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Questions about Pro Audio Amp as a Replacement for Broken Consumer Stereo

M

MH321

Member
Hi, I recently had my consumer Sony av reciever break, and I'm looking at replacing it. I am looking into replacing it with pro audio gear, but I have many questions about this. My home audio system has been and will be used 80% for playing music, 10% for audio recording from my computer, and 10% for watching TV. I may want an amp in the $150-200 range.


I'm interested in a pro amp (a quieter model or one with a modified fan) because of the price, power, durability, and positive stuff I read about thier sound. It'll probably be just a single 2 channel amp powering all my speakers.


1- Can I connect regular consumer audio speakers to a pro amp? I have 5 Aiwa speakers left over from a previous stereo (L+R @6 Ohms, Cen @ 8 Ohm, RearL+RearR @4 Ohms). They aren't high end speakers, but will they work fine with the amp, can they get blown easily, will I have any compatibility problems (If so, what if i only use some of them?)?



2- How can I connect a pro amp to the rest of my equipment?
I have:


Tascam Pro DAT deck w/XLR jacks running at +4dbu
Sony consumer DAT deck with unbalanced rca's
Consumer DVD player with unbalanced rca's
Consumer graphic equalizer with unbalanced rca's
PC sound card with unbalanced jacks
...and a few other consumer stuff with unbalanced rca jacks.


I'd want to buy a pro 31 band stereo equalizer along with the pro amp for better sound (XLR/Pro-Phono jack interface).


I'm wondering what I can put in between the Pro amp and the source I'd be playing, that lets me select the audio source I want to play, or direct where I want my audio to go? A mixer? A pro-preamp maybe? Some kind of switch? I need the ability to somehow direct audio through the new pro EQ during playback. Any ideas?



3-What do I use to convert line levels from consumer to pro, and backwards? Can a mixer do that for me?



I hope someone can help me understand how I can get this to work out. Once I'll have an idea how the consumer/pro interfacing works, I may need some help picking out the right equipment too.


Budget is about $400 (+/-$150) for an amp, EQ, and whatever is needed to interconnect everything. The stuff can be new or used.



Thanks
 
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The best bang for the buck pro amp is BGW. They fly under the radar, and are very powerful. A friend of mine uses one on his JBL 250Ti's and the sound is fantastic. Used Crown, QSC, and a few others are very good as well and can be had very reasonably.
 
Cool...thanks for the interesting suggestions so far...
How good are Samson mixers? Are they better than Behringers?
What are good/decent Equalizer brands? How is DBX at Eqs, how about Rane,ART, or Behringer?

I was thinking about the Crown or QSC amps, I read that they're supposedly good. I mainly listen to techno/trance/electronic music, are certain brands better at different music genres?
So any pro amp will drive virtually all speakers?

Thanks
 
I tend to have noise issues with pro audio mixers, it seems like their S/N ratio and channel separation isn't good enough for home audio where the ambient background noise level is usually pretty low.


But no one said you can't use a home preamp to drive a pro audio power amp :yes:
 
telemike said:
Line mixer: Samson SM-10 $199

http://www.sesystems.com/Samson-SM-10-Rackmount-10-Channel-Line-mixer-1U-P4598.aspx

http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/mixers/sm10/sm10/


Power Amp: Samson Servo 200 $199

http://www.sesystems.com/Samson-Servo-200-Stereo-Power-Amplifier-P1547.aspx

http://www.samsontech.com/samson/products/power-amplifiers/servo-series/servo200/

EQ: BBE $149

http://www.sesystems.com/BBE-EQA-215-Stereo-15-Band-EQ-P3717.aspx
Click to expand...

For the budget, this fits the bill nicely.......


wingman0121 said:
I tend to have noise issues with pro audio mixers, it seems like their S/N ratio and channel separation isn't good enough for home audio where the ambient background noise level is usually pretty low.


But no one said you can't use a home preamp to drive a pro audio power amp :yes:
Click to expand...

Must be doing something wrong, I have never had such issues, I use a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro with my McIntosh MC2205, tidy sounding little combo....
No noise issues.....can't see why there would be.....

MH321 said:
Cool...thanks for the interesting suggestions so far...
How good are Samson mixers? Are they better than Behringers?
What are good/decent Equalizer brands? How is DBX at Eqs, how about Rane,ART, or Behringer?

I was thinking about the Crown or QSC amps, I read that they're supposedly good. I mainly listen to techno/trance/electronic music, are certain brands better at different music genres?
So any pro amp will drive virtually all speakers?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The Samson gear is entry level pro gear, and really I don't think you will do much better for the money, you have a pretty tight budget to start talking Crown and QSC.......
There is nothing wrong with the samson gear for you want to do though, but do your research, go and check one out to see how noisy the fans are......

The thing with "pro" amps is they are often designed to run all day at full power and drive low impedance's, so they have fans and large heatsinks for thermal management.....
 
kevzep said:
Must be doing something wrong, I have never had such issues, I use a Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro with my McIntosh MC2205, tidy sounding little combo....
No noise issues.....can't see why there would be.....
Click to expand...


