Crown XLS2002 2-Channel Class D DriveCore Professional Power Amplifier with DSP, Band Pass Filters & Peakx Limiters. XLR/RCA Inputs, 650W at 4 Ohm, PureBand Crossover System. Black

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!

This thing pumps!! Make sure you have the low pass/high pass settings correctly set. I take points off this amp for not having dual side outputs for multiple speakers. It’s going to be the same non-separated signal. If you’re trying to make different zones and have only some speakers on at a time and not all of them on your system, you won’t be able to. You have to wire them all together. If you want to do that, you need another amp. Remember this is pro-grade equipment. It’s built like a tank and can survive in the heat, too! The amp is smart in that it knows what impedances the speakers are. Remember to not go too low in impedance or you can damage the amp. If you want to do 2 zones, your best bet is to get another amp for those speakers. Sounds amazing, worth the price, and it’s really modern, so it’s not heavy at all!

Nice punch and clean with no noise. I like how light and can't tell difference between it and the XLS series. Really...in shock but listen to it and see. Very good and a keeper. I have the big brother to this model also and both can jam with little heat or issues.

Overall, this is a pretty solid amp. It represents a great value for the price. I like that you can run both speakers or bridge through one speakON connection. The sound is pretty clean, and neutral. The fans are pretty quiet, even at extended running temps (you can hear them within a foot or two of the amp if everything else is silent and you know what to listen for). There are a few nags that I have when using in a home theater, though. - European banana plug inserts were a pain during setup, but can be removed with a drywall screw. - Requires a high output voltage from whatever source you use (even with 0.775V sensitivity setting).My Parasound JC-2 doesn't output enough through XLR connections to hit clipping. My Marantz AV7701 works well, though. Through the Marantz's XLR outputs, with the dB set higher than 0 (will go as high as +12dB) I get good output. - No way to disable the bright light show of dB meter (can disable blue lights and display) during power on. - No way to disable flashing blue lights on front panel during standby mode - Consumes ~23W during standby mode and idles at ~46W (I measured ~186 mA and ~385mA, respectively), which is a decent amount compared to many newer consumer grade products for standby. - No ability to add screw on feet for non-rack use (amp is lightweight and slides around some when fiddling with cables or if you use a heavy gauge power or speaker cable)

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

Had been using a Parasound 2250 for many years(for my klipsch Flr. standers), then came the discussion of using Power/PA Amp in an HT setup. Took the dive to buy this Crown(2502) AMP based on various AV forum feedback. I am extremely delighted so say this AMP took to my new HT, like fish to water, no noise issues(static, fan etc.). Very clean sound, does not color it in any way, runs very cool, variable input sensitivity are few advantages of this AMP. It is running a pair of RTi A9s in my setup, with the knobs set at 3/4 of the gain and the LEDs rarely rise, hence clipping is out of question. The A9s have to come to life after being run on the AVR for an year now. I would believe, this also means lesser load on the AVR to run the other speakers in my setup (Surround and Atmos). Very happy with the purchase, can't ignore the price either, fraction of the cost of an HT AMP. Have been running it for 4-5 hours everyday for a week and this amp does not disappoint. Thanks.

This is a very very very good amp. However a star less, because the warranty terms mentioned is misleading. The 6 year extended warranty is not applicable for India, China, Russia and Brazil. We only have 1 year. The amp runs always cooler, and it's good looking. This amp I bought is for my home theater setup. Marantz with Polk floor standing/center/bookshelf speakers. For some reason I'm feeling the Polk's deliver more punchy bass over the new addition of Crown amp + 2 Sony 12" 4ohm subs. This thing shakes everything.

Fantastic amp. Loads of power. Neutral. Cons: ADC and DAC conversions and 48 KHz limit. Sound wise for most people even for home use, the cons won't make much of an impact.

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