Crown XLS amplifiers:
have taken DIY Home Theater Subwoofer world by storm because of their high power to cost ratio previously only found in Chinese amplifiers, yet here was Crown - one of the most reputable Amplifier makers in history offering Chinese level value - a lot of people are understandably confused by this development - but have no fear, i am here to explain it !
a look inside Crown XLS amplifier reveals that is is rather … empty.
now there are two generations of this amp and four power levels and they have slight differences in the way they look inside but they pretty much all look empty and weigh nothing.
this led some people to speculate that the power figures of this amplifier are fake … but they’re not.
it’s just that with modern tech you don’t really need much to produce 2,400 W of music power.
people pointed out that Chines amps of the same price are chock full of components … which is true … but those components are FAKE.
Chinese amplifiers have aluminum heat sinks painted to look like Copper and so on.
the reason being that Chinese people study engineering in school and want to see pictures of inside of something before they buy it - so Chinese electronics are designed to look impressive on the inside. American boys on other hand learn how to wear pink dresses and how to use butt plugs in school and never look inside the product so there is no need to use fake capacitors and fake copper heatsinks in Crown XLS which is designed to compete against Chinese trash.
that still doesn’t explain why Crown XLS has much lower cost per watt than other more professional Crown amplifiers. surely the power must be fake ! they must be citing 20 millisecond burst at 1 khz figures not continuous output at 20 hz !
well … consider this. the XLS 2502 which claims 2400W output has 425W rating on INPUT.
right above the power plug it says 425W. that’s a ratio of 2400/425 = 5.6 and if we assume 85% efficiency then 425W of input power is only 360W of power that somehow becomes 2400W at output so 2400/360 = 6.6X or 8 decibels.
but this is well in line with Music Crest Factor:
and Crown uses similar math in their high end amplifiers costing over $10,000 ( the XLS is less than $1,000 )
in other words 425W input is CONTINUOUS SINEWAVE while 2400W output is TYPICAL MUSIC PROGRAM.
contrary to what low-IQ dumb fucks on forums for poor people claim this is not cheating. if music was a sinewave nobody would listen to it. music has natural variability. as does image.
high end mini-led TVs for example can hit about 3,000 nits brightness on a 10% window but only about 700 nits full screen. this is NOT A PROBLEM because you don’t buy a TV to look at a solid white background.
and as a point of reference let’s look at the most high end amplifier i know - the ( German ) Dynacord ( Bosch / ElectroVoice ) IPX / TGX 20:4 / 20 which is a 24 kilowatt amplifier but only lists 2,2 kilowatt input power:
https://products.dynacord.com/na/en/tgx20/
it specifies 6,000W X 4 channels at 2.7 ohms which is 24 KW and here is the picture of the back panel:
right under mains inlet it says “Made in Germany” and on the paper sticker it says 2250W
so this amp has 10 times the output of XLS but only 2250/425 = 5 times the input power. that means if anything the world’s best amplifier has FAKER watts than el-cheapo XLS.
so no, FAKE WATTS ARE NOT THE ISSUE HERE.
so why is XLS so cheap then ?
the answer is MARKET SEGMENTATION.
how can VolksWagen sell the Passat for 1/5th the price of a Porsche 911 ? the answer is simple - the Passat competes against Toyota Camry while the 911 competes against Ferrari. Porsche CAN CHARGE what it does for the 911 because 911 holds its own in a market with such prices.
if you were to judge cars on horsepower per dollar metric then you would have to ask why a new Toyota Minivan costs 1/4 as much as a 20 year old Acura NSX despite the Minivan actually having more horsepower ?
the answer is because a Minivan competes against other practical vehicles while NSX competes against other supercars.
the price is WHAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR.
the reason amplifiers like Crown I-Tech 4X3500 HD
cost $15,000
is because the market can bear such a price
here is the back panel:
above power inlet it says 2300W, essentially matching the 2250W input of the Dynacord.
the I-Tech advertises 4 X 4,000W output so 6.6 times the power of XLS at 5.4 times the input power. basically the same ratio of output to input power for the cheapest amplifier in crown line up ( the XLS ) and the most expensive ( I-Tech 4X3500 HD )
that’s because IT’S THE SAME WATTS in both cases. they aren’t any more fake in a $800 XLS than the $15,000 I-Tech.
and yet you’re paying 18 times more for 7 times as much power with I-Tech so you’re getting about 2.5 times as many watts per dollar with XLS than with I-Tech.
so why do people buy the I-Tech ?
well first of all Crown and JBL are both part of Harman and if you buy many of the JBL prosound speakers ( like Array modules ) they can ONLY be used with I-Tech 4X3500 because they require DSP presets contained in the I-Tech.
this will be the main reason anybody buys the I-Tech - is because it is simply part of the overall Harman solution that includes speakers, software, digital interfaces, design services etc.
and as for the Dynacord it is also part of a similar system form Electrovoice / Bosch.
but even if that wasn’t the case ( i am not sure, maybe Harman also offers the same presets in some dedicated processor ) there is the simple fact that:
1 - 2,500W that XLS tops out at is not enough to drive modern high-end subwoofers that can take up to 8,000 watts per ( dual driver ) box.
