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Can pro amps possibly sound good? Crown, QSC, etc

I have been looking into pro amps for a to-be-built HT/music room. Recently I came across an old review in The Stereo Times: The Complete Audiophile Magazine, which reviewed 2 discontinued Crown amps, the K2 and the Studio Reference I. The K2 the reviewer thought "not distinguished or especially musically refined", but the Studio Ref he thought an EXCELLENT full-range amp. It does have some amazing specs:

Signal-to-Noise (A-weighted) below rated full bandwidth power: 120 dB.
Damping Factor: >20,000 from 10 Hz to 400Hz.
780WPC into 8 ohms, 1160WPC into 4 ohms.

The review is here.

From what I've found so far, there are possbile downsides to using pro gear in an otherwise consumer setup, but in my case I think these are non-issues:

-fan noise: not an issue for me since I will have an equipment closet. Won't have to do a "fan mod".

-ugly: again, not an issue for me with an equipment closet

-hum: I believe not an issue as long as I use balanced interconnects from the prepro. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

-expects pro-level input levels: I think not an issue if the amp has dip switches or gain controls?

And yet, over on a couple of AVS forum threads, I actually got asked to leave when I started suggesting pro amps. It seems as though some of the audiophiles there (and the same guys might be over here) don't even want to hear about a class of gear which imo just MIGHT sound good. It just isn't worth "polluting" an audiophile thread. Am I missing some other downside to pro amps, other than the above pints? Were these guys attitudes based on something substantive and audibly detectable, or just a form of audio bigotry?

I'm not saying all pro amps are going to be great (for instance I know the Behringer A500 is lousy), but might there be some good stuff too, like QSC DCA, or Crown Macro Reference (other suggestions would be welcome)?
syswei

Showing 5 responses by shadorne

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shadorne
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Crown have been used to power main monitors in custom built studios for many years. If you are looking for dynamics then the power and headroom may come in handy in an HT setup. (Movies are not nearly as compressed as most music so dynamics/headroom is relatively more important. In studios where sound is live and uncompressed - the extra headroom can be critical)

What you will probably find is that at lower volumes the Crown will not be as refined as an audiophile amp - but at higher SPL it will seriously outperform an audiophile amp (in similar price range of course) For example, my power amp to the main speakers run in Class A until 2/3 power or up to around 150 watts, which is more typical of an audiophile design (performs better at low volumes).

The key consideration for any amp is to give it an EASY load. All to often difficult and complex speaker loads are the cause of major problems. Some speaker manufacurers seem to be competing today to actually give amplifiers difficult loads - due to the specifications game of bass extension and frequency response brochures (buyers often don't consider the load and speaker manufactuers like to just assume that you can find a perfect amplifier (and perfect amps do not exist)!
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shadorne
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If you have not bought your Revel's yet then why not consider Active speakers ? If you are looking at pro amps then why not check out the speaker section at your local music store - listen to the Genelec 8050A and see what you think....Revels are pretty neutral as far as audiophile speakers go - so pro speakers may be up your street! Just a thought. Listen to the quality of the bass and midrange of these speakers - damn good at any price. (but they come at a very reasonable $4.5K for a pair new and no need for a power amp!)
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shadorne
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Oh and before these speakers get dismissed as crap along with other pro gear just take a look at Blackbird Studios in Nashville - especially Studio C designed by George Massenburg - you will see a cost no object setup and guess what - Genelec 8050A speakers for near fields.
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shadorne
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Pro active speakers are still a possibility, but if I go that way I'd go for the higher SPL, 3-way midfield or "main" monitors. The thing is, these are designed to be flush-mounted, and at this point I think I'd prefer free-standing fronts.

They are not intended to be flush mounted but like any box speaker they will invariably sound better that way (no baffle edge diffraction and no comb filtering suckouts in the bass frequencies from rear wall quarter wave reflections).

The ugly boxy appearance of regular pro speakers and extreme prices of aesthetic consumer versions of pro main monitor speakers is the biggest hurdle - so I understand your dilemma.

HOwever, if you truly desire high amounts of SPL with crystal clear low distortion and low dynamic compression then I would urge you to think pro speaker models - most consumer gear speakers are not intended to sound good at high levels and most of the construction costs go into the high quality aesthetic appearance (beautiful finish) and not so much into the driver build quality. At moderate SPL levels the best audiophile speakers will be comparable or can often surpass the best pro designs - so what SPL's you desire to achieve is an important consideration.

Hooking up mega power amps to consumer designs to get high SPL's is, IMHO, a mistake...you will be disappointed by the dull sound of the drivers as they exceed Xmax and as their response compresses thermally.
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shadorne
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Do you have any opinions as to sound quality of various pro alternatives, Genelec, Adam, Dynaudio, etc?

Speakers are very much a matter of taste. Obviously I like the recent Genelec 8050A - I am not partial to older Genelecs however - so discussing a speaker brand is difficult. Dynaudio is bass heavy and so is PMC - if you like a heavier bass then these are worth checking out - both are excellent and probably closer to the sound most people desire today. Adams use ribbon tweeters - nice sound but I prefer a polite silk dome tweeter to these - again a matter of taste. Also checkout ATC Actives if you can find any to audition - they probably play louder more cleanly than anything except for horns.
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