Studio/Performance Amps for High-End Systems?

I stand by the statement

Some audiophiles will complain that studio gear sounds like a PA.

Those who categorically dismiss all pro power amplifiers are simply showing their prejudices. The truth is they tend to sound quite different because they are targeted at different types of listener. Huge power is often necessary for realistic unclipped sound reproduction on studio music that has not yet been dynamically compressed/squashed for consumers. Most audiophile speakers would not last five minutes in a studio before the tweeters were blown and the power amp output transistors fried.

I've worked on High-End and pro gear for years, and have yet to see the pro gear built with the quality of components(passive or active) that are utilized in High-End audio equipment.

Then you have simply not come across EMMLABS and other high-end pro gear with similar quality build to high end audiophile gear.

Shadorne- I'm certain there are quite a few brands that I've not worked on in the past 28 years, and you're correct: EMM Labs is one of them. Meitner has been designing High-end audio for years, so I'm not surprised he uses quality components in his pro gear(and charges accordingly). His DAC8 MKIV brings five figure prices. There aren't that many studios that can afford that for one piece of gear. Actually EMM builds more audio pieces than pro. Their two-box CDP/DAC is into five figures as well(like 11.5K, I believe?). Nor have I had occasion to do any repairs on John Oram equipment(I mix on a custom 48 channel BEQ-PRO) . Perhaps that's because there are so few of either in Florida, Ohio and Indiana. We're not talking Crown, Behringer, Marshall, Peavey, QSC, Mackie, Nady, or comparing apples and grapefruit now- are we?

EMMLabs is used by as James Guthrie (Pink Floyd sound engineer).

Here is a list EMM Labs Users

I agree about Peavy and others you mention - these are high power but low quality stuff and have a "PA" sound.

Like I said: It's a short list(BUT an excellent one). The only one in Indiana is Sony DADC(Terre Haute). I've cherished the output of 20 of those studios/engineers on the list for years.

ATC, Bryston, Manley and EAR make amplifiers suitable for professional and audiophile applications. Also didn't Boulder start out making pro-oriented amps.

I agree with the tone of Shadorne's comments about audiophiles wanting a softer presentation than what is useful in a studio environment.

As an aside, there is a school of thought that takes the position that power amplifiers, while important, just aren't that critical to getting high quality sound. Peter Walker of Quad and Siegfried Linkwitz are prime members of that school. Historically, at least for solid state designs, amps didn't become important until Apogee came out with their sub-2 ohm speaker designs. It was then that you saw an explosion of pricey, high current designs and people started to talk about how amps sounded.