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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
syswei OP
14 posts
 
Oops the last line should have read "Macro Tech" rather than "Macro Reference"...the latter is discontinued.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Crown have been used to power main monitors in custom built studios for many years. If you are looking for dynamics then the power and headroom may come in handy in an HT setup. (Movies are not nearly as compressed as most music so dynamics/headroom is relatively more important. In studios where sound is live and uncompressed - the extra headroom can be critical)

What you will probably find is that at lower volumes the Crown will not be as refined as an audiophile amp - but at higher SPL it will seriously outperform an audiophile amp (in similar price range of course) For example, my power amp to the main speakers run in Class A until 2/3 power or up to around 150 watts, which is more typical of an audiophile design (performs better at low volumes).

The key consideration for any amp is to give it an EASY load. All to often difficult and complex speaker loads are the cause of major problems. Some speaker manufacurers seem to be competing today to actually give amplifiers difficult loads - due to the specifications game of bass extension and frequency response brochures (buyers often don't consider the load and speaker manufactuers like to just assume that you can find a perfect amplifier (and perfect amps do not exist)!
undertow
1,032 posts
 
I have heard the Master series should be the most "Audiophile" sounding of the Crowns.. However I have heard some Standard QSC amps that are pretty good for way less money.. The K2 is a great amp for certain applications and is Fanless.. That’s the main Stigma of most PRo amps that they are Noisey from internal Fan cooling so watch out.. Also most do not have anything but 1/4 " and XLR pro connections on the back, so adapting them to run with your standard equipment can have its faults.. Beyond that many Pro amps take 4 volts to drive to Full power from a Preamp or source and many consumer or hi end players only put out 1 volt to 2 volts… Then you need a device between that’s made by companies like Rolls that can actually up your output signal by taking in a RCA and spitting out an XLR connection to the amp putting out the 4 volt conversion.

And Like the Crown K series I know that if you run them Single ended not Balanced they are only a 10 k impedance at the inputs, but if you can run balanced XLR without cheater plugs you will get a 20 k input impeadance which is much more universal, 10 k is pretty low for many Preamps to drive, especially if you use a Tube front end, so this can cause a limited bandwith and output as well in some cases..

In the end, if you can get a deal on a nice consumer grade amp go for it over all the extras sometimes needed to attempt the pro amp route, again the application and your situation will need to dictate whether its worth a try or not.. Some speakers might work well with pro sound and some not. That’s my opinion.
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