Pro speakers as home audio?

[not a wizard]

Has anyone tried using pro speakers such as EAW or Renkus Heinz, just to name a few, to build a home system?

 

[bvocal]

Sure, lots of people. There are many ways to approach ProFi (what I call it). You can just do it with any consumer amp or whatever, or get active units and use your phone. Simple and something, not sure what it will be, so many variables.
The advantages of pro speakers is they handle power, not in the sense of play them at 150 db, but in the sense that they can have live sound dynamics (odd that...). So, IMHO, that is what you want them for. Consumer amps of any sane (to me) price, er, just might not deliver the mojo that really does it. For that reason I suggest active or use pro amps, unless of course, you can float many K for fancy audiophile stuff.
PA speakers are pretty capable and can really rock... but there is also the path of using pro drivers and making your own HiFi cabinets or Baffles for them. This would be the route I went, pro drivers, crown amps, my acoustics (baffles, diffusers etc) and the best HiFi input signal I can put together for it (in my budget etc). The results are everything I was hoping for, instruments sound like real instruments, vocals are honest, everything is just dead on hones, what a good pro system should be, flavor is up to the person making the input, in home audio that means the turntable/cartridge/preamp... dac... tubes... cables... power, all the audiophile HiFi tricks count big and, being pro gear, eq and stuff (you don't have to be uptight about NO EQ! screamed the audiophile... pro gear is made to be shaped to what you want, IMHO)
There are also -very- high end pro speakers for the mixing mastering setups, like ATC... used quite often in high $ home setups. Smaller near field monitors are often used for computer setups...
IMHO pro gear category has a ton to offer....

edit- I'll add that my ProFi setup does great at all sound levels, from about 45db at listening position up to anything that peaks out at, say, 120 db, but no sane human would do that for long, that said, it's been a life long goal of mine to have a rig that when I want to truly bathe in the sound and turn it up, the system does not lose any magic at all, but in fact just keeps getting better and more epic, and I mean really freaking epic, and I finally have that with the ProFi, so don't freaking listen to anyone telling you it's a bad road, go down that road for yourself and see what you hear, but keep in mind, it's the HiFi details and qualities of sound that you feed it that is so important to the results of your ProFi setup, and, Acoustics Matter!!!!... I'll also add that I tried my near field studio monitors for general room use, that kinda range, like anything else in the vast range of pro audio gear, is gonna be speaker specific.

 

[JLM1948]

Remember that most pro speakers are designed for long throw. usi,ng them in a domestic room may not give them a chance to shine.
OTOH studio monitors are well suited for a typical living area.

 

[Kakkadu]

I've been using the JBL LSR 305's and Behringer B2031A's for years in different HT setups and even hosting parties. The Behringers are a clone of a classic Genelec 1030A monitors at a fraction of cost. They have an extremely good price/value ratio.

 

[DanDan]

In live sound work I have noticed some particular models and brands sound very very good. e.g. Nexo and Mackie. I would happily use either in my Control Room. Hi Fi would be no different.

 

[Grayson Dere]

I'm currently using Alesis Monitor Ones as mains for my HT setup. The resolution is quite good!

 

[ISharp]

Sure, lots of people. There are many ways to approach ProFi (what I call it). You can just do it with any consumer amp or whatever, or get active units and use your phone. Simple and something, not sure what it will be, so many variables.
The advantages of pro speakers is they handle power, not in the sense of play them at 150 db, but in the sense that they can have live sound dynamics (odd that...). So, IMHO, that is what you want them for. Consumer amps of any sane (to me) price, er, just might not deliver the mojo that really does it. For that reason I suggest active or use pro amps, unless of course, you can float many K for fancy audiophile stuff.
PA speakers are pretty capable and can really rock... but there is also the path of using pro drivers and making your own HiFi cabinets or Baffles for them. This would be the route I went, pro drivers, crown amps, my acoustics (baffles, diffusers etc) and the best HiFi input signal I can put together for it (in my budget etc). The results are everything I was hoping for, instruments sound like real instruments, vocals are honest, everything is just dead on hones, what a good pro system should be, flavor is up to the person making the input, in home audio that means the turntable/cartridge/preamp... dac... tubes... cables... power, all the audiophile HiFi tricks count big and, being pro gear, eq and stuff (you don't have to be uptight about NO EQ! screamed the audiophile... pro gear is made to be shaped to what you want, IMHO)
There are also -very- high end pro speakers for the mixing mastering setups, like ATC... used quite often in high $ home setups. Smaller near field monitors are often used for computer setups...
IMHO pro gear category has a ton to offer....

