Professional Amplifiers

[windlake]

I see alot of people reviewing professional amplifiers that they bought at Parts Express. Many of these people are using them for home stereo/theater systems and are disappointed with power output. http://techtalk.parts-express.com/images/smilies/confused.gif There is a reason for this. Home Stereos/Receivers/Amps work at a lower voltage than Professional amplifiers. It takes a higher voltage to drive a professional amplifier to full output. Typical commercial amps want to see either 1.2 or 1.4 volts to reach full power. Home equipment at line level does not deliver these voltages. So take your home DVD/tuner/whatever and run it into a professional mixer and take the output of the professional mixer and run it into the amp and "Voila" you will have no trouble driving your amplifer to full output power with nice clean sound. http://techtalk.parts-express.com/images/smilies/wink.gifhttp://techtalk.parts-express.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[wg_ski]

But many of them do fall short of what is promised. Way short. Especially low-end "pro" amps are subject to the same specsmanship as cheap consumer gear.

[Mipsconsult]

Also, just because the manufacturer claims it's "pro", it more than often isn't.

Amps advertised as pro that arent include Behringer, Pyle, Pyramid etc.

Correctly used, the term "pro" implies road-worthiness, durability, ruggedness and the ability to be pushed to its operational limits repeatabley (or more often than not: beyond) for hours at a time without failing.

Pro = Mac truck

non-pro = Chevy S-10 pickup

[Ryan Chacon]

A good home preamp should have no problem driving most pro amplifiers to max output including Behringer, QSC, Crown etc… While balanced inputs are preferred they are designed to accept both balanced and unbalanced signals. That said I think the Behringer EP series amplifiers are some of the best bang for dollar amplifiers out there. While I would not trust them for pro use they would be very comfortable in a home application. On my system I use QSC RMX amplifiers and they sound outstanding. Also a great bang for dollar amplifier. One that is suitable for pro sound use.

I would put most reputable pro sound amplifiers up against any boutique home amplifier dollar for dollar. Myself I would feel foolish for buying anything other than a pro sound amplifier for any use. The value is just too great.

Of course I am excluding the likes of pyramid, pyle etc… They are not what I would call any sound worthy. Just marketing hype.

Just my $.02 ;)

[meep]

The behringer ep amps are surprisingly durable, but then again they are a clone of a qsc series of amps. While I spent the extra few bux for qsc for personal use, the behringers have held up well for several years, gigging 1-2 nights per week, in our band. No failures. Only differences we've noticed is they are not *as* tolerant as they approach max output than the others, and they actually seem to handle driving large subs better than our other amps of similar size and df (mackie, qsc) do. OTOH, all bets are off when you compare to crown. Crown Wins.

Mike

[wg_ski]

OTOH, all bets are off when you compare to crown. Crown Wins.

Mike

I wouldn't go so far as to say Crown always wins. They seem to be capable of making a cheapo amplifier these days. While I wouldn't go bridging either at 4R in the field, the Crown XLS doesn't even tolerate it well in HT apps. QSC RMX (Behringer EP) will. And QSC is making an even cheaper version now (GX). I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. The new Crown XTi6000 looks interesting - I'm still waiting to find out if they're really any better quality and durability-wise than the 1000/2000.

[Mipsconsult]

Let me try to summarize my POV on the current state of power amps made by the defacto "big players":

Certain manufactuerers such as Crown & QSC used to make nothing but pro-quality amps. They, like all other manufactures, found a nitch in the HT market and began making amps with less "industrial" specs, operational limits and at a greatly reduced manufacturing cost. We can't blame them for taking advantage of this business opportunity.

I guess my point is: we must continually re-evaluate products on a model to model basis WITHIN ITS INTENDED APPLICATION to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

[meep]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Crown always wins. They seem to be capable of making a cheapo amplifier these days. While I wouldn't go bridging either at 4R in the field, the Crown XLS doesn't even tolerate it well in HT apps. QSC RMX (Behringer EP) will. And QSC is making an even cheaper version now (GX). I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. The new Crown XTi6000 looks interesting - I'm still waiting to find out if they're really any better quality and durability-wise than the 1000/2000.

That's disappointing to hear. I've always had a solid respect for their products. <sigh>.

Mike

[envisionelec]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Crown always wins. They seem to be capable of making a cheapo amplifier these days. While I wouldn't go bridging either at 4R in the field, the Crown XLS doesn't even tolerate it well in HT apps. QSC RMX (Behringer EP) will. And QSC is making an even cheaper version now (GX). I wouldn't touch one with a 10 foot pole. The new Crown XTi6000 looks interesting - I'm still waiting to find out if they're really any better quality and durability-wise than the 1000/2000.

My God - the CE1000/2000? Horrible horrible amps. Wow...just so many things done wrong there. OK design, bad implementation. I actually refuse to work on those. Now, that bastard CE4000 - that's my kind of amp. :)

[wg_ski]

My God - the CE1000/2000? Horrible horrible amps. Wow...just so many things done wrong there. OK design, bad implementation. I actually refuse to work on those. Now, that bastard CE4000 - that's my kind of amp. :)

I wasn't speaking of the CE1/2000 - but the XTi1/2000. I know the CE1000's are a cheap junk amp. The XTi's are supposed to compete with the QSC PLX - but the QSCs will run rings around them. The XTi's even seem to be a step down from the Xs1200 (oh, but it's got all these bells and whistles now...). Sometimes the high end of a series is a singificant advance, however. The CE4000 - awesome class D amp. The only probelm with it is I only own one instead of a half dozen. I was thinking that maybe, just maybe the new XTi6000 woud turn out to be decent but I just haven't heard anything one way or the other. If it's a BCA or even 3-step class H with a decent supply it might be worth picking up one or two over the next year.