SPL - Pro Audio Blasphemy?

I'm a pro gear pro…I've been paid to use this stuff (mix mostly jazz shows these
days) for decades both as a musician and sound tech and I can say without
question that home gear sounds generally better in the home. I don't like amps
with fans even in my home recording rig, or need horn loaded high spl speakers
to listen to things from 8 feet away…but use anything that isn't heavy duty for
live sound reinforcement and you will fail. New pro stuff can sound better than
ever though (as long as the operator is paying attention and isn't an idiot), so
that's good news. Note that most audiophiles would be horrified to hear what
major recording studio's playback systems have sounded like over the years, but
often the studio engineers and mastering techs make the end results come out
OK anyway…amazing.

I'm tri-amping with Crown XTi 1002's and a 2002 and going preamp-less (using the gain input control on the Crowns). While I would tend to agree that high-end usually sounds better, I've also have been steadily acquiring a lot ($10k+ and counting) of some Alan Maher Designs electronic noise reduction gear...all that has collectively raised the level of their performance, under my roof anyway, just into high-end territory (I'm sure nicer hifi amps would've been improved by all that even more, of course). I suppose these Crowns may not have the utmost degree of sheer "magic" of timbre that the best amps can have, but it's easily good enough for me and, with AMD, all the attendant qualities like tonal purity, pitch accuracy, resolution, textures and harmonics are so good that I never have the feeling that anything is missing. It's nothing for me to get wrapped up in the performance and the music. What drew me to the XTi's were the pro tools: EQ, Crossovers, digital gain, delay...that way I could ditch my passive crossovers which has been a great step toward better sound here. And, from the beginning for myself, no worries about trying to win the "passive crossover parts" sweepstakes and that let me save a nifty buck or two. Normally, going digital there might sound worse because of the noise, but that as well is what all the AMD is for and it's all sounding rather gorgeous right now to me. The system itself costs well less than all the AMD, but everything here is working together well. If asked, I'm more likely to rave about AMD than the amps in particular, but these pro amps have certainly found a home here. They're not going anywhere anytime soon. The one DIY mod I had to do was to hardwire bypass the Speakon connectors...rather good for allowing buckets of currents through, but detail?...not so much.

A few years back I acquired a pair of Legacy Focus speakers, HUGE! At 200 lbs each and 5 feet tall, they are awesome to behold. But, I found them hard to drive. The specs say you should be able to drive them with any 200wpc amp. And you can, but, I found it lacking, not reaching their potential. So, I took my hi-fi amp. A Forte' 200wpc, and I drive the top half with that, and I bought a used Crown XLS2500, which is about 475wpc, to drive the bottoms. And am very pleased with the results! Now it has slam! But still remains so smooth on top even at higher volumes. I only paid $400 for the used Crown in like new condition, and it saved me from spending $5,000 on a Krell or Levenson monster amp. I may still get a Krell or Levenson monster one day, but for now I'm very happy with this Pro audio amp in my system.

Very cool insights.I think having an entire rig of pro gear for home listening is not the way to go, but some areas could be helpful. As stated before, if you are going passive that would be the obvious area to acquire pro gear for. I remember linkwitz for his speakers uses very ordinary pro amps and PMC has bryston in them. I feel that some speakers, like for instance Harbeth, feel that amplification is cheap and abundant and it is there to amplify, nothing more.

Also, I think the 120v rails is confusing, because I think it is different running of 120v AC. Look at the Innerfidelity video on the Phonitor 2 at Newport, and the rep explains it. To paraphrase he says that most gear runs on 36v rails and that 120v rails gives you more head room and dynamic range. Sounds interesting.

Would the wide use of balanced connections and power conditioners be two areas where the pro side influenced the hifi side?

I use a Crown Xti 1002 to drive my woofers with the built in X/O at 320Hz....works great for tight pounding bass.