Crown XLS- for the rest of us!

a.wayne · « **Reply #1220 on:** 12 Feb 2015, 07:22 pm »

JK,

I like what you did with the Butcher blocks , the Yammy's look like more money, much better build quality, a pity no shootout ...

guest61169 · « **Reply #1221 on:** 12 Feb 2015, 08:06 pm »

Quote from: a.wayne on 12 Feb 2015, 07:22 pm

JK,

I like what you did with the Butcher blocks , the Yammy's look like more money, much better build quality, a pity no shootout ...

With both the Klipsch Forte II and Magnepan 1.7s I used to have, I preferred the sound of the XLS 2500 over the Yamaha P5000S. More relaxed sounding. But that was in my room with my associated equipment and other people might find just the opposite. The Yamaha was much heavier and the bottom plate got strangely hot for some reason even using tall feet on an open stand. I bought it new...I hope it was working correctly. With that, I didn't feel comfortable letting it run 24/7 especially when I was away. At idle, the Yamaha had no hiss at all when I put my ear right up to the speakers while Crown had a bit.

If I recall, some of the lower priced models in the P-S series use a torroidal PS while the P5000S and P7000S use SMPS. If I bought one again, I would try the torroidal.

jk@home · « **Reply #1222 on:** 12 Feb 2015, 08:15 pm »

The butcher block came from Bed Bath and Beyond, the stand was built with left over cutting boards. The Salamander rack behind it (from Amazon) was much easier to build

Yeah, AFAIK, the 3500 is basically a class A/B amp with a fancy, energy efficient power supply? Never have heard the fans come on once. I had tried the Yamaha on my old MMGs and felt it wasn't as good sounding as the old Aragon. But like I mentioned earlier, Maggies can be picky amp wise. Maybe if I get snowed in like the folks up north are now, I will pull one out and try it on the KEFs

The Yammy does have decent binding posts, and they are spade usable, no mod needed.

Edit: now that the Yamahas are on 24/7, they do get a bit warm on the bottomside. I've ordered one of these kits to switch the amp sequencer on and off:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002NRJWC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

maplegrovemusic · « **Reply #1223 on:** 13 Feb 2015, 03:27 am »

Another great use for an xls . I have been going back and forth between a pair of Hypex and a pair of Crown xls 2500's to drive my King Sound speakers. Well it finally dawned on me that the Crown has the 1/4" pass thru on them , so i am running the Crowns on my bass and the Hypex on the tweeters . Pretty spectacular . Would highly recommend this as a new tweak. A 1/4" to xlr from Mogami is what i am using . The real nice thing about the gain on the crowns can be adjusted to match the other amps output . I would guess almost any amp that is balanced could be used on the tweeters. Goint to try some tubes on the tweets next .

ljbrandt · « **Reply #1224 on:** 14 Feb 2015, 02:52 am »

For any of those using this amp with a subwoofer:

Would there be any concern using the speaker level inputs on a sub woofer (such as REL) with this amp? I'm wondering if the high wattage on this amp would pose any threat to my ML subwoofer.

I'm thinking that if I used the 1/4 line outs (passthrough), then I would potentially weaken the input signal into the amp, similar to using a splitter.

Thoughts?

SteveFord · « **Reply #1225 on:** 14 Feb 2015, 02:44 pm »

The amp is on it's way to Peter J, I'd expect it around Thursday of next week.
Thanks for doing this tour, it was a lot of fun.

Tomy2Tone · « **Reply #1226 on:** 14 Feb 2015, 03:08 pm »

Just an update on where the tour is...and is going.

Peter J- ID

S Clark- TX

gregfisk- WA

Bill of NY

OzarkTom · « **Reply #1227 on:** 15 Feb 2015, 08:26 pm »

If anyone here is looking for a 2000 at a decent price, here is one in Ca. for $230.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/eld/4892247383.html

rob303 · « **Reply #1228 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 04:08 pm »

Has anyone here experienced an imbalance in the gain adjustment?

I have owned an XLS1500 for a couple months now. At some point in that time I have noticed my left channel to be louder, but I have always passed it off as my room favoring that speaker. Well, last night I decided to focus on repositioning my speakers to achieve more balance to no avail. So this morning I decided to reduce the gain setting in the left channel one click (0.5) and the sound was noticeably better! Next I got out my volt meter and a test record which has a track producing a constant tone equal in both channels. I tested every channel connection and cable end all along my chain and everything came up even. Then I tested my speaker taps and found a significant discrepancy. At every gain setting the right channel is lower than the left and, as expected, the difference increases as I increase the gain in both channels.

I have the amp set to "Stereo Bypass".

