Hifi power amp for monitoring

[zurdillo]

Hello all,

I wonder if is suitable a quality hi-fi power amplifier for powering two good quality passive studio monitors, for home studio works. I say something like Maranz, Luxman,..., matched with KRK, Dynaudio, etc.

I don't know if the distortion and other specs are not similar to a studio power amp.

Any info would be welcomed!

 

[witzendoz]

The power amp will work fine as long as the power rating is up to powering the monitors, remembering that studio monitors get driven loud at times, and that the amp is matched to the speaker ohms.

One of my studio power amps (I use 2 amps, 1 for each set of monitors) is an old HiFi Hafler amp and it sounds fantastic. I actually have an old Technics hifi amp (not even a power amp) running the studio talkback system with a pair of old Sony Hifi Speakers in the recording room to talk through and listen to quick playback.

Cheers
Alan.

 

[Manbient]

I have seen and heard this done before, and it's really not too bad an idea, as long as your speaker and amp pairings are fairly neutral. Dynaudio does work pretty well, though they tend to have a little midbass hump to them around what i'd guess (never measured) is right around 100 Hz. As for amps, Bryston is used very often in studios and are what some describe as "clinical" (especially the older 4B's). It depends on your budget, but if you are going to use a "consumer" amp, Bryston is the very first to come to mind to me, as they tend to have a lot of grip and authority, and don't try to sound too pretty. I've heard them with a fair number of speakers, but i do think they pair very nicely to Dynaudio... granted it was not their passive studio line, but speakers in the contour and confidence lines.

 

[Massive Master]

Bryston, Hafler, Rotel (the high-current models), NAD, Vincent, BelCanto...

There are plenty of HiFi amps out there that are up to the task.

There are plenty of HiFi speakers that will outperform almost anything that says "Studio Monitor" on them.




There are also plenty of "hi-fi" pieces out there that are anything but high in fidelity...

 

[zurdillo]

Thank you very much.

Really I've seen a hifi power amp Luxman M120A, after reading your comments I think that this can be a suitable candidate for match my Dynaudios.

 

[Lt. Bob]

for power amps pretty much any hi-fi power amp of decent quality will do just as well as any of the crap we get from music companies with the meaningless term, 'studio amp' or 'Monitor amp' printed on them.

For speakers it's not quite so clear-cut but there are VERY many hi-fi speakers that are far more accurate than the 3 and 4 hundred dollar stuff we get with the, again meaningless, term ... "studio monitor" painted on them.

For the most part, when you're talking stuff that's not expensive, the term "studio monitor" is only a marketing ploy and has no actual connection to the speakers' performance.

 

[frederic]

I agree with all of the above and my very first "studio monitors" were a pair of used Radio Shack "Mach-I" speakers, model 4024 "A". They had an adjustable crossover whereas I could tweak them to "somewhat" flat and compensate the rest with my brain.

The only thing I didn't like about them was how inefficient they were - to get a reasonably flat sound I had to apply lots of power - at least 75W RMS. Below that, the bass response rolled off very quickly and at about 40W, all you'd hear is mid and high frequencies with an occasional "thump". That might have been the amp I used though - it was a massive vacuum tube amplifier rated for 95W RMS, also made in the late 70's.

 

[Lt. Bob]

wow ..... I haven't seen any of those for quite a while but I remember them.

Never had a pair but I had a couple of other Radio Shack speakers that weren't too bad.