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

Yes, I am one of those who has gone through the journey of finding satisfying sound quality and currently use commercial amplifiers. I started with ordinary Sony speakers and then moved to Jamo, then Quad ESL,  and then to Tannoy 12 inch, then Tannoy 15 inch, and currently on Function One. I am very keen to try the new direct AES/EBU input Genelec. That is on the speaker side. I also started off with Sony amplifier, then to Marantz, then to Quad, and compared some vintage valve amplifiers and then Chinese valve amps, then Musical Fidelity, Sudden, and tried commercial amplifiers like Crown, Nexo, QSC, Powersoft, MC2, Full Fat Audio, Lab G., etc. I found that commercial amplifiers can be retrofitted with slower fans to reduce fan noise in quieter home setups. Most commercial amplifiers do not heat up much at all during domestic use. Especially class D designs. I particularly like the sound of MC2 amplifiers in mid and high. FFA is fantastic for bass. Powersoft is an allrounder and convenient with onboard sound card, as you can then use digital AES signal further reducing noise. Lab Gruppen sounds very involving and has a great sound too. The overall sound is slightly different in QSC and Crown with a slightly bright feel. I know that there are many others that I have not tried in detail. Similarly, I find the sound cards like Lynx, Apogee, UA, XTA, etc, all give far better results than upgrading the CD player etc. There is a lot of b*** s*** being pedalled around in the consumer audio sector. There is some, but at least 85% less b s in the commercial audio sector. That, to me is the biggest benefit of moving to the commercial audio gear for home entertainment.  I do not find the commercial solution more expensive than a Naim "Hi Fi" set up, for example. My current set up is computer >AES cable to > XTA 446 > MC2 e45 and e25 > F88 speakers + 15"subs. I recently went to a cinema and found the cinema sound system so appalling that I had to come out. I have visited several hi fi shops and found the sound they sell for a lot of money to be a joke. Some of the very biggest names in home audio sound silly compared to a a stereo pair of commercial Beyma speakers driven by a  Lab Gruppen or a MC2. Period!!

QSC amps and other pro power amps can sound great, although I only use 'em for pro audio gigs (don't like amp fans running in quiet listening or recording rooms). Certainly "bang for the buck" applies with this stuff (I use a "little" QSC amp here and there that's only 375 watts or something per side and will blast along at 4 ohms all day), and I'm not going to drag my groovy living room stereo tube amp around in a road case (although I've never hesitated to drag tube guitar amps around for several decades, so there's that). Note I was recently reading an audio magazine and saw a pic from the Magico factory with a QSC power amp sitting there…wonder what they were using it for?…hmmm…If you need a ballsy home theater amp or anything less delicate than audiophile amps, you can run pro amps at a fraction of the cost of precious "high end" gear…you lose some audio geek cred but so what?

Let me debunk most of the responses. I just bought a Crown K1 amplifier. It sounds as good, as ANY Krell, Audio Research, B&K, Adcom, Muse, Luxman, Hafler amps that I have owned. And it has power reserves in spades. I ran this amp fairly hard for almost 2 hours, and not one time did it ever even get warm. With 350 wpc into 8 ohms, and 550 wpc into 4 ohms, this thing never breaks a sweat. I have the K1 partnered with a Denon AVR 3805 as a 2 channel pre-amplifier. The highs are there, the mid range is there, and the bass is incredible. Transparency is very good. Highly recommended. 

No doubt I'm a little biased as I currently have a Crown XLS2000 for sale, but here are my observations after 4 years of use:

-  massive soundstage, very wide but only moderately deep
-  very powerful low end
-  top end is not sibilant but also not silky smooth...pretty revealing
-  complex passages are done well but not as well as a multi$$$$ amp
-  stable at 2 ohms
-  absolutely silent, black backgrounds and fan never comes on
-  tons of power...1050 watts at 2 ohms per channel
-  gain controls...fantastic way to match to the source so that the source volume isn't maxed out at 9 o'clock, great way to match to a subwoofer preamp out so that the sub gain doesn't have to be turned to 4 o'clock and great way to match left right main volume without a balance control
-  Reliability
-  Absolutely never thumps my loudspeakers when turning on/off or when my preamp or source turn on/off
-  Relatively inexpensive @ $500 new

Yes, I think in certain systems, in certain rooms, with certain sources, you may prefer a $1000 Halo (or something similar) but in addition to the price, you are giving some things up.

Maybe its not someone's cup of tea for their main system, but I suspect they would be pretty happy on a value/sound benchmark to use pro audio in their secondary system.

(and why am I selling it if its so good?....easy answer, its fun to try different things and there is only so much space in the house)

In my studio area with the piles of bass and guitar amps and a synth, I use an ancient (relatively) Alesis RA 100 (no fans, just large heatsinks) amp powering a pair of Mackie 10" 2 way C200 P.A. speakers on stands, with a 500 watt HR120 (discontinued, bought it lightly used for about 150 bucks) 92 lb. sub (flat to 19hz). The Alesis has big level control knobs on the front, and I mix things (keyboards, drum machine, recording interface, with the sub through a monitor fader) through a small Mackie mixer. The Alesis is a bullet proof 100 watt workhorse that never fails. You can buy these things for almost nothing…even the later versions with balanced inputs.  Note that the QSC I noticed at Magico was the same model as mine…a GX3 that retails for around 300 bucks or less.