|   Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | poneal
Oct 30, 2003 12:45 PM | | Why is it that professional amps are priced much lower than consumer amps and professional amps are rated at more wpc than consumer amps? The specs look about the same. So what is the difference? Anyone? Thanks, Paul. |
| I'll take an uninformed shot at this . . . | Hairsonfire
Oct 30, 2003 2:03 PM | | Professsional amps are designed to be extremely rugged and LOUD . . . The type of equipment used in concert and club venues. Consumer amps on the other hand are required to be more refined for home use. Um, that's about all I can come up with. |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | RGA
Oct 30, 2003 6:02 PM | | Some professional gear is utter crap...might help explain why 80% of rock recordings are pretty pathetic.
Bryston sells to the professional recording industry...and I don't think pro's can buy it any cheaper.
Yet there are people who listen to the Bryston amplifiers but dislike their sound and buy something else. Because a pro buys it does not make their hearing better...they just happened to have a certificate from a school that allows them the knowledge of how to run a mixing board.
Most of them are probably deaf when you hear the cds they make. |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | FLZapped
Oct 31, 2003 7:27 AM | | Usually the distortion specs are a little higher. Also, most pro amps have fans in them as noise is not usually a problem because they are installed out of the way somewhere. That saves money(and weight and size) on heatsink surface area.
Otherwise, maybe consumer amps are more expensive because they are overpriced anyway. Could also have something to do witht he volume of sales......pick your favorite reason.
-Bruce |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | skeptic
Nov 1, 2003 8:07 AM | | Manufacturers can't play professionals for suckers the way they play audiophiles. If one guy is way out of line with the competition, there's always another supplier ready willing and able. If Bryston's amp is twice as expensive as a comparable Crown, they won't be selling many of them to pros. Pros don't sit around for hours trying to hear every last sublety of every piece of gear making a big fuss about inconsequential nonsense. If one amp sounds slightly brighter than another, they will equalize it out, it's part of the job anyway. Pro gear must be reliable, perform to very high standards, be readily obtainable, be easy to get service for, and price compeititve. To pros, audiophile mumbo jumbo don't mean spit. Often, pros have clients who want to bid. They don't throw their money out. And they don't buy or install audiophile cables either. (I worked for a pro AV contractor for a very brief time and I was also a client of several of them on many projects.) |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | sam9
Nov 1, 2003 9:25 PM | | Pro amps need types of protection circuitry that consumer units don't -- particularly protection from having inapproipriate things plugged in to them or having things plugged in to them while they are switched on.
Pro amps need some form of high efficiency power supply (class G, H or switching. They use fans instead of heavy heatsinks. Switching power supplies made in large volume can be pretty inexpensive. Fans are cheaper than heatsinks. Both these reduce cost but the real motivation is size and weight - even roadies get tired lugging things.
Cosmetics are not so important as they are usually mounted where no one can see them hence the cases tend to be utilitarian.
The first two items contribute to somewhat higher noise and distortion levels. It's an unavoidable trade off.
The second two result in some cost savings. On top of that, pro amps are often bought in quantity, pro shops are often physically smaller with a smaller sales staff relative to the volume of sales. The whole distrubution stucture costs less. The customers are buying a piece of equipment for their livelyhood not for their egos so are more motivated to drive a tougher bargain and can do so as they are likely to be repeat customers.
Studio gear and road gear may be different since weight and size is less important for a studio installation. Stdio amps will often have performance as good as comercial units. However, since studios are often built by a contractor, the contractor is in the position of buying many units for many different istallations and therefore has the ability to negotiate lower prices and may even be able to buy directly from the factory. This is another element that puts downward pressure on prices. |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | royphil345
Nov 2, 2003 2:31 AM | | Yes, Pro amps are designed for smaller size, lighter weight and even better power efficiency (try plugging a few class A amps into a couple outlets!!!) as opposed to sounding the most detailed or musical. Most use cooling fans which could make them noisy for home use. The stuff that sells REALLY cheap is generally junk. There is some junk out there in the "pro" market aimed mostly at beginning DJs and such. Something good (Crown, Carver Pro) will cost you almost as much as a home unit anyway.
I used a Carver Professional amp in my system for a while and it sounded pretty good. Saved me some money over a Carver designed for home use. The Carvers all used a switching power supply anyway, so there was probably little difference between the two. Though, even the Carvers designed for home use were known more for powerful, reliable, good sound. Rather than extremely detailed or musical "audiophile" sound.
A pro amp might be nice in a mid-fi system with an emphasis on loudness, where lots of power is desired at the lowest possible cost. If you're looking for audiophile bliss it's probably best to stay away.
Roy |
| re: Consumer vs Profession Amp Question? | poneal
Nov 3, 2003 10:51 AM | | Thanks for all the response. I purchased a modular/mixer amp on e-bay. It was a Peavey IRM-8150 and can be found at the following link: http://aa.peavey.com/modularmixeramps/irm8150.cfm
I got it for 117 including shipping. I was a little hesistant buying from e-bay but gave it shot. The unit came and works so i can not complain. The amp is a little noisy. Much more so than my Harman Kardon Receiver. The thing that struck me most was that there are only 1 set of positive/negative speaker attachments. So you gotta wire a pair of speakers in parallel. Anyway, for $100 i cant complain. I sure wish i knew what that mon. level thing is for though. Anyway, thanks for all the posts. |
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