laugh but I could not figure out how to pull out the safety plugs they put in the darn binding posts! There is no way to grab then and I did not want to put a mark on them by using a sharp tool. The manual says only European units have it but clearly that is not correct. Anyway, I resorted to using the SpeakOn connectors for my testing. For input I focused on XLR inputs.

I set the gain to max to get the nominal 29 dB I have standardized on for testing amplifiers.

There is a fan in the back and some inside. But none came on that I could hear above the sound of my PC during testing. Nothing shut down even when the amp was pushed into clipping. Some kind of limiter would kick in after short period to keep the power level at max. Temperature of the case didn't even rise above room temp.

Amplifier Audio Measurements
Performance was stable during a 5 minute warm up time so I ran with them:

View attachment 84696

Strange to see higher order harmonics dominating the distortion profile (FFT to the right). Ratio of noise+distortion to signal as expressed in SINAD is what I expect decent pro amps to produce:
View attachment 84697

Slightly below the average of all amps tested.

Signal to noise ratio is in the same range:
View attachment 84698

Crosstalk is reasonable:
View attachment 84699

Frequency response test shows that everything is digitized due to inclusion of DSP functionality in this amp:

View attachment 84700

Power into 4 ohm is healthy as is the case with most pro amps:
View attachment 84701

I was disappointed to see one channel be much worse than the other though.

Letting distortion go higher we get higher power output:

View attachment 84702

The burst/peak power is not higher because of the limiter I mentioned in the intro.

Using 8 ohm load gives a more behaved response than 4:
View attachment 84703

This indicates the one channel is starving for current than the other (likely longer path to the power supply).

I was unhappy to see distortion shoot up at higher frequencies:
View attachment 84704

Fortunately in practice there is not much energy up there so you will be operating in low wattage area where distortion is quite a bit lower.

Finally, I removed my AES filter to get the spectrum:

View attachment 84705

Switching frequency is around 380 kHz and decently attenuated.

Conclusions
Competent pro amplifiers target for good enough noise and distortion. The Crown XLS 1002 falls in that category so if you were expecting to have anything better for so little money and so much power, you would be disappointed. But otherwise the amp does what it targets to do.

I am going to put the Crown XLS1002 on my recommended list for non-critical applications or for driving subwoofers and such.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

The job last night after helping my wife can more tomatoes was to dehydrate these beauties:

View attachment 84706

They are called "blush" tomatoes and were invented in San Francisco in 2011! They are oval with the most beautiful coloration as if they are peaches. Once ripe, they have an incredible sweet and slightly sour taste. Once dried, they become like slightly sour and sweet candy. The rains are attacking them right now aiming to kill what is left of the plants but I picked another 10 pounds or so today.

Nice looking tomatoes! We just finished canning 50lbs of freshly picked Roma tomatoes last night.

PG55

 

[Jdunk54nl]

This makes me want to pick up another. I have a 1502 on my sub, but tried it out on my mains and it did a nice job.

I know my speakers are my limiting point by quite a bit (Polk monitor series 2 with 70s for front, 40s for surround, and cs2 center). Compared to my Yamaha a-1000, the crown seemed to just have more clean power when on my main towers (it easily should). Not a good abx test by any means because it took me way too long to switch, but definitely seemed better. I tried to get levels the same as best I could with iPhone app.

It’s either that or picking up some hypex amps for future speaker upgrades but at about double the price so much slower upgrade.

I do plan to upgrade speakers eventually, but not for a few years and then probably to revels or something similar quality for whatever those times bring.

 

[junior00027]

None has been sent in. Which one you had in mind?

can you review parasound halo or rotel rmb amplifier please ?

 

[anmpr1]

Yeh, we put in fencing to start to keep the deer around. Alas, it does nothing for racoons which love our cherries, grapes, plumbs, etc. but leave the vegetables alone.

Deer are different. Our problem was wascilly wabbits. I confronted them. Told them that if they didn't cease and desist, I'd go Elmer Fudd on them. That for them the alternative was rabbit stew. I was prepared. But they didn't listen. About to pull the trigger, waifu held me back, saying, "They are so cute!" Anytime your wife says 'so cute' you know that it's over. What could I do? Next year it's strictly okra and peppers. Tomatoes. Rabbits don't eat them.

PS: Nice equipment review.

 

[Dj7675]

can you review parasound halo or rotel rmb amplifier please ?

3 ways Amir gets gear..
1-Members send it in (I am guessing this is by far the most common)
2-Manufacturer sends it in
3-Amir buys it and measures it

The best way for Amir to measure particular gear, is to send it in for review. You pay to ship to him, he pays to ship it back to you. Of course this is hard if you don’t own it yet.

 

[Tom C]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Crown XLS 1002 rack mounted pro amplifier. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The 1002 costs US $339 including Prime shipping from Amazon.

Note: our company, Madrona Digital, is a dealer for Harman and hence Crown products. We use fair bit of Crown amps in custom installs usually to power in-ceiling speakers and such.

Amir, looking at the Madrona Digital website, you have done a significant number of projects exclusive high-end and commercial clients, so I can see where a Crown might be your selection for the less critical parts. But, can you tell us what you like to use for the more important areas?