# Crown XLS1500 Power Amplifier too powerful for 10 speakers?



## highrider (Aug 22, 2012)

Hello Home Theater Shack community!

I am setting up the sound system for a 5000 sq.ft retail store (My first time doing this) and I've picked the following hardware:

*Crown XLS1500 Power Amplifier (300 watts per channel at 8 ohms, 525 watts per channel at 4 ohms, 1550 watts per channel at 4 ohms bridged)

*10 x Yamaha NS-AW150W (6 ohms, RMS: 35W, MAX:120W)

*700 feet of speaker wiring

The installation people did not want to connect the amp to the system saying that the amp was too powerful. However, my original intention was to have the amp be able to support all the speakers since we needed to use a lot of wiring to cover the entire space. I am not looking to blast the space with music. It is just going to be used for some background music so the volume is not going to be turned up at all. 

What do you think? Can I use the amp safely? If yes, how do you think I should do the wiring?

Thank you in advance!


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

highrider said:


> Hello Home Theater Shack community!
> 
> I am setting up the sound system for a 5000 sq.ft retail store (My first time doing this) and I've picked the following hardware:
> 
> ...


Hello,
Welcome to HTS. In truth the idea of using a 2 Channel Power Amplifier to drive 5 pairs of Speakers is far more troubling to me than concerns about too much power. Truth be told, far more speakers are damaged from too little power in the form of distortion or clipping.

In addition, the idea of running 700ft of Speaker Cable is troubling as well. While I understand wanting to keep your costs to a minimum, I would reconsider the speakers being used and go with a more efficient speaker like a Klipsch. Moreover, I would seriously consider adding an additional Crown and place it closer to the furthest located speakers to reduce the cable runs to a minimum.
Cheers,
JJ


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

I agree 100% with JJ. more speakers are damaged by too little power than too much. And that is a long speaker run. I've never done more than 100'. At that point I would consider a different location for the amps and such. 

I understand that a store would have different requirements, but 700' will have at best a 1Ohm loss each way at 12AWG, and if you use 16AWG it would be like adding 6Ohms round trip. That's a lot of power dissipation there just lost in the wire.


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## jackfish (Dec 27, 2006)

Seeing that the 700' of speaker wire is connecting 10 speakers distributed throughout a 5000sq.ft. facility and that the Crown XLS is a pro audio amp, it should not be a problem to either connect them with a speaker distribution box such as the Niles HPS http://www.nilesaudio.com/product.p...D=Speaker+Selectors&catcdID=7&prdcdID=FG01038 or wire the speakers in a parallel/series configuration to achieve acceptable impedance.
If you run all ten speakers off the bridged channel http://www.colomar.com/cgi-bin/h_impedance_proc?6Z6Z6Z6Z6Z6Z6Z6Z6Z6ZxZxZxZxZxZx
If you run five off each stereo channel http://www.colomar.com/cgi-bin/h_impedance_proc?6Z6Z6ZxZ6Z6ZxZxZxZxZxZxZxZxZxZx
Ideally the source and amp would be centrally located so no run was over 50' or so, but if individual runs are kept to 100' or less, it should work OK.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

This identical thread/post has been placed on other A/V websites. As we have not gotten a single reply back from the OP, I recommend not spending too much time offering advice until he replies. I believe it better to focus on Members who are actively participating who need help/advice.


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