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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 1 response by csconradesq

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csconradesq
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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).
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