Crown XLS2002 Two-channel, 650-Watt at 4Ω Power Amplifier

Awesome... Does its job as described... Writing this after 3 months of usage.. No issues.. No regrets... Its was great deal though..

I have to be honest..... this amp is not perfect, but it has really surprised me. I bought this amp to run a Dayton Ultimax 15" sub in a sealed enclosure that I built for HT use. The sub is running at 4 ohms which will let the Crown XLS2002 deliver it's full power. It does plenty good once I added the Rolls Match RCA->Balanced converter to increase the output voltage to the Crown. Before I did that, even with setting the Crown to high sensitivity and increasing the output gain on my Marantz receiver to +10, I had to turn the amp to almost full gain in order to get solid output. With the Rolls in the chain I have MORE than enough headroom. It seems like these amps really need a LOT of input voltage to get their max output. I also have two QSC amps, the GX5 and RMX1450a, and they are easier to work with for input voltage. They have louder fans but they really are brutes. So, on to my surprise. This thing sounds great in full range! While I was testing the afore mentioned QSC amps on the sub, I though I would disconnect my B&K ST2140 stereo amp from my listening room system to see how the Crown sounded. I was pretty surprised! My Vienna Acoustics Mozart speakers are VERY clean and very revealing of the upstream equipment used. Even my wife and 15yr old daughter can hear differences in cables I've used, and they could really care less :) This amp is very neutral and clean sounding. No bass humps that make some other amps sound more full or ballsy, it just sounds natural. Okay, I might argue that it ... could.... be a bit light on the bass reproduction, but there are so many other room variables and other amps that enhance the bass artificially too..... so it's hard to say exactly where neutral lies in my system. This thing just sounds extremely clean... period! Its not laid back, it sounds really fast on transients like percussion instruments. The dynamics sound very realistic and uncompressed on GOOD recordings. My only complaint with sound quality is the noise floor with this amp. It creates a constant hiss from the speakers at less than 12" away. I cannot hear it while seated about 8 feet away, but I know it's there. The QSC's have some too but less for sure. After I heard this little 10 lb amp I ended up buying another one for a DIY speaker build ...... and it STILL blows me away when I listen to it. If you're wondering like I did, the QSC amps also sound good, but they seem to have some bass bloat around 60-120 hz if I'm guessing. The GX5 has less than the 1450a but it's there. They are POWERFUL and HEAVY with their big transformers but their sound just wasn't as sweet as the XLS Drivecore 2 amps. The RMX 1450a will drive the HELL out of my subwoofer, but the fan will have to be modded if I keep the QSCs... especially on the RMX 1450a. It sounds like a loud PC fan, and it's impossible to ignore. The GX5 is about 1/3 the fan volume, but t's not bridgeable so it may not hang around much longer. At normal listening distances (living room) you might hear the GX5 in REALLY quiet parts but it's more like the whir of a PS3 or Wii. The XLS is silent... period, at normal operating volumes for a house in full range mode. Overall, I couldn't be happier. I think I'll get A TON of mileage from these little amps. I've been a self proclaimed audiophile for 20 years and have worked in the industry. I've also listened to systems WELL beyond $250,000. One of my best friends has one of those systems that I've listened to a lot, so I'd like to think that I know what I'm hearing. The only downside I can think of with these amps is that you would really need to leave them powered on all the time if they were in a system that was used often, because there is no way to easily trigger them on with a consumer surround receiver/preamp. On the plus side though, they are class D and consume way less energy while idling. Maybe I'll measure that later to get an exact number. When I finally build my full home theater you can bet it will have a handful of these amps in it!

Update 2020 - I still see a lot of snobbery around these amps. (even in these amazon reviews). Go check out zero fidelity or Thomas and stereo on youtube. If you want an affordable amp that is 'Neutral' with lots of power the crown is a great option. Does it look like a piece of art, use exotic materials, or a special design = no. Original review : I'm very happy with the amp. Using in a home stereo setup. Used with Martinlogan EM-ESL's, Kef Ls50's, Triangle BR08, and Polk Lsim705 . I like the adjustable gain feature. My preamp offers various outputs, one being a tube output with large gain. The amp can compensate for it - making a silent noise floor. No issues with wattage. My kef's are known to require more power and this amp has no problem with them. I went from an Emotiva XPA2 Gen 2 amp to this. No sonic issues. Unlike the emotiva its light, and the depth of the unit is shallow. Fits inside ikea furniture without issue. Getting access to the banana plugs holes (on the speaker terminals) requires a screw to remove. I didn't want to damage the unit but luckily there is a great video on youtube on how to do it.

Works great with my 2.1 home stereo setup driving my front floor-standing speakers. Clean, smooth powerful and awesome sound.

I am using the crown XLS 2002 (to replace my Bryston 4bst, 250wch) to drive a pair 12" woofers on the bottom end of a pair of Martin Logan Quest Z's. The bass is much tighter, more dynamic & has better bottom end. It also has more power than the 4bst to run these hard to drive woofers. What I really like about this amp is it's flexibility. It has front panel left & right gain controls so you can dial in the output perfectly & the built-in Xover is a real bonus! This amp eliminates the need for a subwoofer in my system! Oh yeah, it's also very compact and runs super cool!