I have always liked Crown gear. Back in the late 60’s and up to the mid 70’s, Crown was an expensive elite brand of audio equipment, with their feet firmly planted in commercial sound reinforcement. Hand built in Elkhart Indiana, they developed a reputation on the commercial side of things for amplifiers that could drive anything, reel to reel tapes deck built so sturdy, they were flown all over the country recording rock concerts and musical festivals. Many classical performances were recorded on Crown 700 and 800 reel to reel decks. Recording studios used the 800 series with a stack of plug in preamps for multitrack recording. Those same studios used their amplifiers and preamplifiers not stop, 24/7 for playback and monitoring.
I have always wanted to own a clean Crown DC300, with the optional wood cabinet. They are hard to find in pristine condition, and those that have them hang on to them. Stereophiles founder J. Gordon Holt, praised the DC300 for its limitless power and bass response.
When I was looking for a DC300, I came across and ad for this Crown XLI-1500 new at a price I couldn’t pass up. I was disturbed by the fact that it was made in China, but comforted by knowing that Crown in Elkart bench tested everyone before shipping them out. So the Xli-1500, doesn’t have the beautiful case work of the DC300, or any other Crown amp built state side. But it does have some heft. It’s remarkably compact for an amp of its advertised power output. Keeping in mind, that this amp is built for commercial use, helped ease the pain.
I also liked the fact that it is an AB designed amplifier. I like AB amps, they are among my favorites.
Oldschoolstereo.com bench tested this amp. Its advertised power output is at 330wpc into 8ohms at 1% distortion. During testing the amp put out 417wpc into 8 ohms at 1% distortion and a peak burst of 510wpc. Wow, that easily exceeded its rated specification. Are you sitting down? In brigade mode at 8 ohms this amp put out 1244wpc, with a Dynamic peak of 1540wpc!!!!
Driving a 4 ohm load its rated at 450wpc, the beast tested with an output of 634 wpc, and a dynamic burst of 820wpc!, that’s with both channels driven.
Those specs are typical for Crown equipment. So how does it sound? Reading many reviews from people who never actually owned or used the amplifier themselves, you would think it’s dirty sounding mess. Not true at all. The amplifier was clean sounding, obviously with power to spare. Dynamics and subtlies were handled equally well. Bass was deep and powerful and the music came across in a truly effortless manner.
Using it in my hifi, it was grossly undertaxed and I was never able to get the built in fans to kick on. This amp had so much muscle, I was confident that I would set any speaker on fire with sheer power if I wanted too. An obvious match for the Classic Rock N Roll fan, but I really enjoy listening to Classical and Jazz Trios with this amp as well.
There are other amps, that I think sound better to me. Probably because they add a little color to the music which I like. But I never felt as though I was missing out on anything while listening the Crown XLI-1500.
I recommend anyone who wants a high powered, well built, good sounding amp. It’s not pretty, but then it wasn’t meant to me.
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