My XLS 1500 arrived earlier this week and I had a few hours to play around with it before I headed out of town again. Despite everything I've read, I still wasn't prepared for the size. I think it is only about 1/3 as deep as my curent 5-channel amp. Before it arrived I read an article all about gain structure to prepare myself for setting up the Drive Core, then I promptly forgot everything I'd read. I hooked it up, remembered reading something about maxing out the gain (although I couldn't recall if that was a do or a don't), so I did, then played some familiar music in stereo. I'd like to say that everything was different, that the sound grabbed me by the collar and punched me in the face with its dynamics, that the amp was so revealing I could tell what the conductor was thinking AND what he had for lunch, but the truth is . . . it just sounded like my system has always sounded. And I take that to be a good thing because for about half the price per channel, I've got more power in a smaller chassis that is more efficient. I call that win-win-win. And once I get my 5-channel amp fixed (until the XLS arrived I was using three of the four working channels in my 5-channel amp), I'll have 7 channels of power.
I will note that from my listening position I heard no noise, but with my ear a few inches from the speaker I heard some hiss/hum (hum seemed to be from the line of the woofers, hiss the line of tweeters), but backing off a few clicks on the gain rendered it silent. And, watching hockey and an episode of Marvels DareDevil, the 1500 seemed to have no trouble hitting the levels that I like and then some. So whether or not my Yamaha receiver actually has the juice to power the XLS 1500 to its full potentiail, it seems like it is close enough for me.
