Amplifier upgrade path

J_Roc

I know this topic has been discussed on multiple forums (including this one) at many times! So, I apologize upfront for bringing this topic back up...

I'm in the middle of a home renovation. To my wife, that means wood floors, paint, fancy trim, and lighting. To me, it means speakers, amplifiers, projectors, and other sweet manly items. I've had a Crown XLS1500 for sub-duty upstairs for a couple of years and it's worked great. Since my media room has been completely taken apart, I randomly hooked it up to my Lsi9s.... It sounded phenomenal! So, I decided to test it back-to-back against my Parasound HCA-1500a on my Lsi15s. Tbh, I can't really tell a difference between the two amps, aside from the XLS having slightly more headroom for volume that I would never use.

So, a little insight to my setup. I'm definitely far from an ideal audiophile solution. I have custom-built HTPCs with Soundblaster Zx soundcards that feed ~2.0vrms analog output through 3.5mm -> RCA cables to the amps. This vastly surpasses my desires and needs.

I will use these setups for 5.1 movies to music. For music, I enjoy everything from Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Portishead, 80's and 90's rap, grunge, occasional electronica, and many others genres. I'm not biased towards any genre. If it sounds good, I'll play it.

I'm considering ALL pro-audio amps around the house for the insane quality watt per dollar ratio. I'd love to hear everyone's opinion for powering Lsi speakers with these. Crown XLS is my main focus right now.

J_Roc

Tl;dr version: The Crown XLS D-class amps sound fantastic. Would I be making a mistake by powering ALL my speakers in my house from this brand/line?

Cosmetics don't matter as much to me between pro-audio and consumer amps. And I don't recall ever hearing the fan turn on in my XLS. My concern is sound, flexibility to move gear around, durability, and not wasting money.

Dennis Gardner

If you like the sound you are getting, by all means expand to your hearts content. The LSi series are great speakers and deserve solid amplification to sound their best. Many users have found Crown, Ashley, and other pro audio gear to work just fine for their needs in a theater setting. They are a good power to dollar value, if you don't mind some fan noise, but as they are digital amps that require stable power so don't allow the voltage from your outlet to drop as their power supplies crap out quickly under such drops and you will hear serious distortion or total sound dropouts. Lots of bass players in the recent years experience this with old wiring on stage that never bothered their old heavy amps. They blew breakers, but still sounded good.

Others will most likely chime in to tell you that better sound for music reproduction with the LSis can be had with higher levels of home amps once you improve items such as your source and preamp. You personally may or may not be able to detect the differences without much trial and error. The Parasound that you have is popular around the forum and tends to get suggested for the LSi series a lot. Welcome to the forum and enjoy you audio journey!

J_Roc

Thanks for the info. I'm assuming an APC could help with the power problem, but that would add to the cost for the pro-audio route.

I've got a line on the following:

-2 Crown XLS2500 and 1 Crown XLS1000
-B&K Reference 7250

The B&K is about 30% more expensive than all 3 Crowns together. It seems like pro-audio gear doesn't hold value anywhere near the rate that home audio gear does.

I'm sure that either setup would work just fine. I do like how the Crowns run very cool. I'm not limiting myself to just these two options, but opinions are welcomed!

Another note, the amps will be in a bedroom closet on a rack with an htpc as well. The closet is approx 5ftx5ftx9ft, and there isn't any built-in ventilation. Do you think I would run into problems with heat if I went with the B&K or similar style amplifiers?

J_Roc

If staying with home theater style amps, would anyone recommend used amps like the B&K listed above or new amps like the Outlaw 5000? Also, a single 5-channel amp or separates?

F1nut

Look at something like Wyred4Sound MC or MMC series amps. More finesse than a pro amp and runs very cool, which you'll need in that closet.

mikeyb128

F1nut wrote: »

Look at something like Wyred4Sound MC or MMC series amps. More finesse than a pro amp and runs very cool, which you'll need in that closet.

Very cool! Another recommendation would be sunfire tga 7201 or 7401. I have the 7401 and ran a 7 channel lsi system with this amp. It barley broke a sweat and was barely warm to the touch. This amp has no ventilation slots and is recommended to work just fine in tight spaces.

Mikey081057

+1 on the 7401...

EndersShadow

B&K amps need airflow as they run warm. My 200.5 is warm to the touch 24/7 when running and I have it open on the front/back with vents on the bottom and top of the shelving.

I'm gonna be putting a fan on it jut for my own sanity but B&K is know to run warm and need airflow as a matter of course.

soundfreak1

I just have to say this. 1) the "quality watts per buck" factor just isn't correct. I give ya more watts per buck but nothe "quality"
2) being "louder " isn't relitive to" headroom" I see "headroom" as the ability to proform at higher dynamic levels at "lower" volumes not higher..
These two "perceptions" you have need further thought.
Also if you can't hear the difference in those amps it might be advisable to consider the sourcing. Don't know what sources you are using, what cdp? Dac no dac, TT, streaming, ect. As this Is the beginning of the sound path it should be examined carefully if the sound can not be differentiated "downstream" I cant except that there is "no difference " in sound in those two divergent amps.

slbenz

F1nut wrote: »

Look at something like Wyred4Sound MC or MMC series amps. More finesse than a pro amp and runs very cool, which you'll need in that closet.

Agreed. I have a Wyred4Sound amp which even after a couple hours of use is barely even warm. I used to have a Parasound amp and that would run very warm and needed lots of ventilation. I would never even to think to put anything on that Parasound for fear of cooking the component above and the Parasound itself. I could easily put a component on top of the Wyred4Sound with no fear of heat issues but I don't.

J_Roc

soundfreak1 wrote: »

I just have to say this. 1) the "quality watts per buck" factor just isn't correct. I give ya more watts per buck but nothe "quality"
2) being "louder " isn't relitive to" headroom" I see "headroom" as the ability to proform at higher dynamic levels at "lower" volumes not higher..
These two "perceptions" you have need further thought.
Also if you can't hear the difference in those amps it might be advisable to consider the sourcing. Don't know what sources you are using, what cdp? Dac no dac, TT, streaming, ect. As this Is the beginning of the sound path it should be examined carefully if the sound can not be differentiated "downstream" I cant except that there is "no difference " in sound in those two divergent amps.

Out of curiosity, have you listened to any speakers powered by Crown XLS 1500-2500 or XLS 1502-2502 amps? On my setup, the noise floor doesn't seem like it could go any lower (zero sound) and the dynamics are superb from very low volume to levels far beyond what I would enjoy listening to.

tonyb

When we talk about the noise floor, it's when music is playing, not when your system is idle. I've heard many pro amps including Crown though not the XLS series. Couldn't run away fast enough. Yes, they are great for dynamics, but soundstaging, imaging, air and decay all falter. Pro amps are built for loud and dynamics, just like pro speakers are, but the musical spectrum holds more than just those 2 things.