Crown Xti4002 Pro Stereo Amplifier Review

[amirm]

@amirm
No longer power consumption measurements ?

The process for that is tedious and manual. So I am going to run it selectively.

 

[Rja4000]

The process for that is tedious and manual. So I am going to run it selectively.

I understand.
I was just curious about this one.
You have a fan, it's class AB and it may deliver a ton of power.
It's also probably meant to be always on.
So I was wondering how efficient it is.

 

[Toni Mas]

Recommend that power plant for home use?

 

[Waxx]

This is what it is, a budget high power amp build for reliability and power, not to be low noise hifi. And in that it's very good like Amir says. A Icepower or Ncore amp of similar poxer won't survive the harsh conditions of life on the road, they would not last a few hours even i think.

It's noisy, that is the compromise. But in reality this don't matter in the live circuit or dj circuit. All the classic AB class amp used in the last decades in that section are noisy. The infamous Crest x001 series, by many seen as the summun of pa amp (the old way) is even noisier... but still a high rated classic amp, high power, extreme reliable and it sounds good, even if it's very noisy to our standards.

These days class D amps do often better in this, and it's a dying breed, high power class AB amps. But there is still a use for it. Crown Macrotech/Itech is more what most use, or even better, Powersoft. It would be nice if Amir could test those. Powersoft took the Crest section of the market since over a decade and are general seen as the best high power amps arround today (at least here).

 

[abdo123]

For huge amounts of power but costing more I would definitely buy NC2k instead. Measures better, no fan, tons of power.

Apollon Hypex NC2K Monoblock Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hypex NC2K based amplifier from Apollon. The unit was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me for testing. The NC2K has different options and starts at 1.990,00€ or US $2,342 as of this writing. The version I have has the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

half the channels with no processing or anything involved? also like 40% more expensive?

I mean this is not the same ballpark, comparing the two devices to each other is nonsense.

 

[Svend P]

I understand.
I was just curious about this one.
You have a fan, it's class AB and it may deliver a ton of power.
It's also probably meant to be always on.
So I was wondering how efficient it is.

Crown has extensive measurements available online:

 

[milosz]

Some people use amps like these for home theater subwoofers, and in such cases maybe the thing is placed in some closet where the fan noise doesn't intrude on the listening experience. If you had a subwoofer covering, say, frequencies below 50 Hz, it's unlikely you'd hear the harmonic distortion or noise from this amp. Subwoofers generally don't reproduce the higher harmonics of that distortion, the cones are not suited (generally) to reproducing anything other than bass. And the human ear is less sensitive at these low frequencies, so distortion products of, say, a 30 Hz signal would be far enough down in level that you'd likely not notice it. And hearing amp noise from a subwoofer, I don't see that as being likely. It's more likely that distortion from the subwoofer driver itself would exceed the distortion added by the amp, so this amp would seemingly be fine to run some big subwoofer cones.

 

[AdamG]

The output numbers seem impossible from such a small device. Yet there they are. Down to 2 ohms unbelievable. Over 550 watts into 8 ohms? I think making separate graphs for Pro Gear is a good idea. Definitely a different target market with different attribute expectations that cause/drive diverging design decisions that reflects poorly when compared to Home Audio Kit. Unfair playing field and makes it complicated for the “Pro Consumer” to find and compare the data that’s relevant for their particular interests.

Busy night Amir. Thank you for the double header.

 

[Toni Mas]

Some people use amps like these for home theater subwoofers, and in such cases maybe the thing is placed in some closet where the fan noise doesn't intrude on the listening experience. If you had a subwoofer covering, say, frequencies below 50 Hz, it's unlikely you'd hear the harmonic distortion or noise from this amp. Subwoofers generally don't reproduce the higher harmonics of that distortion, the cones are not suited (generally) to reproducing anything other than bass. And the human ear is less sensitive at these low frequencies, so distortion products of, say, a 30 Hz signal would be far enough down in level that you'd likely not notice it. And hearing amp noise from a subwoofer, I don't see that as being likely. It's more likely that distortion from the subwoofer driver itself would exceed the distortion added by the amp, so this amp would seemingly be fine to run some big subwoofer cones.

Anyway 1000w in a home set Up is totally overkill. With a couple of 50w subs i can excite room modes all around the house, disturbing also my neighbourhood. Not really interested in converting my listenning room into a disco bar...

 

[fpitas]

Some people use amps like these for home theater subwoofers, and in such cases maybe the thing is placed in some closet where the fan noise doesn't intrude on the listening experience. If you had a subwoofer covering, say, frequencies below 50 Hz, it's unlikely you'd hear the harmonic distortion or noise from this amp. Subwoofers generally don't reproduce the higher harmonics of that distortion, the cones are not suited (generally) to reproducing anything other than bass. And the human ear is less sensitive at these low frequencies, so distortion products of, say, a 30 Hz signal would be far enough down in level that you'd likely not notice it. And hearing amp noise from a subwoofer, I don't see that as being likely. It's more likely that distortion from the subwoofer driver itself would exceed the distortion added by the amp, so this amp would seemingly be fine to run some big subwoofer cones.

I'll add, in the Pro use scenario the speakers will be driven hard and distort far more than the amp.

 

[Toni Mas]

I'll add, in the Pro use scenario the speakers will be driven hard and distort far more than the amp.

But these pro speakers are made to handle far more power than hifi gear.

 

[fpitas]

But these pro speakers are made to handle far more power than hifi gear.

And the designer cares far less about distortion. The Doppler distortion alone will probably be enormous.

 

[Toni Mas]

And the designer cares far less about distortion. The Doppler distortion alone will probably be enormous.

It depends... A 15" cone moves more Air with less xcursion than a 7" one

 

[badspeakerdesigner]

Honestly I question the value of SINAD in amplifiers. I have the xli800 which is technically worse than this xti on the chart and it sounds the same as every other amp I have. Can't hear a bit of noise. I have pretty damn good ears as well and I use the amp to power some big atc style three ways that I use for mixing.

On another note, I've used some of the xti's at live sound job and with that sort of abuse I've noticed a few of ours crapping out in weird ways. One of them only works if it's on it's side for instance.

 

[Multicore]

What supply voltage did you use, @amirm ? Looks like the unit accepts up to 240.

 

[KxDx]

I think the day isn't far that someone will draw up a fan fic of Amir stress testing audio gear

With all these AI image generators it's probably easier than you think.

 

[kipman725]

Admark AD442 claims to use GaN: https://www.admarksound.com/power-a.../ad442-class-d-power-amplifier-4-channel.html

 

[fpitas]

Admark AD442 claims to use GaN: https://www.admarksound.com/power-a.../ad442-class-d-power-amplifier-4-channel.html

For Pro use, GaN makes sense. It can run a lot hotter than silicon transistors.

 

[kipman725]

For Pro use, GaN makes sense. It can run a lot hotter than silicon transistors.

Packaging is a limitation if you want to run much above silicon temperatures. SiC has been demonstrated up to 500C but comercialy available power devices have simlar temp ratings to silicon due to the packaging.

 

[peniku8]

PS.
Class D can scale all the way up to x kW and all the way down to 1ohm too.

Just ask Lab Gruppen and Powersoft etc.

1 Ohm?