CrownCrown Acoustic Guitar Amplifier, Black, 350-Watts (XLS1002)

Why spend thousands on a high-end audiophile amp, while this amp is affordable, still sounds good, performs well, is built well, is easy to use, and looks cool? No, it’s not the best amp. However, this amp is very unbeatable for $430. This amp sounds very good with my Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 bookshelf speakers and not many cheap amps handle 6 ohms and don’t deliver the power I want. This amp is ideal for almost all appliances. It’s good for PA use, Hifi use, home theater use, and much more!Edit: This amp is still going strong and is currently driving my QSC AD-S28Tw subwoofer. Definitely makes the subwoofer sound good!

Strictly using this amp for CD and vinyl in 2-channel set up. Took minutes to have running right out of the box. Initially I was less than impressed to say the least. Highs were too bright, bass was minimal and soundstage was almost non-existent. Put in a high quality CD, hit play and repeat and let it run on low volume for 48 hours. The result was impressive. After 100 hours even better. I now have approx. 150 hours on the amp and the results are amazing! Highs sound spot on, bass is fast and detailed and the soundstage has opened up nicely! The detail I am hearing is a pleasant surprise. This amp definitely requires a break in period. Plenty of power and it runs cool. It does it's job effortlessly. Be patient and you won't be disappointed.

...before chiming in. I bought the first 2 levels of amps thinking I would need both to run my sound system in stereo: 8 18" subs & 4 15" full range tops. I hooked the tops to the smallest XLS1002 & ran mono bridged into the subs using the 1502. Both sip electricity so it's not a huge power draw so I thought I would need both, and since they are quiet & lightweight, why not? Ran great everytime out.Well, then I decided to try mono since my speaker system is a wall of sound. So I y corded to the 1002 from my crossover & applied the amp's built in crossover and wouldn't ya know it, the little guy powered the whole sound in mono, with some power to spare!! I haven't even bothered trying it with the 1502 but I'm sure that's even better & maybe a lil more stable.These leave a lot of room in your rack case's rear & are light light weight. The screen to work the options is bright. You're able to apply filters to the channels separately! The back is easy to work with. I don't know. I haven't had a lot of amps, but I have nothing negative to say about these crown amps except I hope I find installations for my other amps, be sure my 1502 is gonna be giving me all I need in my mobile system for now on.

These crown XLS amps are amazing! The price is always very reasonable and the quality is the absolute best. I have 3 1002s and one 1502 that I use to power a 5.4.4 Atmos setup and 8 outdoor speakers. All are mounted in an in-wall rack system. The Crowns push out what they claim and they do so effortlessly. While there is a very quiet "hiss" right next to the indoor speakers, it's low enough volume that you can only hear it within 2' of the speakers when no sound is emitted. At one point, I accidentally hooked up 2 of my 18" subs in parallel and connected them to the XLS1502 in bridge mode, thus giving it a 2 ohm load in bridge. It's not rated for this, as it's only supposed to handle down to 4 ohms when bridged, but this amp had ZERO complaints for about 9 months, playing loud and hard. It never had any clipping, never any thermal issues...just CLEAN power. The only reason I didn't leave it like that is because I needed the other channel for my outdoor setup. But now I'm actually wanting to get a 2502 next since I miss how effortless my dual 18" IB subs played with all that power.

This is an amazing amp. The sound it produces due to its class D design is quite a bit different from your typical amps. It produces a very clean, undistorted crisp sound which frankly some may not like. I hear things in music I've never heard before, it is closer to a linear amp than anything I've owned before, and that is its best quality and worst problem. It's pure sound can make some music sound terrific and some sound awful. I don't think it's really the amps fault, it is doing what it is supposed to, but it reveals qualities in some recording that sound awful, hence the 4/5 rating. In my case I was able to resolve this by adding a cheap $50 tube preamp between the recorded source and the amp. The tube style preamp adds a bit of warmth to the sound and gives me bass/treble and volume controls. It also allows the source to be connected by bluetooth. As typical with class D amps power consumption is very low so the unit produces very little heat. This is a great amp regardless of price, but astounding value considering its output power delivered at a modest price.

The benefits of a switching mode power supply: small, lightweight, energy efficient but without sacrificing audio fidelity! This unit has some great features which make it really flexible too:- Remote trigger- 2 ohm capable- Bridgeable- Built in configurable hi/low/band pass crossover networkSupports both pro audio 1.4V as well as 0.7V consumer line level sensitivitiesI use it in bridged low-pass mode to drive a large sub-woofer who's integrated plate amp died. If you wish to drive anything below 20Hz you will need to look elsewhere though, as it that is it's low roll off. For me though, I don't really want (or need) to drive below 20Hz. Also, one has to be really careful doing so because the current starts to approach DC characteristics instead of AC when you start to get that low in frequency.Anyway I love it. Got it to replace the earlier model XLS-1000 I was using. There is nothing wrong with that model, except it was silver colored where this is black like all the rest of the gear in the rack.