Is it a giant killer as they say? Crown XLS 2502 Amplifier review

How does output compare at 120v vs 220v ?

My CE4000 needed 240V for full power.

As an electrical engineer who has a lot of experience and no psychological problems using graphic equalizers to get whatever sound I want I cannot find any flaw in this amplifier. A graphic equalizer is the most powerful an reliable tool for adjusting the frequency response of a sound system. Other methods don't begin to compare. They are more expensive, unpredictable, not adjustable. Even the least expensive equalizers introduce no audible noise or distortion. That makes this model a winner for me if i needed this much power. A great bargain compared to audiophile amplifiers to boot.

I'm a huge fan of the old crown macros there old but still work great
All these companies have been bought out by crappy companies who put out garbage so I don't trust many amps anymore

The one main factor people overlook about the Crown due to the fact that its "original intent is to work as PA amp" What is confusing about the Crown is the RCA inputs.
This amp will never work properly with an av receiver without converting the "unbalanced signal coming from your av receiver which is consumer audio. which is minus 10-DB to a Pro audio.
even if you set the input sensitivity to .775. which would equal 0 db at Crown.
you need to convert the unbalanced signal to a balanced signal with a small preamp. the Art Cleanboxpro will do that job.
before buying a Crown amp do some research.

Do you think that tiniwini trafo can put out 2000w? It takes far more from a ferrite trafo that size to give the power they are quoting.

I have been running a Crown XLS for 3 year's, was only meant to be a stop gap, but I haven't found anything up to £3000 that really makes me feel the need to spend the money and part with the Crown. Admittedly my ears may be a bit wooden, but I just absolutely love it's sound.
Curious as to the high end seeming rolled off, although you are a lot younger so I guess it's something I would not notice as hearing beyond 16khz is extremely limited.

"This being a class D amplifier, it has a lighter-weight, as well as better heat management than a class AB, for example" - Jay's iyagi

This is something I never really gave any serious consideration to when designing my portable rack. I was seriously considering purchasing two of the XLi amps (the 2500, and the 1500). My only thoughts were "I don't need a crossover, which is the only real addition to the XLS".

The 8U rack (with receiver, extended range Bluetooth, two amps, a cooler plate, and the case) would have came out to 99.8 lbs. Whaaat!?! I don't want to lug a 100 lb box around if I don't have to.

With the lighter amps, and the omission of the cooler plate, I can shave off a ton of weight (like, what, 40 lbs??). Definitely worth it, if you're going to move it around periodically.

Thanks Jay.

Excellent evaluation and advice. You provide a great service. Please keep posting. How about the Martin Logans which have a better sensitivity than the Magnepans? Does the Crown do better with them?

Ill leave a coomment here to guide future buyers. Have been using the 2502 for almost 3 years now with zero itch to upgrade. Powering the Focal Chora 826 and the power hungry demanding Aria 948. All I have it paired up to is a Topping D70S that is known for its wide soundstage and crytal clear sound. The thing I love about this amp is the power hammers out, making the already dynamic Focals even more so! Another feature I love is the high pass feature. Not many amps have it besides AVRs and trust me, it even makes a big difference when I high pass the 948s at 80hz. And since the 948s dips to mid 2 ohms, this is one amp that has the ability to handle that load with ease.

Now lets get to the high floor noise subject that eveeyome is talking about. This can be reduced in a few ways. The first is to hook up via the balanced outputs. That is the first thing to do. The second thing is to lower the input sensitivity from 1.4v to .775v. The third and final thing that you could do is to reduce the gain volume. This all should get rid of the hiss. I do not have a hiss problem by running balanced, so I did not need to resort to the last 2 options. You want wake your speakers up for cheap? Look no further, the 2502 is it. Use your prefered pre to inject any sound signature you like, this is one neutral sounding amp which I love.

I use a Crown XLI 1500 class AB amplifier to drive a set of Jamo C95 II loudspeakers (sensitivity 89 dB) and they are dead silent with no audio signal applied.
If you know how to correctly set your signal gain structure to achieve the maximum system dynamic range and the optimum signal to noise ratio, you will never experience that background noise that you are talking about.
The Crown XLI 1500 input attenuation controls are set to -18 dB and I can drive the Jamo C95 II loudspeakers to their maximum rated power output, controling the audio level from the Allen Heath mixing console.
The cooling fans on Crown XLI 1500 amplifier are dead silent, even when the Jamo C95 II loudspeakers are playing at their maximum rated power output.

The Crowns are perfect for subwoofers and they include low-pass filters for a 1-box solution. My top end is tube-driven. A nice combination of technologies working at their best.