edit- I'll add that my ProFi setup does great at all sound levels, from about 45db at listening position up to anything that peaks out at, say, 120 db, but no sane human would do that for long, that said, it's been a life long goal of mine to have a rig that when I want to truly bathe in the sound and turn it up, the system does not lose any magic at all, but in fact just keeps getting better and more epic, and I mean really freaking epic, and I finally have that with the ProFi, so don't freaking listen to anyone telling you it's a bad road, go down that road for yourself and see what you hear, but keep in mind, it's the HiFi details and qualities of sound that you feed it that is so important to the results of your ProFi setup, and, Acoustics Matter!!!!... I'll also add that I tried my near field studio monitors for general room use, that kinda range, like anything else in the vast range of pro audio gear, is gonna be speaker specific.

Thx Bvocal for this very insightful comment. You've nailed it IMHO. We are currently deploying in you smart home installation the ProFi path and I got some really, ProFi arguments from your text, besides I love my Studiomonitors and HiFi Subs combined

 

[ISharp]

I was evaluating a quite big range in Home Audio environment - stored my first PA loudspeakers I've used for rental purposes at home. Definitely Mackie SA1232z + 8 x 18 Inch active Subwoofers are overkill, the amount of gain is making it impossible using such a set up in a home environment, except you have a 200 square meter room or you want to destroy permanently your good relation to neighbours and hearing capabilities.

For home setups, Studio Monitors and pro audio equipment is my key for audio heaven, enabling tweaking to any desired sound, from a flat listening curve to coloured, all are available at a price point not reachable with HiFi equipment delivering the same performance level.

In critical AB comparisons, my conclusion was always, if a speaker is equalized the same way, it's quite difficult to distinguish which material was used for the speakers/tweeters.
More important is for my use case power handling and here I don't see anything passive coming close to active speakers placed correctly in the room, as near as possible "cloaking" room effects by placing the listener as much as possible in the direct sound field.

 

[Kakkadu]

I was evaluating a quite big range in Home Audio environment - stored my first PA loudspeakers I've used for rental purposes at home. Definitely Mackie SA1232z + 8 x 18 Inch active Subwoofers are overkill, the amount of gain is making it impossible using such a set up in a home environment, except you have a 200 square meter room or you want to destroy permanently your good relation to neighbours and hearing capabilities.

For home setups, Studio Monitors and pro audio equipment is my key for audio heaven, enabling tweaking to any desired sound, from a flat listening curve to coloured, all are available at a price point not reachable with HiFi equipment delivering the same performance level.

In critical AB comparisons, my conclusion was always, if a speaker is equalized the same way, it's quite difficult to distinguish which material was used for the speakers/tweeters.
More important is for my use case power handling and here I don't see anything passive coming close to active speakers placed correctly in the room, as near as possible "cloaking" room effects by placing the listener as much as possible in the direct sound field.

While I like (and use) using pro gear in home audio, I beg to differ to your text as IMO there are still quite big differences between techniques like bipole, dipole, horn loaded, magnetostat, electrostat etc. And even in traditional cone/dome based solutions. No amount of EQ can make a bad speaker sound good... If I had to choose if I would install my Electro-Voice 15" PA cabs or my Behringer B2031A:s I would always choose the latter because they work much better in a living room size room. Not by quantity but quality. Then again for outdoor application the EV would almost always be my choice unless it's a close range patio type of listening.

 

[not a wizard]

I have most of my system setup. Short of a good EQ, my proFi system very good. It’s so much better than my expensive home HiFi!

I do one golden question for those with years of experience with similar setup. How do you get SURROUND SOUND, with digital to split into multiple analog signals??!! My pro amp accepts 1 analog per channel or through the CobraNet. But my friend told me he hasn’t figured out how decode digital surround to analog. I can’t seem to find an answer either!

 

[ISharp]

I‘m using an AVR - yamaha aventage a5100 with XLR out to feed the surround signal into a Midas Mixer, distributing with ultranet.

I have most of my system setup. Short of a good EQ, my proFi system very good. It’s so much better than my expensive home HiFi!

