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

Shardorne,

Thanks, what you've said is going to make me revisit the possibility of going with flush-mounted speakers. Do you have any opinions as to sound quality of various pro alternatives, Genelec, Adam, Dynaudio, etc?

Grannyring, thanks for the suggestion, but 200W/ch isn't enough power for me. And I'm told that bridging increases distortion. I'll keep an eye on their website, assuming I go ahead with separate amps rather than active speakers, to see if they introduce higher-powered units, as it will be some time before I design and build the room itself.

There are a variety of things that make this Crown K2 amplifier less likely to be as good sonically as audiophile amplifiers. They are:

1. This is a switching amp but they don't give the details on power supply or output stage technology. The problem is that even in the audiophile world where innovative companies like NuForce and Jeff Rowland have designed high-end digital amplifiers with a focus on sound quality above all else, the results have been mixed. There isn't anything near consensus that these audiophile switching amps are capable of equaling the sound of conventional amplifier circuits.

2. A very high damping factor spec is a red flag for the use of lots of global negative feedback which causes fatiguing and unnatural sound. (See the other many threads about the pitfalls of global NFB)

3. Amps designed to make huge power like this Crown K2 (especially when they are not terribly expensive or heavy) sacrifice finesse, transparency and resolution at low and moderate (read: normal) household listening levels. These pro amps are designed for much larger environments and much higher SPL's than should ever come in to play in a normal home listening environment.

4. The frequency response spec shows that these amps are intentionally bandwidth limited with high-ordered filters. This will cause all kinds of phase shift within the audio band. Today's best sounding amplifiers have extremely wide bandwidth and are not bandwidth limited for a reason.

5. The K2 features all kinds of protection circuitry which is both unnecessary in a home application and not sonically benign.

I'm sure there's plenty more to pick at, but Crown doesn't give enough details about the amp. Generally though, pro amps have very poor parts quality compared with audiophile amps and my guess is that the same holds true here.

Remember, most listening we do with our home systems doesn't require huge power, ultra low impedance drive, protection galore, or extreme cooling capabilities. These are all primary design goals for a pro amp yet they are secondary considerations at best for a home amplifier. Couple that with the fact that home loudspeakers have become reasonably efficient with benign load impedance and you realize that quality is more important than quantity (power) at home.

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.

What is the standard? If you are hearing EXACTLY what the musicians heard in the studio, then you are hearing the music as it was intended to sound.

That's why I think good quality studio monitors are far, far better than most "audiophile" speakers -- and generally far less expensive. For less than $3K you can get a pair of JBL LSR6328Ps with 370 watts of Crown power in each; uber-flat response, and amazing detail. For another $1500 you can add the 12" sub.

Good pro amps sound good. Just like audiophile gear, some is all show, no substance. The best stuff is not necessarily the most expensive. Hafler amps, at the end, were pro amps, not audiofile amps, yet were great. Crown has made stunningly good amps and some really lousy ones (the PSA2 with switching power supplies, early 1980's).