Using PA Speakers In A Home "Audiophile" Application!

I’m a pro concert sound "person" (!), and a long time pro musician. Most home listening areas won’t abide Clair Brothers boxes or even La Scalas, but I use a pair of original series Mackie 350s (10" woofer) with a 92 lb Mackie woofer in my music studio (along with other small near field things) and they’re great. Titanium horn loaded tweeters and a very strong woofer. Note that most well designed pro stuff is far more efficient and tougher than nearly any home audio items. Put an uncompressed kick drum through a PA speaker and it works...put it through some home audio speakers and they’ll explode. The pro stuff is generally far less expensive also. I run clean stereo recordings through live show systems before soundcheck and just sit in the middle and note how great it sounds.

Not many speakers can output ’ what I want, and expect ’, out of a speaker. Every time I listen, I am truly blown away by the " experience ". Listening through my Lascalas, at the decibels I enjoy, it IS an experience. Let me just say....I use an AL crossover, because it suits me best, and I have tried several. I have spent time on damping everything within the Lascala, which ime, are some of the most vibrational and resonant designs ever. I have damped many things, and colorations of that nature, really bother me. Last but not least, is the ability to ’ let go ’ of any compression in our recordings. My Signet 280 EX floor standers, are amazing, dynamically.......to a point......as most. I played " Rockin Gypsies " from ’Willie and Lobo’, and no system I have heard, expresses this recording the way my system does. Give it a whirl, and turn it up. If you get to a point the spls are hurting your ears....think about this. Is it the volume itself, or are you hearing nasties based on your system ( speakers ) giving up ? Part of any music is the ’ dynamic shadings ’ ( usually spoken about by reviewers as micro and macro ). As pointed out by wolf, other speakers can / will fall apart. Sorry for my attitude, as my gummy kicked in. Go ahead...play that Rockin Gypsies. OH ! and they are so amplifier friendly. Enjoy ! My best, MrD.

@toddalin ...Mho, the 18" JBLs' 'do' sub substitutes nicely....all in the xovers....and, of course, the power behind them...;)

It still amuses me that Mazda used That song behind a commercial....either wry sly humor or 'questionable taste' in that....*L*

As for PA amps for sheer power...as long as the drivers are up to the task, rock on.

Shatter plaster, split the sheetrock, splinter the woodwork, and bust that annoying lease....*G*

Home theater, absolutely.  "Audiophile" stereo/surround?  Not so much. (Using JBL 212, 215, 225 and 18" sub w/about 3000 watts of power.  Hard to beat for home theater.

@OP - the Toddalin clip gives a fair impression of what PA speakers sound like reproducing music - and that's a pair of fairly high quality speakers. Each to their own, but PA speakers are built primarily for generating high spls without blowing up and for ruggedness of transport. Their sound quality is in inverse proportion to their dB per dollar. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it.