2 - a single I-Tech or TGX replaces eight XLS amplifiers IN THE SAME 2 RACK UNITS of space.
and prosound guys are looking for two things:
1 - more power per rack unit space
2 - more power per pound of weight
8 x XLS = 8 X 2 = 16 rack units of space and 8 X 10 lbs = 80 lbs of weight
an I-Tech or TGX only takes 2 rack units of space and weighs about 35 lbs
in prosound money is pretty much no object and nobody will even consider the XLS for a split second.
they will use I-Tech or TGX or whatever is the touring amp from the system they’re working with whether that is Harman or Electrovoice or whatever.
the problem is that the size of the touring market is finite. if you are an audio company and want to make more money you have to expand to new markets.
so Crown decided to expand into the market for Amateur DJs and DIY Home Theater Enthusiasts which is a market where instead of competing with Dynacord, Powersoft, Lab Gruppen and QSC they are competing with Sinbosen ( a.k.a. the Chinese junk )
this is a much more cost sensitive market where people expect prices in the $300-$800 range rather than in the $5,000-$15,000 range. but when you consider that both XLS and Sinbosen are made in China and both have to pay the same prices for components there is absolutely no reason why Crown XLS can’t match Sinbosen price.
in fact Crown can provide MORE power for LESS money because they have better engineering but same costs.
you may wonder - if Crown can make amps for cheaper than Sinbosen then why do they charge $15,000 for the I-Tech ?
BECAUSE THEY FUCKING CAN ! ! !
they can because Harman pretty much controls the market in America and can do whatever they want. QSC is the 2nd tier solution in America.
in Europe it’s Bosch / Electrovoice that own the market ( Dynacord is simply the name they use in America because Dynacord was an American company they bought and they decided to keep the name Americans recognize ).
Powersoft, RCF and Lab Gruppen are the runners up in Europe.
the top dogs carve up the prosound pie ( think concerts like Coachella ) and then cockroaches like Sinbosen feast on the crumbs from their table by selling amps to retarded DJs from Haiti who get high on paint thinner. and to equally retarded American rednecks building DIY home theaters.
Crown simply decided they were not content to ONLY own the prosound market and decided to cut in on Sinbosen as well by offering the XLS.
good for them ! i would take XLS over Sinbosen any day !
you can actually get your XLS serviced under warranty without having to speak Chinese or ship your amplifier to China.
just kidding - there is no warranty for Sinbosen at all ( that i know of ). they break all the time and i never heard of a single instance of anybody EVER getting one fixed under warranty. instead Sinbosen makes YouTube videos where they explain how to fix common issues with their amplifiers - you just have to be handy with a soldering gun and a multi-meter and have a general knowledge of electrical engineering plus a few hours of spare time.
NEWSLFASH - no American has time for that shit ! fuck Sinbosen - just buy the XLS.
some people have pointed out that XLS power output is too low for their subwoofer designs … that is true …
that is why Crown also has amplifiers in-between the XLS and the I-Tech.
for example the new JBL Crown DSI 2.0 has 4 X 2100W output versus 2 X 1200W of the XLS
the DSI 2.0 also has two versions optimized for different impedances so by using the correct version for your ohm load and bridging two channels you can put 4200W into a single driver which is as much as any modern driver can take.
the DSI 2.0 is $4,000 which is 5 times as much as XLS but still less than 1/3 of the I-Tech.
the DSI costs what it costs because it is a CINEMA amplifier, which actually aligns pretty well with high-end home theater. it is not as extreme / cutting edge as Touring market yet also not as bottom of the barrel as Sinbosen / XLS market.
again, it isn’t that DSI 2.0 has different / better watts than XLS it’s that DSI amps are optimized to drive higher power loads that will be found in more high-end applications than what XLS is optimized for.
if you compare XLS ( $800 ), DSI 2.0 ( $4,000 ) and I-Tech ( $15,000 ) they are 10 lbs, 23 lbs and 29 lbs respectively.
the XLS is 10 lbs because it’s basically empty.
the DSI is 23 lbs because though full of components the chassis is a tin can since ti is designed to be installed and never touched again.
the I-Tech is 29 lbs because it is built like a tank. you can see the thickness of the steel from the pictures. you could use it to beat somebody to death and it would still look and work like new. that’s because it is designed to be handled by drunk Mexicans that have to install it on a different tour location every week and will probably drop it hundreds of times over its life.
but that doesn’t mean that i-Tech watts are somehow better than XLS watts. they are the same watts.
the difference is XLS has the highest power density and DSP presets for JBL touring speakers and is the most rugged.
DSI 2.0 has medium power density and DSP presets for JBL Cinema speakers and may require bridging channels to drive the biggest loads.
XLS has shit power density and basic DSP with no presets and only has enough power to drive medium loads even when bridged.
but the watts are the same watts. the cost is all about target application market. the people who try to reason that cheaper watts must be inferior simply do not understand how the industry works. XLS watts are cheap because XLS targets a market in which the watts are cheap. the opposite for I-Tech. that simple !
