2. amps-preamps
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Can pro amps possibly sound good? Crown, QSC, etc

I have been looking into pro amps for a to-be-built HT/music room. Recently I came across an old review in The Stereo Times: The Complete Audiophile Magazine, which reviewed 2 discontinued Crown amps, the K2 and the Studio Reference I. The K2 the reviewer thought "not distinguished or especially musically refined", but the Studio Ref he thought an EXCELLENT full-range amp. It does have some amazing specs:

Signal-to-Noise (A-weighted) below rated full bandwidth power: 120 dB.
Damping Factor: >20,000 from 10 Hz to 400Hz.
780WPC into 8 ohms, 1160WPC into 4 ohms.

The review is here.

From what I've found so far, there are possbile downsides to using pro gear in an otherwise consumer setup, but in my case I think these are non-issues:

-fan noise: not an issue for me since I will have an equipment closet. Won't have to do a "fan mod".

-ugly: again, not an issue for me with an equipment closet

-hum: I believe not an issue as long as I use balanced interconnects from the prepro. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

-expects pro-level input levels: I think not an issue if the amp has dip switches or gain controls?

And yet, over on a couple of AVS forum threads, I actually got asked to leave when I started suggesting pro amps. It seems as though some of the audiophiles there (and the same guys might be over here) don't even want to hear about a class of gear which imo just MIGHT sound good. It just isn't worth "polluting" an audiophile thread. Am I missing some other downside to pro amps, other than the above pints? Were these guys attitudes based on something substantive and audibly detectable, or just a form of audio bigotry?

I'm not saying all pro amps are going to be great (for instance I know the Behringer A500 is lousy), but might there be some good stuff too, like QSC DCA, or Crown Macro Reference (other suggestions would be welcome)?
syswei
ait
480 posts
 
I use a Crown XLS-802D ($599.00 retail) to drive my living room and patio systems at home, and it sounds excellent, even though this series is often derided since it is made in China. It pumps out 800 wpc into 4 ohms, 500 wpc into 8 ohms. I run it off my Supratek Chenin tube preamp with no problems - the output of the Chenin is split so that half goes to the Crown and half to my main rig. In the living room it drives Magnepan MGMC1 speakers with a powered Monitor Audio R720 sub, and on the patio it drives KLH outdoor speakers and a passive subwoofer. It is driving all this through about 200 feet of CL3R in-wall cable and two Niles impedance-matching volume controls (set to 2X setting) and doesn't even break a sweat. Not quite the sound quality of my audiophile rig in the family room, but pretty darned close for the money.

It is built very solidly, with large heat sinks and a huge toroid. I think Crown has made several improvements to this series between the 802A and the 802D, and I am impressed by what I got for $599.00
ait
480 posts
 
Oh, and I forgot:

Crown was offering a $120.00 mail-in rebate at the time, so the actual price ended up being $479.00. Outstanding value in my mind.
elevick
2,637 posts
 
I owned clubs. I've had Crown, Crest, QSC and more. I still have a qsc running my whole house audio (quality is marginal with in ceilings anyway). However, I really don't like the quality of sound compared to most mid-fi amps. I have a PSE Studio IV for sale and a QSC 1200. I'll take the PSE with 100 watts over the QSC 120 watts any day. Much more detail, better soundstage, and yes a little softer/more forgiving/not rudely revealing.
My big Crest amps were awesome for $4000 each. But that's ridiculous for home. If you are spending that, get custom engineered JBL or Genelec speakers made for the room too...
elevick
2,637 posts
 
Ok, I went home to prove to myself that I wasn't full of it. My PSE is worth about $375, QSC worth about $300.
I did a side by side test. It was like night and day. My dog could tell the difference...Needless to say, the QSC is for sale. Besides raw power, a cooling fan and being a bulletproof sub amp, it sucks for stereo listening or theater.
And, I did the side by side using a Denon multi room receiver and Paradigm in-walls. Imagine how it would do with my AR pre and Sota table?
jagdynamics
28 posts
 
I was at a outdoor party a couple of weekends ago and the DJ had some pro audio gear and I was really impressed on the quality of sound, lots of detail, and at a low volume. I was curious so I decided to look and see what he was using in his setup. The amp what an older version Tascam, a cheap cd player and was using a crate equalizer. I started looking for pro audio gear on the net and there are two pro amps I am considering, QSC RMX and Face Audio. Face Audio is a Class H amp with zero distortion. I might be consiering the face audio, still doing more research. David
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