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Crown XLS 1500 question
tarp21
Posts: 1
I have the old first xls 1500 series, the silver face. I have two, 4 ohm bass cabs rated at 800 watts a piece. I’m confused by the specs on the power amp. Specs show 2 ohms dual @ 775w and 4 ohms dual @ 525w. I’m assuming dual means stereo and not bridged? And if so, when I connect each 4 ohm cab to each channel am I in stereo (dual) at the 2 ohm or 4 ohm load? I understand connecting two 4 ohm bass cabs to a regular bass amp gets me a 2 ohm load. Two 8 ohm cabs gets me a 4 ohm load. But I’m confused on what wattage I should be getting, either 2 ohm or 4 ohm. Thanks!
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Unfortunately, the amp is underpowered for the speakers. Rule of the thumb is to have an amp rated at twice the power rating of the cabinet for the same Z. Run the speakers at half the rated power of the amp and use the extra power to handle headroom levels.
Since the cab is 4 ohms at 800W, you would technically need a 1600W amp at 4 ohms. Watts are RMS, and one channel, not bridge. At only 525W at 4 ohms, the XLS is underpowered. Even at 2 ohms the amp is heavily underpowered, needing 1600W of nominal power and 3200W @ 2 ohms for headroom. You only have 775W available at 2 ohms!
Alain