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studio equipment that makes it into home hifi

In recent years I have begun to take more notice of professional/studio hifi gear. Really ever since i got the Yamaha NS1000 my attention turned. Amongst other well known studio products that have managed to cross over into home audio is the Technics Sp-10 turntable rogers ls3/5a, revox equipment, etc. And hey a lot of these ended up being classics!

What's more they often seem to cost a lot less than home audio and sound very accurate and neutral. For example I picked up the Yamaha P3200 power amp for $150. Built like a tank, I was not expecting much from this warhorse. What the hell at 500w per channel they were only to be used to drive subwoofers. I put it into my smaller second home rig replacing the Jadis DA7 and driven by a valve preamp. Was I in for a surprise. It was subtle fast had good transparency and soundstaging and equal detail to the Jadis. Its bottom end as you would imagine was wonderfully taut deep and powerful. I was very pleasantly surprised. Only let down was a raggedness at the top end and it missed the last few ounces of tonal purity. BUT in no way did it sound cold sterile or hard, quite the opposite it was emotionally very engaging.

Has anyone any other studio products that can be used in home hifi systems even high end systems and look good???
audiojoy4
bongofury
1,160 posts
 
ATC is the most wide-reaching pro gear not usually found in homes. They rarely court the home market.

Bryston of Canada is the most wide reaching home gear found in studios. Chord of the UK is a close second.

Harbeth and Tannoy are other consumer oriented brands found in a lot of pro studios in the English market.
reylon
47 posts
 
Various Revox machines,TASCAM DVRA1000,EMT turntables,Denon DL-103 and DL-102 cartridges.
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
i have yet to meet an engineer who believes there is anything 'more' important than 'the food' that's brought in while they are working. as far as 'brands' of equipment, no one much cares unless there are endorsement perks. i haven't heard a bad room yet.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Do a lot of the makers you mention actually build to differing standards for home use or studio use - different designers etc?

Most of what I mention is the same for home or studio. Although any pro speaker maker needs to add grills and veneer for home use but that is about the extent of it (so the drivers will be the same on the models that have crossed over) . Studios also like clipping indicators so they know when they are definitely over driviong something. Otherwise the stuff is not so very different for most of the items I mention.

Consumer ref = -10 dBV = 0.316 V rms. Professional ref = +4 dBu = 1.228 V rms. Some designers have a built in switch but older pro gear may not be compatible and a pro pre amp or mixer will overdrive consumer gear. That is a 12 db higher signal level....just another reason why pro gear is general better for S/N.
audiojoy4 OP
98 posts
 
My main point really was to hint at the fact that there may potentially be a lot of purely studio designed gear (often from unrecognised manufacturers) that we would never hear about in hifi magazines/internet forums. There may be products from this category just waiting to be discovered. Gems that would not ordinarily be considered suitable for home use ( i belive that to be an entirely unfounded assumption on the part of the audio press)
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