"Mike Rieves" wrote in message

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in
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.com...
Mike Rieves spake thus:

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in
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. com...

Mike Rieves wrote:

Yamaha is decent sound reinforcement stuff, amp power
is usually underrated, they put out more than the
specs say, but it isn't studio quality, if that's
what you're looking for. .

I've heard stuff like this from Guitar Center sales persons, so the words
don't impress me unless they are backed up.

OK, I'll bite. Just what exactly makes a stereo amp of
"studio quality" better than an otherwise excellent
stereo amp?

Good question.

I would concede the Yamaha consumer power amp is not
"professional" in terms of ruggedness etc, also in
studio applications I can see that balanced inputs
might be necessary, but for the purpose of reproducing
stereo sound, as opposed to reinforcing it, I cannot
think of any qualities that would make a "studio" amp
preferable in terms of sound quality.

Good attack on a sweeping generalization.

Nope, the differences would be in flat response, slew
rate, THD, IMD, damping, etc, along with other
differences not shown in the published specs.

Many good home amps do well in these regards.

Maybe you missed the earlier post where someone gave
some of the published specs for this amp. One of them
was 0.01% THD. If true, I would think that would be
plenty good enough for studio use, assuming the other
specs are on par with it.

Power amp THD specs are often just a matter of choice of power levels. For
esample, if you want 1% THD out of a typical midrange QSC power amp, just
run it a little way into clipping. If you want 0.01% THD out of it, run it
just below clipping.

Unfortunately, the published specs have little to do
with the sound of an amp, and THD alone is virtually
meaningless unless it is very high.

Note that in order to appear to have a leg to stand on, our correspondent
ignores the big caveat above:

"assuming the other specs are on par with it."

You can tell when someone is cornered: They stop answering the questions
that are asked, and instead answer questions that agree with their agenda.

The Yamaha Natural
Sound line was a consumer/home line of products.Yamaha
doesn't claim this amp as being a studio amp, why would
you?

In fact Yamaha does specifically claim that some members of their "natural
sound" product line is suitable for both home and studio use.

Would you use home Hifi speakers as studio monitor
speakers?

Depends on the home hifi speakers in question. Using appropriate home hifi
speakers for studio monitors is a time-honored practice. I believe that at
least one well-known and widely-respected poster here uses Magnepans as
studio monitors.

If not then why would you use a hime hifi amp
to power your studio monitors?

These words transport me back to Guitar Center, again. :-(

I'm not saying the M-50
wouldn't sound okay with some monitor speakers, I'm just
saying I wouldn't buy an M-50 to power my studio monitors
and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do it.

Given the obvious demonstrated biases against using equipment that has the
slightest odor of home audio on it, this statement is hardly surprising.
What's missing is any actual substance.

If you just happen to have an M-50 laying around and you need
something to power your monitors until you can afford
something better, then go ahead and use it. :-)

Can we all say "Damn with faint praise"?