I do one golden question for those with years of experience with similar setup. How do you get SURROUND SOUND, with digital to split into multiple analog signals??!! My pro amp accepts 1 analog per channel or through the CobraNet. But my friend told me he hasn’t figured out how decode digital surround to analog. I can’t seem to find an answer either!

 

[NBPK402]

I used to have JBL 2360As, Klipsch HIPs, and another pair of Klipsch Pro speakers in my old theater. My current system is with 3 modified Klipsch Pro K402s. I love the efficiency and sound of JBL and Klipsch Pro Speakers. The JBLS, and my current K402s both use EV DH1a drivers.

 

[not a wizard]

Those receiver/amplifiers have built-in surround decoder. I’m using a Crown amplifier which does not have that. I think it’s mostly used with installation application, so it doesn’t have that design built in. Without using a receiver with a surround card built in, it seems there’s no other way to get the “installation” amplifiers to produce surround sound!!

 

[not a wizard]

I‘m using an AVR - yamaha aventage a5100 with XLR out to feed the surround signal into a Midas Mixer, distributing with ultranet.

Are you able to apply any DSP to your Yamaha Aventage A5100?

 

[not a wizard]

I used to have JBL 2360As, K.ipsch HIPs, and another pair of Klipsch Pro speakers in my old theater. My current system is with 3 modified Klipsch Pro K402s. I love the efficiency and sound of JBL and Klipsch Pro Speakers. The JBLS, and my current K402s both use EV DH1a drivers.

What amplifier and DSP are you using?

 

[NBPK402]

Those receiver/amplifiers have built-in surround decoder. I’m using a Crown amplifier which does not have that. I think it’s mostly used with installation application, so it doesn’t have that design built in. Without using a receiver with a surround card built in, it seems there’s no other way to get the “installation” amplifiers to produce surround sound!!

Back in the 80s you could buy a Fosgate surround processor, but nowadays I think you have to either have a AV preamp or a AVR with the surround built in to have surround. I do not recall any power amps ever having surround unit built in. There are some power amps that have processing for eq though.

There is one other way to run surround, but I think it will be $$$$, and that is to buy a movie theater surround processor.. I do not know how you find one other than from a theater going out of business though.

 

[NBPK402]

What amplifier and DSP are you using?

I am using the Yamaha cxa5100 with Yamaha p2500s pro amps currently. I use YPAO for my room tune, and dolby atmos for surround. If you only need room tune...you can uy a MiniDSP Dirac box to hookup between you AVR via the preouts and your power amps.

 

[not a wizard]

At the way many counties are doing with this pandemic there might wa lot of movie theaters going out of business. But I don’t wish that on them.

 

[not a wizard]

I am using the Yamaha cxa5100 with Yamaha p2500s pro amps currently. Ius3 YPAO for my room tune,and dolby atmos for surround. If you only need room tune...you can uy a MiniDSP Dirac box to hookup between you AVR via the preouts and your power amps.

I will be using the Audia Flex to tune my speakers. It connects directly through CobraNet to the amp. The amp itself does have some tuning capabilities though.

 

[NBPK402]

At the way many counties are doing with this pandemic there might wa lot of movie theaters going out of business. But I don’t wish that on them.

From what I have read...it is a good chance we will have no more Theaters. If that happens we might have a better chance of buying media for many years to come. The Studios make more money selling streams than they do from theaters.
We occasionally have went to the local theater in Mexico, but mainly because it only costs a few dollars. Most people that are in the forums have better audio than the theaters and some have video that rivals it (sometimes even better), plus you can pause a movie if you want at home. I have only went maybe once a year to a local theater when we lived in the USA in the last 25 years. Much cheaper and enjoyable to buy the media, and you can watch it many times for less than going to a theater one time.

 

[NBPK402]

I will be using the Audia Flex to tune my speakers. It connects directly through CobraNet to the amp. The amp itself does have some tuning capabilities though.

Is that for eqing the speakers or for tuning them to the room?

 

[not a wizard]

Audia Flex does both tuning to the room and EQ, and much more. It has crossovers, different filters, limiters, sine generator, pink noise. To give this up is a very tough pill for my friend to swallow. I will use this setup for music. When I want movies, I might switch to a receiver.

 

[not a wizard]

You’re most likely right we’ll be stuck at home for many years to come with the way people stream and the trend of the pandemic.

 

[not a wizard]

Audia Flex does both tuning to the room and EQ, and much more. It has crossovers, different filters, limiters, sine generator,

 

[not a wizard]

And pink noise