I totally agree with your comments (higher voltage, more power when bridge and, yes, many amps are a bridge design - some emotiva, ATI, ……). I meant to the Crown spec power at lower Hz application. They hit their spec at 1Khz but not below 40Hz. I looked to apply to a sub but as a researched I found this low hz drive issue. Just trying to help as I found this issue in my search. All the best.
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Crown XLS2502 Stereo Amplifier Review
- Thread starter amirm
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Soundmixer
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Once again, that is in the stereo mode, not the bridged mode. I have no interest in what the amp does at 1k. I am more interested in exactly what it can deliver in the bridged mode at 20hz. If it can pump out anything close to its rating, that is good enough for me. With four of these amps on 4 15" subs, I honestly don't need any more than 600 clean watts in my size room. If it can do that (and I bet it can), then that is all I care about.
In bridged mode one can safely expect to have twice the power and identical frequency response compared to stereo mode with a load of half ohms. So an amp which delivers 2 x 100 W at 4 ohm in stereo can deliver 1 x 200 W at 8 ohm in bridged mode. Each amplifier stage in bridged mode "sees" a 4 Ohm load and hence acts accordingly like in stereo mode.
Soundmixer
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Anyone who says this amp isn't suitable for a subwoofer has clearly lost their beans. This amp puts out more power than some internal sub amps.
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Wow thanks for finding that. Thats exactly what i was looking for.
I have to say my Crown amp does a fantastic job. It creates no hiss from my speakers and it will wake up my Martin Logans real quick. But, as always, I just can't get into dinosaur old stereo sound. Whenever I go into surround music mode it just makes a huge difference in sounding live/realistic and much more enjoyable. Stereo just needs to die out like cassette tapes. I am always amazed at so many people listening to stereo music on expensive systems. Now a fully treated room and a very good setup will sound very, very good. But you can get nearly to that point with surround music at about 20% of the cost. The industry has really latched on to the resurgence of stereo. It allows them to make a lot of money fairly easily. If a major manufacturer like Yamaha or Denon came out with a great AVR with a decent SNR number of say 100?, Many people would try the AVR and be happily surprised at the great sound. All you need is a 5.1/5.2 or 7.1/7.2 to get up and running. Atmos? Who cares for music. It really is not that hard. I think the resurgence in stereo has slowed the advancement of surround sound by quite a bit. But, in the end, this is just my opinion.
AnestisMania
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So I was wondering around the forums and a question came to mind. I have a pair for b&w 604 S3 and I was thinking since the crown is soo good at reproducing low bass and not so great at mids and highs why not bi amp the speakers and use my Denon x4400h for the highs and mids and the crown for the lows. I don't have the crown yet but I would love to hear your opinions on this. I'm not big on the idea to get another separate amp just for the highs soo yeah.
We have 2 options
Pre amp yamaha wxc-50
Amp for lows crown xls 2502
Amp for highs and mids Denon x4400h
I will use the link out of the crown to give signal to the Denon. But the question is does it worth the trouble or do I need a separate "better" amp do drive my highs?
Or
From the
pre amp Yamaha wxc-50
To the Denon digital in
And then to the crown. Via RCA to xlr..
Sure I could eliminate completely the Yamaha pre amp and use the Denon but I don't think the pre amp section of the Denon is as good as the Yamaha.
Thank you for your time.
We have 2 options
Pre amp yamaha wxc-50
Amp for lows crown xls 2502
Amp for highs and mids Denon x4400h
I will use the link out of the crown to give signal to the Denon. But the question is does it worth the trouble or do I need a separate "better" amp do drive my highs?
Or
From the
pre amp Yamaha wxc-50
To the Denon digital in
And then to the crown. Via RCA to xlr..
Sure I could eliminate completely the Yamaha pre amp and use the Denon but I don't think the pre amp section of the Denon is as good as the Yamaha.
Thank you for your time.
