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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
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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.
syswei OP
14 posts
 
Thanks again for everyone's thoughts. Grannyring - thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not looking for 80-85% of the performance of "great amps" for $200-300 per channel, but rather (I'm hoping) 99-100%, for up to $1000-2000 per channel. I'm wondering how a $1200 QSC PLX3602 or $1600 QSC DCA3422 is going to sound vs a $6000 Bryston 14B-SST, for example. I know the Bryston has somewhat better specs, but is QSC already at the point where differences are inaudible? Unfortunately, the Crown Studio Reference I posted the review of is discontinued.

I have my doubts as to whether I would be able to discern differences by auditioning different amps in different locations with differing associated gear and acoustics.
syswei OP
14 posts
 
Shardorne - in fact I currently have actives in a 2.1 setup, the Paradigm Active/40s. For the new HT, at one point I was looking into smallish actives like the JBL LSR4300 series, and the Focal Solo6 Be (if people aren't aware, these list for 45% less than Focal Electras with the exact same drivers, and you get the amps thrown in for free). Anyway, I started becoming more concerned about SPL capabilities, and turned toward the Revels. 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.
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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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grannyring
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To clarify the AR SLA 1 and SLA 2 amps are stereo amps that can also be switched to mono operation. When I say 85% of the best - I mean the best. 85% to me may sound like 95% to you - very subjective.

These amps will sound as good as any $2000 amp listed thus far on this thread. Spending more on the amps listed thus far will not get you better sound.

No pro sound amp will sound 99% of my TRL amp. That is simply not available right now. The AR SLA amps will get you as close and closer then the higher $$ amps mentioned thus far on this thread.

Try one!

Bill
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