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[Sam Higuera]

Hi there, i´m planning of buying 2 power amps for stage monitors and i was thinking of those crown Xti2000 or 4000. Any opinions on these amp? Any suggestion on any other amps to work long time running? Thank you.

[Mark Strong]

Sam, what monitors are you powering? That is a somewhat important factor that will affect your decision.

[Evan Kirkendall]

sam higuera wrote on Mon, 22 March 2010 18:14

Hi there, i´m planning of buying 2 power amps for stage monitors and i was thinking of those crown Xti2000 or 4000. Any opinions on these amp?

Yes.

sam higuera wrote on Mon, 22 March 2010 18:14

Any suggestion on any other amps to work long time running? Thank you.

Possibly.

A search will find you hours of reading on these amps. A more specific question might get you a more specific answer.


Evan

[Jeff Wheeler]

I use XTi 2000s for monitors, and I think they are great for this use.  I do not need anything larger for my use, normally one or two MRX512M per channel or a TR225 drum monitor; but if I did need more power I would not hesitate to buy a 4000.

I did use them with no outboard EQ for a while, but I decided that was cumbersome compared to having a graphic on each monitor mix, so I bought inexpensive ones.

I also learned to be careful how I setup the bandpass gain when doing things like a sub under a wedge for drum monitor, because it is possible to run out of input headroom before the amp reaches full power if you make a dumb mistake like me and fail to consider hyped up kick signal hitting the input and getting rolled off.

[Sam Higuera]

Hi there , thanx for the answeres...
I have 4 JBL MP412.
I have a chance of getting some old macrotech or 2 xti2000 or 4000, which seem not as good but a mdern and cheaper choice for the job.

Just wwas wondering how profesional this king of amps was?

[Jeff Wheeler]

I'd rather have XTi 2000s for those wedges than Macrotechs.  The DSP and low weight would be deciding factors for me.

[Cody Hazelwood]

I own one of the XTi 2000 amps and normally use it for subs.

The DSP is definitely a very nice feature to have.  Since I use mine for subs, having the high pass filter in the amp saves me from having to buy a more expensive crossover right now.

Running this amp in 4 ohms bridged or 2 ohms stereo isn't the greatest idea in the world.  The fans run LOUD and the temp lights stay on 90% of the time while pushing it hard in that configuration.

The amp is quite noisy (I'm assuming because of the DSP).  I had all EQ's, limiters, crossovers, etc turned off and the amp was plugged up to a pair of studio monitors with nothing plugged in to the inputs and the knobs at about 11 o'clock and the noise made the amp unusable for recording.  My XLS 602, on the other hand, worked just fine.

- Cody

[Graham Wakefield]

Sam,
I'm definitely a fan of the XTi's. I had 4 and now am down to 2 that live in a 4 space rack for random SOS rentals and the times i end up needing an extra amp somewhere in the chain.
I was running a small monitor rig off them but since went to powered boxes.
Pros:
Extremely Lightweight
DSP
Front Panel Lockout for when they were on rental jobs
Only Con I can think of in recent history is that i had to send one in because i broke a binding post by accident and Crown fixed it free of charge

Sounds like you would be happy with them imo

[Jeff Wheeler]

Cody Hazelwood wrote on Tue, 23 March 2010 00:55

The amp is quite noisy (I'm assuming because of the DSP).

A studio environment is completely different than the stage monitor use the OP is asking about.

Just to make sure I wasn't ignoring something that I never listened to before, I got an XTi 2000 and some wedges out.  The amp's noise floor is quite low, so much that the pink noise generator at -80dB is easily 30dB louder to my ear.  I'd say that is acceptable for a wedge amplifier.  While the broadband pink noise is easier to hear than the hissing it makes when there is no signal present, the noise with no signal present would be inaudible on any but the quietest stage.

How nice would it be if musicians were bitching about monitor amps with a -110dB noise floor, instead of the monitors never being loud enough to cut through the 600 watt bass rig?

I did fool around with the amp a bit to see what configuration changes affect the noise floor.  I discovered several things:

* input trim by USB or front panel knobs has no affect
* bandpass gain has affect
* output EQ has affect
* input mute eliminates all noise
* shorting all the input connectors to ground has no affect
* input EQ seems to have no affect
* girlfriend's dog does not like pink noise generator

I think the noise in my unit is mostly 5kHz - 10kHz.  I did fool with the output EQ and bandpass gain to put some bounds on this since my hearing is imperfect, as is the loudspeaker.  I can't speak to the relative level of the noise because my hearing is subjective.  If you wanted to know that, you could hook the output terminals of the amplifier to an objective measurement tool.  I am guessing amp companies do that before they write the spec sheet and claim the noise floor is -100dB.

If you wanted this amp to play at low volume with less noise, I suppose you could reduce the apparent noise by reducing the bandpass gain.  Obviously this would prevent you from being able to drive the amp to full power, but I would think a fan-cooled amplifier would be unacceptable for a studio anyway.  I know the fan in my computer is way louder than the noise from this amp/speaker.

[David "Luke" Landis]

Cody Hazelwood wrote on Tue, 23 March 2010 01:55

I own one of the XTi 2000 amps and normally use it for subs. The DSP is definitely a very nice feature to have.  Since I use mine for subs, having the high pass filter in the amp saves me from having to buy a more expensive crossover right now. Running this amp in 4 ohms bridged or 2 ohms stereo isn't the greatest idea in the world.  The fans run LOUD and the temp lights stay on 90% of the time while pushing it hard in that configuration. The amp is quite noisy (I'm assuming because of the DSP).  I had all EQ's, limiters, crossovers, etc turned off and the amp was plugged up to a pair of studio monitors with nothing plugged in to the inputs and the knobs at about 11 o'clock and the noise made the amp unusable for recording.  My XLS 602, on the other hand, worked just fine. - Cody

If the temp light is on 90% of the time, you need more RIG for the GIG! Good god man, I run 2 2000's, and 2 4000's BM @ 4ohm with my SRX stuff. I have yet to get the master LR up to 0 (On my mixwiz) without the bars telling me to turn it down!
I run the amps about 20% shy of full sensitivity, and it's freaking loud. I NEVER see the temp lights on the amps, or in Band Manager.

As far as noise, Live, I could care less. testing, in my house, the XLS fan is full on all the time and the XTi fans do not even start untill they are FTB.

I shocked the amp has not gone into thermal shutdown......

BTW, I like the XTi stuff for what it is. Lots of bang for the buck.