Anyone else ever hear of this? A quick Google search produced nothing so I decided to come here. I sure would love to remedy this issue. I bought it through Amazon so I suppose I could always do an exchange with them as a last resort.

Cheers!

guest61169 · « **Reply #1229 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 04:58 pm »

Quote from: rob303 on 17 Feb 2015, 04:08 pm

..Then I tested my speaker taps and found a significant discrepancy. At every gain setting the right channel is lower than the left and, as expected, the difference increases as I increase the gain in both channels.
...

Can we see your calculations in dB? http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/formulae/decibels/decibel-formulae-equation.php

a.wayne · « **Reply #1230 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 04:59 pm »

Why not adjust the gain to balance both channels, are you not able to balance with the gain control......?

roscoeiii · « **Reply #1231 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 05:47 pm »

Quote from: rob303 on 17 Feb 2015, 04:08 pm

Has anyone here experienced an imbalance in the gain adjustment?

Anyone else ever hear of this? A quick Google search produced nothing so I decided to come here. I sure would love to remedy this issue. I bought it through Amazon so I suppose I could always do an exchange with them as a last resort.

Cheers!

If you can exchange it via Amazon still, I'd do that.

rob303 · « **Reply #1232 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 11:02 pm »

Quote from: noway on 17 Feb 2015, 04:58 pm

Can we see your calculations in dB? http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/formulae/decibels/decibel-formulae-equation.php

I'll see what I can do. This kind of math is a definite weak spot for me. If it helps, my voltage output with volume at 50% and gain at 8.0 was L: ~2.0V and R: 0.888 V

Quote from: a.wayne on 17 Feb 2015, 04:59 pm

Why not adjust the gain to balance both channels, are you not able to balance with the gain control......?

I can do that but then it would be...
L: 6.0
R: 8.0
Not exactly within the 10% margin Crown allows, according to Crown techs support.

Quote from: roscoeiii on 17 Feb 2015, 05:47 pm

If you can exchange it via Amazon still, I'd do that.

I checked, no-can-do. I've since talked to Crown and it is a warranty issue. The tech support seemed to be familiar with this being a possible issue. They made sure I thoroughly checked my lineage first. I'm going to run my digital front-end tonight to verify there is nothing going on with my turntable setup I wasn't able to observe.

rob303 · « **Reply #1233 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 11:06 pm »

I should also add I am running this in a temporary setup utilizing only the iTube buffer/pre as my preamp. This thing only offers 6dB of gain which is why I need to crank the gain knobs on the XLS. If I was running a normal preamp my gain knobs would only be 2 clicks off, but still an indicator the amp is not functioning properly.

OzarkTom · « **Reply #1234 on:** 17 Feb 2015, 11:19 pm »

Quote from: rob303 on 17 Feb 2015, 11:06 pm

I should also add I am running this in a temporary setup utilizing only the iTube buffer/pre as my preamp. This thing only offers 6dB of gain which is why I need to crank the gain knobs on the XLS. If I was running a normal preamp my gain knobs would only be 2 clicks off, but still an indicator the amp is not functioning properly.

Have you tried by-passing the ITube making sure the amp is the problem?

Doublej · « **Reply #1235 on:** 18 Feb 2015, 12:31 am »

Reversing the left and right cables from the output of the preamp to amplifier should allow one to ascertain if the problem is with the amplifier or something in front of it.

Peter J · « **Reply #1236 on:** 18 Feb 2015, 12:36 am »

Arrrgghhhh! Received tour amp today, but discovered I have no easy way to hook it up. Speakers are biwired and cables terminated in spades, which the Crown doesn't accept. Never thought about that.

Is there such a thing as a spade to banana adaptor? I suppose I could make some cheapie cables and jumper but was really hoping to hear this with system mostly as is.

jk@home · « **Reply #1237 on:** 18 Feb 2015, 12:51 am »

Yes:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/product.aspx?zpid=579

Music Direct, Audio Advisor and others also sell them.

You just have to be careful, cause it is tight. I did this when I first tried the Crown, had to add little pieces of rubber in between posts to keep them from shorting together.

If you have some bare speaker wire (or can buy something inexpensive), that would be better, just use the top hole in the posts.

rodge827 · « **Reply #1238 on:** 18 Feb 2015, 01:49 am »

Wow there's a fix for everything these days!

rob303 · « **Reply #1239 on:** 18 Feb 2015, 04:02 am »

Quote from: Doublej on 18 Feb 2015, 12:31 am

Reversing the left and right cables from the output of the preamp to amplifier should allow one to ascertain if the problem is with the amplifier or something in front of it.

Great advice! This is what I did tonight after instantly noticing my rarely-used digital front-end produced amazing balance. I traced it to my phono stage. Not the amp! Boy, do I feel like a dunce

Crown XLS- for the rest of us!

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