Any one try pa amplifiers for home stereo?

No, but at one time I thought about using good home audio gear for the band, instead of the "pro-gear", in an attempt to get halfway decent sound on stage. :^)

None of the stuff you mention there can even hold a candle to any reasonable "mid-fi" home stuff, in sound quality. Brute force and ruggedness for carrying are the only reasons to have amps like you mention above. The term "grainy" doesn't even begin to describe them. But then again, some people like "grainy" I guess.

Tom, how do you think the home gear would have worked out for PA application?

These days, I think the active loudspeaker systems from Meyer Sound represent the high end in sound reinforcement (I may be mistaken). Meyer also makes studio monitors. I would be very interested in an audiophile review of these. They sound pretty damn good in small clubs like Yoshi's in Oakland.

In the 70's i used some crown gear for my home system and it sounded pretty good...not high end but not high end priced and it always worked. Some of the new crown amps are great, as are the QSC. They are never going to rival a good tube amp but i bet they'd do OK against a lot of the solid state gear. As far as high end home gear driving a PA...the stuff would sound great for the day or two it lived then you'd be dragging out the crowns and QSCs to get you through the rest of the week. for speakers...EVs any day

Drubin, I've never used the Meyer Sound, but heard good things about them. I actually did use some home gear on the stage, and it worked out real well. We didn't have any roadies throwing it into the backs of trucks or anything, but we handled it fairly gently, and it sounded better.