If you want to try bi-amping, then just hook it up in whatever way is easiest for you. There is no magic hook up chain that will create amazing sound. Give it a whirl and if you like it better that way, then you are all set. Good Luck and let us know what you think of it.
AnestisMania
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Just one question in case i want to use a xtz edge a2-300 for my highs do i have a problem?. i mean from what i see you need to set your crossover frequencies if you want to bi amp since when i remove the metal jumpers the crossover is also disabled. or i got it wrong?
the Xtz edge has a gain so i can match my amps.
I would suggest keeping it as simple hook up wise as possible. But in the end, you just have to play with it. The issue is that it may all sound roughly "the same". The brain creates havoc with listening to music. Just try things out and keep records of each hook up and what you think. That way when your done having fun hooking things up you can set it up to the final "best" way. But in the end, you will probably find there is no difference among the different ways you hook it up. Lots of variables involved. You are in the "tweaking my system for extremally high performance" arena and that is usually quite tricky. So, right now I would just roll up your sleeves and go for it. Or, if you decide you don't want to put all that work into it, just use it as is. It is all your decision and no one on the internet can help you with the actual listening tests. Like I say, Good Luck!
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I have not found the Crown's to be inferior to "Audiophile" amps in the highs.
Like any amp, the crowns will behave like a "wire with gain" as long as they are run within their design spec/ratings - the nice thing with the Crowns, is the ratings are much broader than most amps - which means they will handle difficult speakers, low impedances, high current demands, with relative ease.
After multiple comparisons, over many years, the Crowns are in my main system for the foreseeable future.
One thing to keep in mind: The DSP is "in circuit" and imposes a 10ms delay (roughly) - if you are using all Crown for your BiAmping, this won't be an issue... but if you are mixing/matching amps to biamp, you need to make sure you run something like Dirac which will correct this kind of time anomaly....
Cool! - no I did not measure it...
Based on hearsay from other users!
However I was also basing it on memory... (and it is possible I shifted the decimal place as a result!)
Still the important thing is, if you are treating different parts of the chain differently, especially with some DSP thrown in, then time lag considerations have to be considered and baked into the solution.
Dirac does that natively - which is nice!
OK cool. It would be bad if some of them were different.
I just bought one to power some subs I'm currently building and did a quick check. The ~1.3ms I got matched a really old thread I dug on a random pro audio forum before buying one for myself.
If I have the time, I'll eventually post a thread with screencaps of the measurements, and measure the crossover filters too.
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i have a xls2502 on my mains (jbl 580's) and they sound great with the crown. i like the 2502 better than the denon x4400h on my mains. the denon seems a bit more harsh on the highs at higher volumes and more forward. the 2502 seems softer on the highs and at higher volumes sounds cleaner. oddly i like the 2502 on my mains better than on my two 15's. i use an older class ab crest amp on them and they just sound better. the crown on my subs sound boomy compared to the crest. the crown has more power but the crest sounds better. i tried the crest on my mains and didnt like it as much. the crown does have some hiss or pink noise if you hold your ear to the horn up to maybe a foot away if that but if your more than that away from them you cant hear it. and it doesnt matter if you turn the gain up or down on the amp its still there but unless you like to listen to your speakers as close as headphones with no music you will never hear it.
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Interesting as I'd have thought they would both sound close if you ran Audyssey. I do know if you do calibrate above the room transition frequency with Audyssey, they apply midrange composition which does . muddy up the sound IMHO. They may have disabled it after the release of the Audyssey X.
i didnt rerun audyssey to test the amps on the mains or the subs. i tested the mains using pure direct with all amps. i use the audyssey app and dont use mid comp. the boomy sound was only on the subs with the crown. ive run both these amps on the subs for long periods running audyssey and the crest sounds better on the subs.
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It's been switchable for around 6 years now, since the release of the $20 Editor app.
My Guess is that this was the main reason for my disappointment with Audyssey on my 2008 AVR, and then my 2013 AVR.... (and a key reason why I am so happy with Dirac now! - Didn't feel up to giving Audyssey a 3rd go)
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