I use 6 xls 1002s for home theater. They are awesome. Plenty of power for TV and movies.

You do not point out xls is one of crowns cheap line of amps. Giant killer ? Crown is a giant MacroTech and I-tech lines = 10,000$ touring amps

I think the reason it is liked is the low cost in the US c.f other brands.

Most individuals will not be able to pick one amp from another in a comparative field. Where there may be important differences though, are things like current reserve for low freq dynamics and such. I think aspects like this can qualitatively make a difference that may not be picked in a curated listening comparison. Of course, the inherent biases of psychoacoustics and knowing the product mean that our assertions about such things long term are not easily presented. You just know that you do or don't like some aspect of it.

Trim your gross nails. Also its not glue, genius

Wow, I learned a lot from this video! More than just about this specific amplifier

Surprisingly crown XL's top end sounds better than XLS. I was shocked. Ofcourse XLI is sensitive to ground loop noise. Need to make user your ground conn is solid.

Great for atmos speakers

I bet a speaker with a titanium tweeter would sound pretty nice powered by the Crown amp. The mentioned rolloff might help offset the natural harshness of metallic tweets.

I live in Brazil.. have pre Advance acoustic mpp-206 and may power is a emotiva XPA-2 gen 1... I testing the cronw 1502 and i was very impressed... the sound sounded more natural, accurate and real... the massive damping factor treats the weight of the speaker cones as if it were headphones... let it be just the shock of the difference because then you get used to it.... alternating my hearing with my emotiva I perceive a much more veiled sound..nd

I have a thousand watt pro amp running a set of techniques speakers which are 40 watts and about 70 years old the speakers sound amazing on my pro amp even sounds better than my Pioneer AV amplifier I just think most audio files are too piggy

Surely sound engineers would not except such noise floors as loud at that, now did you get the noise floor.

I think I am going to pick one of these Crown amps up, I almost pulled the trigger the other night...

I avoided this amp for a long time. Crown engineers advised me it has a subsonic filter and rolls off steeply below 20hz. They were mistaken. I tested one and found that it easily played 16hz test tones. I quickly acquired two of them. I use them to power 12" subwoofers. It has the best feature set of any pro amp I have found. RCA inputs. Built in crossovers. So far proven very reliable. And yes, get the rubber feet. Otherwise its a slider.

I own a Crown XLI2500. It's an AB, similar power ratings to the 2502. Dead quiet in idle, sounds really good to me on any speaker, and it can drive my 15' Vegas no problem. I have never heard any audible noise or distortion, very neutral, may be a little heavy on the low end at high volume. Built like a tank. Pretty great amp for $500 bucks. It will do the job until you can afford to go to the next level. Excellent for Surround systems not dedicated for music.

Can I connect two subwofer passiv?

Value for money this is hard to beat... but you are correct about pairing it correctly... I use them to drive Dali Rubicon 2s and it works very well... but I tried them with B&W 604S2 and did not like it quite as much... sounded a bit etched... but the difference was subtle... I compared it to a Trio L-07M monoblock amp and pre was a Yamaha CX A5100... I liked the XLS better than the Trios with the Dali Rubicons and less than the Trios with B&W 604S2. You comments seem pretty spot on. I ended up keeping the XLS and Dalis...

What you "hear", or more precisely what you THINK you hear, is absolutely pointless. The amp should be evaluated in a strict double-blind test with other amplifiers with a statistically significant number of auditions, auditors, and using a computer-generated random sequence of presentation. Anything else is just hot air from your inflated ego.

I use Magnepan LRS + Crown XLS 1502 with absolutely fantastic results, I also have Parasound HCA2200 and Conrad Johnson Sonograph SA400 in my room, still prefer Crown XLS1502 over them.

I have the XLS 2502 pushing 2 subs... Love this thing!

Can I use this as a subwoofer amplifier ?

Class D is garbage. If you like loud cheap distortion go for it you get what you pay for. Class A and AB will always destroy class D.

To those who are wondering if this is any good: yes, it is very good. I used it with focals 936 for some time, until I got a parasound A21, gave it a listen, and said "oh.. now I get it". Class D are great but they don't sound as A/B. Unfortunately vast price difference.

This amp is not even a hi end crown amp

Who actually king of amp of harman family.

I have the XLS-2002. After a week of experiment, I found the 1.4 volt setting combined with the 11 o'clock position on the output controls is perfect for my set-up. With no signal I have to put my ear to within 6 inches of the midrange driver to hear a low-level buzz. I'm using a McCormack MAP-1 preamp and Legacy Focus speakers which have a very efficient 96db sensitivity rating.

