Crown Two-channel-300W at 4Ω Power Amplifier, Black, 300-Watts (XLi800)

This Crown XLI 800 is a top performer in our surround sound system. It is powering two Bic RTR 1530 frontally used speakers. We play a lot of music with the system, and it sounds great. This model is a basic amplifier without a lot of bells and whistles. It simply does what it is supposed to do at a very affordable price, which is just what I want from an amplifier. The XLI 800 is a silent runner with no floor noise or fan noise to be heard. With music playing it delivers with force and clarity. The whole system sounds better, since the receiver now only needs to power the surround and back surround speakers. It is very user friendly. Regular RCA plugs can be used from the receiver pre-outs to the inputs of the Crown. Binding posts offer easy speaker hook up. As others have mentioned, these Crowns do have protective plastic plugs inserted in the binding posts. Apparently, European style power cords could, in error, be connected to them. Instead, Europeans are advised to use the side slots for speaker wire connections. If you live in the United States you can safely remove the protective plugs. I viewed an on line video, which suggests removing the protective plugs using a small threaded screw. I used a sheet rock screw, turning it by hand until the screw threads just engaged the plastic plugs. The amplifier (of course) should not be connected to a power source, should you follow this approach. In my case, they all pulled out really easy. It has a sensitivity switch allowing it to be set at 1.4 volts or 0.775 volts. For most home systems the 0.775 volt setting will be just fine. You should check the rating of the pre outs on the receiver you plan to use. The only thing that worried me was how to set the gain controls. Technical support at Crown told me to simply turn them up to where the sound seemed best, which I did. I started by placing them around the 2 o'clock position and finally wound up leaving the dials at the 3 o'clock position. You do have to work with speaker placement and some receiver adjustments to get the best sound. I turned down the sensitivity of the receiver, as the sound seemed a bit bright. Each type of speaker is different, and you have to use your receiver adjustments, accordingly. It does have a center light on the front, some might find over powering. To remedy the situation, a small square of electrical tape will cover it. The tape matches the black color of the case, perfectly. . If your speakers need some good solid watts per channel, to get them going, you can't go wrong with this Crown. Finally, these Crowns are built to take it. The case is heavy gauge steel. The weight is a hefty 25.1 pounds for this model. Although not trendy looking, the styling is more about quality and something that does not go out of fashion. That is all good. After all, I hear these Crowns last a long time.

Great power and clarity! More than I expected.

I used this amplifier to replace a Panasonic receiver in my TV room. This receiver is rated at 50 watts per channel RMS and was a type H amplifier. I have used this receiver for 15 years. The left channel gave out and the price for the module that went bad was not worth my trouble to repair a stereo with 15 years of constant service. So, I looked around for a replacement that was not going to cost me an arm and a leg. I knew Crown had a great reputation. I already have one that is quite old in my music listening room. It is a Crown 810. Well, I went ahead and installed this brand new Crown amp to drive the same bookshelf speakers (12 inch woofers) that the Panasonic was driving. I expected to hear no difference. I admit to being very surprised to hear the sudden clarity of music and voices. I am hard of hearing and having those voices from my television sound suddenly crisp and clear is a blessing for me. I no longer have to depend on subtitles. I certainly do not know what is in the design of the Crown amp that makes it sound so good. I would like to know and sent Crown and email asking. Apparently there have been advances made in solid state amplifiers of which I am unaware. There was also another feature to this amp that is a must for me. It has a power switch that is not soft. It has no remote (I don't need one) and it will turn on now with the television because the TV is plugged into a power strip that turns on other things when it sees a load. That works for my amp and room lamp. Again, I was very surprised that I could hear a difference in the quality of sound reproduction. I only use the volume set for a few watts in this room. Still shocked to hear such a pronounced improvement in sound quality.

Lo compre para reemplazar una versión similar de hace 10 años. Espero que dure otros 10

The good: The value is good (e.g., cf. emotiva amps of comparable sound quality). The sound is great. I don't know about that THD 0.5%, it sounds as clean as while more powerful than my onkyo rz50 (which is rated at 120 wt/channel at 8ohms). That's for the least powerful model, xli 800, which approximately all adds up, given its spec. It is curious that this is apparently a class AB amp, not D, which might be a plus on sound and some minus on efficiency, but in practice doesn't seem to have a noticeable to me difference in either category. Now, of course I use it for powering the rear channel in the 7.1.4 setup only, so it does not get a lot of opportunity to shine there. But when i send stereo only thru it (other channels silent), it sounds every bit as fine as the Onkyo, as far as my ear can tell. The issues. Hum?!. Not really. So the only real "fault" of this amplifier is that it is a class I device. That means that as a method of safe operation it connects its chassis to the ground prong directly, instead of using electronic protection and advanced isolation enclosures as my AVR and sub do. That also means that its RCA's functional ground also goes directly to ground prong. That's not unusual in this kind of equipment, my powered mixer does the same thing. This is so that artitstic expressions of karaoke performers are not stimulated by occasional jolts of electricity. In other words, it introduces a new ground to your system. If you get a hum (aka ground loop), it is because multiple grounds start "talking" to each other due to "bad ground" -- a significant difference in impedances of their ground paths to the true ground. It is very unlikely that it is Crown that has a ground fault -- it has a very solid power cord connection. Far more likely, there already is a ground loop interference in the system, it's just now you can also hear it. So it's actually good that you have a chance to test and troubleshoot it now, instead of going unnoticed. It is likely not AVR (if it is two prong) or any other AVR-connected two-prong device. It could be any device connected to AVR via hdmi or ethernet, or audio cables. You can test by disconnecting them one by one and seeing if hum disappears. Chances are if you did not have it before, it is only one existing bad ground. In my case it turned out to be the firestick which I was too lazy to connect to its stock power supply, so instead i connected it to my synology usb out using some shady usb cable with a choke. Other common reasons are bad cables that also create impedance and are happy to pick some interference along the way. Or plugging into different AC circuits running long ground wires around the house to panel before they have a chance to bring their electric potential to the same level. Quite typically when connected to a projector. I did spend a few days before i fully resolved it, but in the end the recipe was very simple: (1) use monoprice rca 2 XLR cables instead of monster rca cables (that alone reduced hum by like 20db, surprisingly), and (2) plugging fire stick in its stock psu using stock cable. Dead silent when idle, now. Many people just lift the ground on the amp power cord, it is not a correct solution. It's better to clean the ground anyway, not just for safety reasons, but for digital connections too. Esp. with kids in the house. Either way it is unlikely a problem with the amp, so chances are ordering replacement will not solve it (as some attempted here). Hope this helps. Another wince: unless mounted into 19inch rack, the side mounts look ugly in a media tower (IMHO). Also, no 12 v trigger, but $12 smart power strip with master-slave sockets works very well to power it (and other things if needed) down when AVR goes down. TBD: longevity.