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no one??
are following a prudent route. The Crown is designed for demanding applications and has a good warranty in case you actually can fry it. But you are listing the specs for the XLS 1500 not the XLS 2000.
I have a set up Kappa 8.1s that have similar power consumption. You may be able to source a used amp(s) at a better price. In the late 90's, I was advised to get a Carver TFM-35. It gives you 250w at 8ohms into two channels. It was a $1300 AMP new in the mid 90's and I have seen them on ebay in the $400 range. See the chart below. It was specifically recommended to me by a dealer to pair with the Infinity's because of the massive power consumption.
This is a wonderful sounding amp and was extrememly popular in the mid 90's. I have two Carver AMPs and always fealt they sounded darn good with Infinity. I could not afford the 35 at the time and have a TFM-15CB and an AV405 that still work well. I blew a fuse or two on them with the Kappa's which is why I was shopping for the TFM-35.
Also, even though Carver is out of business, there are a few companies that will do repairs and complete refurbs via mail order. I have spoken with one in portland and they purchased a large stock of parts when Carver closed up shop so you are not sunk if anything happens.
Alternatively, I found Yamaha and the Infinity to be a good match. There are some really nice Yamaha Power Amps available on eBay. I don't know an exact model off hand so you will need to do a touch of research but my experience has been that Yamaha amps tend to age very well.
The least expensive new AMP I have heard really good things about is Emotiva. They have a 2 channel, 300w AMP into 8ohs for $799 which I think is a bit above your price range. Additionally, I don't know that it is capable of hitting 2 ohms, much less .8. However, I would guess that there customer service group would be able to answer that question if you sent it to them.
Good Luck
CARVER TFM-35
8-ohm FTC rated power/ch
250 W
4-ohm FTC rated power/ch
380 W
2-ohm dynamic power/ch
560 W
Bridged mono power
700 W
4/8-ohm FTC rated THD
0.5 %
Rated full power bandwidth
20-20kHz
S/N-IHF A-Weighted,dB
98
Dimensions (HxWxD inches)
4.5x19x14.5
Comments
Stereo or bridged mono
ha...ya you're right. my bad. do you think this amp would be too much power for these speakers?
Not at all, your ears will likely give out before the speakers do. Plenty of dynamic headroom for transient musical peaks.
I bought two Crown XLS402's largely on Buddha's recommendation. I'm running them bridged (Bridged Mono, 4 Ohms, 1140 Watts) into 2 x 12" DVC woofers in transmission line enclosures. Their voice coils (2 x 8 Ohm each) are wired in parallel for 4 Ohms impedance. The amps have been totally trouble free.
Running an amplifier bridged into a 4 Ohm load is the same as running each channel (in stereo mode) into a 2 Ohm load. My only complaint with them was the loud cooling fans. I replaced both fans with quieter ones sourced from the web. The replacements were exact fit drop in replacements.
You might want to do a site search for the thread about Buddha's experience with Crown XLS802's driving Apogee Ribbons. Any amp that can reliably drive Apogee's can probably drive anything. Krell amps got lots of "street" credit for driving Apogee Scintilla's strapped for 1 Ohm operation.
Macintosh amp?