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In Reply to: Pro-amps for serious listening posted by Tony3d on March 8, 2007 at 04:50:54:
"People are telling me that it's not a heigh fidelity amp for serious listening."
Follow Ups:
Here is the thing. Pro sound amps are built with a difference set of design criteria in mind. Much like a Semi Truck. designed to be tough, haul any load, go many many millions of miles through all sorts of conditions. and for there intended function they do quite well.
Sports cars, much like high end amplifiers have a much different set of design criteria. they are designed to be light, fast, nimble, handle corners well.
You would not do well taking a semi out to a road course event. the truck wouldn't be very fast, wouldn't handle well, would be skidding and sliding all over the place.
and if you connected a trailer to say a Porsche or Ferarri, the results would end up in a spilled mess of pistons, rods, clutch packs and oil all over the ground in short order.
Pro amps are built to be solid and reliable with a large variety of loads. Not necessarily with the lowest distortion or to be uncolored, or colored in some cases, or to preserve the utmost in fidelity and extract every nuance possible. They are in fact designed to be brute force tough and not die when abused within reason.
SOME pro amps have been reported to sound pretty good. The Crown Macro reference amps embarrassed a lot of MFG's when they came out! and some Home amp MFG used there designs for pro use like the Haflers. and some folks used Home amps for PA use like the old Phase Linears. so its s bit confusing i know. but most of that went on because at the time there just wasnt much of anything better. now days that split is much larger.
a Lot depends on the resolution of the rest of your components as well. I have heard customers tell me they cant hear a difference in there system between a mega buck high end amp and a cheap QSC they just bought. then i find out they have old Klipsch speakers and no wonder why they don't hear a difference. the speaker system doesn't have the resolution needed to accurate comparisons. or they are using an Ipod with MP3's as there playback source. and some peoples ears don't have very good resolution either! but thats another post.
Don't kid yourself. PA amps are generally not in the same class as audiophile grade amplifiers for high resolution playback. But high resolution sound does not have to cost as much as a small village either. careful selection of components that compliment your system/room is key.
Cant seem to edit my post so let me just preface my comment above about QSC amplifiers. the term cheap was not to state that QSC amps are inferior only that they generally cost less then the mega buck home audiophile grade amps. as a pro sound guy myself i own all QSC amps for my PA and i am quite proud to state said fact.
Zc
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