Crown XLi800

[sterling shoote]

My 30 year old Sony TA-E80ES which I use in bridged mode at 560 watts into 8 ohms to power my JBL passive sub is need of some attention. This has made me think about replacing it with a Crown XLi800. The Crown has RCA inputs and binding post output connectors, making me think I could have it up and running in literally just a few seconds and have a little bit more power than what the Sony is producing. Thing is I have no experience with the Crown brand. The price is pretty good though, just $229.99. I will surely pay more than that just to get caps replaced in my Sony. So, anyone here with experience with this Crown amp in a home theatre setting who have a thought or two about it?

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

Hello Sterling,

I have the Crown XLS DriveCore 2 series. It has worked well for me. I don’t have any design topology hangups like some people seem to have. Some people are allergic to Class D design, I’m not. The music sounds just fine.

 

[Danzilla31]

My 30 year old Sony TA-E80ES which I use in bridged mode at 560 watts into 8 ohms to power my JBL passive sub is need of some attention. This has made me think about replacing it with a Crown XLi800. The Crown has RCA inputs and binding post output connectors, making me think I could have it up and running in literally just a few seconds and have a little bit more power than what the Sony is producing. Thing is I have no experience with the Crown brand. The price is pretty good though, just $229.99. I will surely pay more than that just to get caps replaced in my Sony. So, anyone here with experience with this Crown amp in a home theatre setting who have a thought or two about it?

Like @Out-Of-Phase I am driving my front 3 with a crown XLS 1002 and they sound great. No problems with the sound. In fact I like them enough I'm selling all my Emotiva gear and going with all Crowns when I upgrade some of my speakers. If I may suggest going with the XLS drive core 2 series over the XLI? There a little more but not much and the specs are better they are just built better then the XLI series the guys on this forum helped steer me to the XLS and I trust there knowledge. I haven't regretted it. It's been a great purchase

And they are super easy to hookup your right about that

 

[TLS Guy]

My 30 year old Sony TA-E80ES which I use in bridged mode at 560 watts into 8 ohms to power my JBL passive sub is need of some attention. This has made me think about replacing it with a Crown XLi800. The Crown has RCA inputs and binding post output connectors, making me think I could have it up and running in literally just a few seconds and have a little bit more power than what the Sony is producing. Thing is I have no experience with the Crown brand. The price is pretty good though, just $229.99. I will surely pay more than that just to get caps replaced in my Sony. So, anyone here with experience with this Crown amp in a home theatre setting who have a thought or two about it?

If you bridge it, the speaker connections are not standard. Instead of one +ve and pne -ve of the opposing channels, the Crown Drive core must switch phase around as you use both the +ve terminals and none of the -ve ones.

I guess those amps would be OK for a sub, but they do not meet Hi-Fi specs. THD is 0.5% and not the benchmark 0.1% set by Wiliamson at the start of the Hi-Fi era. IM distortion is 0.3%. Not sure I would use those amps, except in a pro commercial setting or to drive a sub.

 

[rick88]

I have an XLS-1002 powering my JBL 4306 monitors and love it.

Sweetwater has the XLI-1500 on sale for $199 through the end of December, just an FYI...

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/XLI1500--crown-xli-1500-power-amplifier

 

[lovinthehd]

I forget if the fan noise is worse on the XLi vs XLS series....IIRC it is. XLS you wouldn't notice.

 

[Danzilla31]

I forget if the fan noise is worse on the XLi vs XLS series....IIRC it is. XLS you wouldn't notice.

I've never once heard the fans on mine I don't even think they've run hot enough to turn on yet