I'm pretty sure I know why you were getting that noise. In the home audio world its not that common to have gain controls in the system. Most of the time we just have volume controls. For pro audio gear, gain controls are on just about everything. If you're not used to working with gain, most people think it the same as volume, Its not. Gain controls are on the input of a component and volume controls are part of the output section. The thing you need to be aware of is only gain can distort the signal. A volume control can't.

In the video, you had the 2 knobs on the front of the amp set to max. Those knobs are almost certainly gain controls. If you were to back off the gain, that that noise should go away. Once the noise is gone, you just use volume to adjust loudness.

Its a commercial power amp it adds nothing to the signal unlike HiFi that tend to be high frequency heavy. If the listeners like rock music there great if they like Jazz classical then I would say not so much. The thing to remember is they are designed to deliver power and power they do in abundance. If you think the tone is to smooth or the highs are missing something, its not the amp its your speakers change the drivers for something brighter or use a brighter stylus for vinyl !! I own older Crown amps (LPS1500/XLS402) and the beast the QSC RMX 2450, they are all terrific amps but they are not HiFi quality tone they are commercial designed to drive power hungry speaker cabs. So I will state clearly if you think they sound bad, its not the amp its everything else, they smash HiFi but only when matched with the right kit to match your own personal taste in music and tone. Rock music as it should sound loud and powerful

Setting gains properly is important, it looks like you just turned them all the way up. I think a lot of people don’t take the time to learn a little about gain structure to maximize the performance of these pro amps. It makes a difference. Good objective review though, I agree they have their pros and cons. I own three of them.

This is hilarious.

I use the 2500 depending on what fronts I use. I have an outlaw audio 770 and I can tell you its just as good. The noise floor is higher but even under quiet listening you cant hear it. If you're having to crank the gain on these in your rig you need a voltage gain. The noise floor gets higher the more you turn up those knobs. Obviously. The 1500 and up has 103db signal to noise which is not terrible. The 1000 is 97db which is a noticeable difference. I did have to get an arts clean box to boost the voltage. Sometimes I run it on some yamaha sv115s and my legacy audio classics and it sounds great and can give them power like no other amp I've had. I use a onkyo txsr876 as my preamp. I've never heard my fan kick on either. I've never even gotten the clip meters to come close to clipping because by then it's already super loud. I run 4 subs so I dont rely on it for anything below 40hz at most but sometimes I'll run it 2 channel with no subs running and it's nice and full to me and my reference and favorite amps I have is ATI and Outlaw audio. I mean at 5 to 600 bucks for a 2 channel amp it's not a cheap amp ar all. And the tech that comes built in is super handy. If you wanted 7 channels, referencing my outlaw 770, of amperage from 2500s you would be dropping a good 3 grand or so and man you would have some crazy headroom.

Decent review with the pros and cons

Get a eq.

Really interested in the amp. Your comment on this being dry on Magnepan is compared to? Hegel high end Amps costing USD 2-3k? How dry is it on a Maggie? Is it really subtle dry or dry there is something wrong I may have broken something? Watched many of your reviews and Audio Excellence and sometimes heard the exact system and the comments were on things that are really hard to hear unless your on critical listening mode not just to enjoy the music. I'm looking at this because it's cheap and hoping an equalizer will smoothen some if it's issues together with a preamp. I think scale is important on some things for us to have a reference. Plus it's a classic Class D amp that really begs for tubes and a budget one at that. And yes I'll probably get a Hegel too for Magnepan with the budget Just trying to enjoy the Music, Happy listening. Planning to get a Triangle Br02 and a pre owned Magnepan LRS. Cheers.

The glue isn't elegantly applied?. Seriously?. Lol 😂. Nobody is even going to see inside the Amplifier anyway. The way the components are setup is irrelevant. It's purchased for sound quality. Not looks of the internals.

Jamo is pronounced ( yahh-moe).

"Bridged" has absolutely nothing to do with adding a second amplifier. It's how you connect the speaker wires. That it. This amplifier can push those " Bridged" numbers by itself.

Too bad you could not be more specific when referring to "some people". The folks that own "Rigs" used to put on a live show, like Pink or Pink Floyd swear by Crown amplifiers and their 65 year old reputation. Not many amplifiers can be pulled out of a pond, dried in a few hours, and used to put on a show capable of 140 decibels.

I use the crown on my subs. Emotive 3 ch on my front and center and it is a really good setup. Crown amp has really good control and power for subs.