[Audio_Empire[_2_]]

On Wednesday, June 26, 2013 3:19:22 PM UTC-7, Robert Peirce wrote:
In article


P.S. Anyone contemplating the purchase of a power amp, are doing

themselves and their pocket books a big disservice if they don't explore

the music reinforcement amps from the likes of Behringer, Peavy,

and Crown. You'd be surprised how much power, audio performance and

indestructible reliability that can be had for so little money.



I would add that so-called pro equipment, which used to be considered

poor compared to the ultimate high end rigs, is pretty damn good if you

are into digital. You can get top-of-the-line stuff for 1/10 of what

high end gear costs. I'm sure "golden ears" can hear the difference but

I can't.


DACs often are crossover products. For instance, Benchmark and Antelope DACs were designed for the recording studio, but are sold in high-end 'salons' as well for use in domestic stereos. As such, they aren't cheap but they don't sound as good to this listener as do DACs from MSB or dCS.

I am less certain about non-digital stuff. Speakers, for example, are
all over the place. You can get remarkably good sound for a very fair
price but it isn't necessarily pro gear, but it isn't necessarily high
end either.

As you say, 'professional' speakers are all over the place and seem to come in two distinct flavors: 1) sound reinforcement speakers. These are designed for the specific purpose of filling a venue with ear-splitting volume of some pop or rock ensemble. Most audiophiles wouldn't want these speakers in their home stereo systems. 2) Nearfield monitors. These speakers come in many guises and flavors. They are meant to set atop the recording console (or next to the computer in a DAW setup). Some are self powered and others are not. Most have "woofers" from 4-8 inches and may have AMT or ribbon tweeters while others have normal soft or hard domed tweeters. (I use a pair of Behringer 3030A's in my Mac-based DAW. They weren't cheap at more than $350 for the pair, but they are a 2-way, 140W Bi-amplified Studio Monitor with 6.75" Woofer, 2" Ribbon Tweeter, and Room Compensation EQ. They definitely sound better than ANY computer speaker you can name). While these types of speakers sound fine some few inches from one's head, as room speakers they would be a disaster. Most studios used to use the once ubiquitous JBL L100 series of speakers as studio monitors (if you want to know why so many studio recordings of the 60's and 70's sounded so bad, your quest can stop here. Studios used them so that playback of one part of a mutitrack, multistudio recording would sound the same in another studio. They were simply lousy).

Today, far-field monitors (usually used in the "play-back" room) tend to be high-end consumer speakers. For Instance, Paul Stubblebine, in his SF studio uses Wilson Audio Watt/Puppies as his far-field monitors (or did last time I was there) He was remastering the Skroweczewski/Minnesota Orchestra quad recordings of Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloe' ballet for Mobile Fidelity. The playback sounded fine. I understand that Wally Heider's studios are re-equipping with Wilson Alexandria XLS's. Some high-end studios use speakers like Revels' and Magico's, and one I know of uses Magnepan MG20s.

But for amps, there is no doubt that an audiophile can buy lots of good sounding amplifier for very little money. For instance, how about a 200 W/Channel (8 Ohm) power amp (bridgeable to 600 Watts mono) for about $250? The Crown XLi800 will do that and sound as good as anything in it's class in the high-end of audio. I know many of you doubt me, but it is true.


Audio_Empire