Stand Alone Power Amplifiers

The simple answer is yes.

Consumer gear isn’t hardened, doesn’t have the same protections and likely won’t stand up to PA or instrument use. You could very easily connect a bass preamp into stereo gear and if not careful immediately send it into self-protect.

Class D amps originally handled low frequencies better and were unusable for full range PA speakers. That changed as technology developed. It’s possible to find an amp built into a bass rig that wouldn’t be acceptable for other uses.

PA amp design criteria are biased more toward high power output, ruggedness and may not perform as well in a studio monitor setting.

I have an A-tier studio monitor subwoofer that has the same ice power module as many of the current bass amp heads. In self-powered PA speakers the Powersoft amp module is a pretty common engine. I’ve seen a blind A/B test by some golden ears between the Powersoft rackmount PA amps and a studio reference amp on very high-end PA speakers and they couldn’t find a difference.

3 Likes