I forgot the model but it was a set of two Pioneer DJ CD players (the kind that you can spin the CDs like a Vinyl) and a Pioneer mixer hooked up to a QSC RMA 1450. The noise I'm talking about is hiss, with no music playing the hiss is definitely noticeable. Tried some RCA ground loop isolators and AC ground adapters and it didn't change anything so I figure it's the mixer since the amp itself is quiet with a different source. Sold that set and someone spilled beer on it at a party and fried just about everything.
 
The Samson is entry level and fits the OP budget.

You would need to add more $$ to move up to Crest, Crown, QSC, etc. and a better quality mixer front end.

The BBE Eq's work pretty good for the money and are as good as dbx IMO at that price point. I've installed a BBE 31 band EQ at one church.

Carvin may be another option as they are factory direct and may fit your budget too.
 
What are some of the other good amp models for my price range? I was thinking $200, but will there be a big difference if I spend a little bit more on an amp, like one for $300 for example?
Is buying a used amp a good idea?

Also, do the pro amps last longer than the consumer stuff?
 
A used pro amp can be anything from a spare to a worn out piece of junk. Be very careful. I've had two experiences where I bought a pro amp which looked and smelled fine yet turned out to to be a dud. One even sounded great when I picked it up. Worked for 10 min. at home and quit. Complete write off.

Watch out 2nd hand.
 
I wouldn't exactly call Samson entry level. Their gear might be low priced but it actually seems to be of pretty darn good quality. I have had experience with many different brands of pro gear, and Samson is among my favorites list. I would definitely say shoot for Samson, they are cheap and of very good quality at the same time.
I have faith in the servo series, but I have had very good experiences with the SX series. The one I have tested lined right up with QSC's RMX series, just without the bells and whistles.

As for mixers, Samson mixers are also very good, right in line with Mackie, but of course it's going to be nothing like an Allen & Heath or a Neve.
An SM-10 will do what you need nicely, I have also had very good personal experience with a couple MDR series mixers.
 
Last edited:
MH321 said:
2- How can I connect a pro amp to the rest of my equipment?
I have:


Tascam Pro DAT deck w/XLR jacks running at +4dbu
Sony consumer DAT deck with unbalanced rca's
Consumer DVD player with unbalanced rca's
Consumer graphic equalizer with unbalanced rca's
PC sound card with unbalanced jacks
...and a few other consumer stuff with unbalanced rca jacks.


I'd want to buy a pro 31 band stereo equalizer along with the pro amp for better sound (XLR/Pro-Phono jack interface).


I'm wondering what I can put in between the Pro amp and the source I'd be playing, that lets me select the audio source I want to play, or direct where I want my audio to go? A mixer? A pro-preamp maybe? Some kind of switch? I need the ability to somehow direct audio through the new pro EQ during playback. Any ideas?

3-What do I use to convert line levels from consumer to pro, and backwards? Can a mixer do that for me?

Budget is about $400 (+/-$150) for an amp, EQ, and whatever is needed to interconnect everything. The stuff can be new or used.
Click to expand...

The amount of unbalanced stereo gear you have makes me lean toward consumer preamp rather than pro mixer on your budget. Since each piece takes up two mono channels, you're going to need eight channels (and a bunch of RCA to 1/4" cables) just for the consumer stuff, plus 2 more channels for the pro DAT, so the $280 mixer kevzep mentioned is out & you're bumped up to the $500 mixer. Plus i hate having to use two faders for one piece of gear. So I lean toward a good old fashioned preamp - you can probably find one with 5 inputs fairly easily.

For an amp I would look for a used QSC, but that's just me...try Guitar Center, you'll get a guarantee.

And I'd hold off on the EQ. If you really want to have some fun with signal enhancement look around for an Aphex 204 to play with.
 
I can always get better speakers later on, I think a pro amp gives me lots of upgrade choices later, but I need to replace the stereo first, since that's what's broken. A pro mixer like that samson might give me upgrade opportunities later on too, especially once prices go down on pro cd/hdd/flash recorders some day.

As for having more unbalanced consumer line level stuff than inputs may allow, I think I can just use a cheap source selector off ebay for the less critical stuff like like tv, vhs, etc.

By the way, how much can a cheap source selector degrade audio quality, vs. something like the samson mixer?

Also, please keep the suggestions coming for amps/mixers/EQs, i'm getting lots of interesting suggestions here on this forum. Also, I may consider a $300 amp (meaning I can lift my budget up slightly) if there is a noticeable difference in sound quality, better to buy something decent now than replace a cheap amp later on.

Thanks
 
FWIW; I run an Adcom gfp-565 into a Samson S2000....

Bought the amp for pennies and had a broken volume knob replaced for $60.
Been running it for a couple of years now no issues.
Yes there is fan noise but only if the volume is at a whisper.

YMMV.


Matt
 
I'm still looking at all the various stuff to choose from...

One amp that I find interesting is the Carvin HD2000, which is $300 new off ebay, and is made in the USA. It's the only amp I can find that isn't made in China at that price.

Does anyone know if they have quiet fans? How does the sound compare to crown (like the xls100) and qsc (like the gx3) amps?

Thanks
 
I would recommend finding a Crown D-75 then get yourself a pair of XLR to RCA female adapters and enjoy. Good rackmount D-75s are all over the place for less than 200 bucks and are great for near field monitoring (that means bookshelf speakers will love them)
 
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