If you need a brute of an amplifier for subwoofer duty, but you are limited on funds, consider the Crown XLS 5000 your salvation. Yeah, your salvation comes in three rack spaces and 62 pounds, but wimpy was not specified.
The Crown XLS amplifiers are bare basics, made-in-China power amplifiers, but good old Elkhart, Ind. engineering is what makes this series worth a look. The front panel is simple with two detented level controls with clip/signal/fault LED indicators for amplifier operational status. Then there is the pushbutton power on/off switch. And with three rack spaces, plenty of cooling air inlets are available.
The rear panel is similarly austere with a single 5.25” fan exhausting warm air from the chassis and power transistor heat sinks. Signal inputs are handled by a pair of XLR-F jacks with a bridge/dual mode switch for configuring the channels. Speaker outputs get a little more flexibility with NL4 Speakon jacks for each channel and pairs of dual binding posts for direct connections or dual banana plugs. The AC inlet is a 20-Amp IEC-style with two 20A circuit breakers right above the inlet. The rationale for the dual breakers comes after looking inside the chassis.
The Gear
Inside the Crown XLS 5000 is where everything comes clear. Two bowling ball-sized toriodal transformers provide the energy for each channel of this stereo amplifier. And since we are talking up to 5,000 watts of bridged channel power, we know the 62 pounds is heavily allocated to the transformers.
The circuit boards are just about all older, through-hole component technology design, but that is just fine when there is plenty of chassis air to be had and plenty of good Chinese board-stuffing machines to do the large amount of odd-sized components, like power supply capacitors, power resistors and power transistors. The heatsink technology is conventional and just plain practical.
The Crown XLS 5000 is meant for use in the normal stereo, 4-ohm loaded application with 1,800 watts per channel output using conventional amplifiers and power supplies. At 8-ohms per channel, you get a good 1,100 watts per channel, and — if you have to run on the edge — at 2-ohms you have 2,500 watts per channel. THD specifications are 0.5% or less at 20 Hz to 1 kHz, and IMD below 0.3% at 60 Hz and 7 kHz test tones. Input impedance is 20 k-ohms at the XLR inputs, and the damping factor is better than 200 with 8-ohm loading.
The Gig
For an amplifier of this kind, I immediately put the Crown XLS 5000 on subwoofer duty. Normally, I run my subs with 2,500 watts with high-efficiency amplifiers and switching power supplies, but 1,800 watts is really not that far away in dB from 2,500 watts. A good, conventional power supply will make it very difficult to hear much difference. As expected, when I cranked up the drums and bass guitar, the XLS 5000 held its own on a pair of dual 18” subwoofers, and did not seem to run out of gas even with the clip LEDs beginning to blink.
Putting the XLS 5000 on kinder, gentler top-box duty, I was able to critique the amplifier’s performance on the mids and high frequencies. Even though Crown did rate distortion beyond 1 kHz, the XLS 5000 did indeed sound nice in the upper frequencies, with good detail and no noticeable loss of fidelity that can infect similar low-cost amplifier offerings. The only thing I could complain about was the weight. But if you rack it up, that weight problem goes away with a roadie to help. The Crown XLS is perfect for club install work, and plenty portable to those who have not saved up to upgrade to lighter amps. All in all, a great value when you need a lot of sub-woofer power.
What It Is: Crown XLS 5000 Power Amplifier.
How much: Crown XLS 5000: $2,066.60 SRP, $1,399.00 MAP.
Pros: A great box o’ watts, value-priced, beef where it’s needed.
Cons: Nothing a bunch of helium balloons can’t solve.
Web site: www.crownaudio.com
