Audio equipment, be it an amplifier, preamplifier, source, loudspeaker or even cable, isn’t made of magic. There is no real magic anywhere in the hi-fi and audiophile hobby, and yet if you talk to some enthusiasts you’d swear certain products were, in fact, magic. So who’s right?

Crown Audio’s XLS DriveCore 2 stereo amplifier may be a professional style amp and not one seen in a great many hi-fi and audiophile systems, but rest assured its performance is more high-end than a lot of amplifiers on the market today, including some costing 10 times as much.