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What's
the difference between consumer and pro audio equipment?
up vote
0
down vote
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2
There are some
diffences between consumer/Hi-Fi and pro music audio equipment,
besides that pro audio equipment is bigger and louder, requires
cooling fans, etc. eg. Hi-Fi uses a pre-amp, pro audio uses a mixing
desk.
What's the
difference in terms of the electronics? Can an electric/electronic
instrument (eg. electric guitar) be plugged into a domestic Hi-Fi, or
an iPod into a guitar practice amp? What are the differences in the
I/O line levels and impedances, etc. for each?
audio
shareimprove this
question
edited Nov 5 '12 at
17:18
asked Nov 5 '12 at
11:42
Rob Kam
4771614
1
A bit of a
generalization there, as many electronic instruments and
non-electrical instruments with electronic pick-ups can in fact be
plugged into line-in on domestic Hi-Fi devices. – Anindo Ghosh Nov
5 '12 at 11:58
add a comment
2 Answers
activeoldestvotes
up vote
13
down vote
accepted
Before I answer
this, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm an EE, and I
primarily work in the Pro-Audio industry-- although I have also done
some work for an audiophile company. I've been using pro-audio
equipment for 25 years, and designing pro audio-stuff for 14 years. I
mention this so that you can judge for yourself the quality of the
answer I'm about to give you.
First, what @Rob
said is correct in that the term "HiFi" does not have much
meaning. So I am going to slightly reword your question to this:
What is the
difference between consumer audio and professional audio?
Before answering
this, let me point out that pro-audio is not just what you would hear
at a concert or what a wedding DJ would use. Pro-audio gear is used
at an airport for their paging system, or at a restaurant for their
background music, or in a boardroom, or at a movie theater.
There are many
differences, and I'll highlight some of them:
Purpose
Pro-audio has a
different purpose that home audio does not always need. Homes rarely
need an amplifier that can drive 100 speakers in parallel. They
rarely need an amplifier that can drive 8,000 watts. Homes tend to
switch from one audio source to another, not mix several sources
together.
The connectors used
are different. Amplifiers that are used for DJ's, touring concerts,
etc. tend to have Neutrix Speakon connectors. Amps used for
"installed sound" have screw-terminals or Phoenix terminal
strips. Consumer amps tend to have screw terminals or some
light-weight wire clip things. Consumer equipment uses (typically)
unbalanced audio signals on RCA connectors while pro-audio tends to
use balanced signals on XLR connectors.
There are literally
thousands of other differences that are dictated by the intended
purpose of the equipment.
Ruggedness
Pro-equipment tends
to be more rugged. Especially the equipment that is intended to be
used in a live or touring sound environment. They use connectors that
can withstand a lot of mate/unmate cycles. The chassis are made from
thicker sheet metal. The chassis are designed to be bolted into an
equipment rack. Typically the equipment has been designed to
withstand more shock, vibration, and temperature extremes. Some of it
has been made with withstand rain, direct sunshine, fog-machine
condensate, and even salt spray.
Power
Yes, pro-audio amps
tend to be higher power than consumer amps. Also, the stated specs of
a pro-audio amp tend to be more "real" than the stated
specs of a consumer amp. When rating the power of an amp there are a
lot of ways that the specs can be fudged, and pro audio amps tend to
fudge them less or if they are fudged then there is usually a
footnote in the manual that explains exactly how the spec is
measured.
This gets even worse
when you consider car audio amps. The max power for a car amp is
usually rated at 10% THD+Noise. Basically they crank up the power
until the output is 10% THD+N and that is the spec that they quote.
Home amps tend to spec the noise at 1% THD+N. Pro amps tend to go to
0.1% or 0.05% THD+N. Of course, there will be companies that do not
follow these generalizations.
Electronics
Pro-audio gear tends
to be built to last. There are pro audio amps that are still running
strong after 20 years of solid use. Consumer audio gear, not so much.
Part of this is because pro gear is used in more hostile
environments, but the other part is just liability. Imagine this,
your amplifiers are powering a large concert with 50,000 people in
the audience. 5 minutes before the concert an amplifier dies and
happens to destroy a bunch of speakers in the process. The concert is
canceled and tickets are refunded-- then the lawsuits start.
Something like this could end up costing someone $1million or more.
This is one reason
why pro gear is more expensive. Better components cost more. For
example, decoupling caps on a +15v rail might be rated for +16v in
consumer gear. But in pro audio gear they would probably use 25v or
even 50v caps.
Levels &
impedance
Pro-gear is usually
designed to handle a wide range of signal levels. Some mic signals
are only 2 mV p-p, while other gear might be spitting out 30v p-p.
This is a huge variation. Of course not all equipment is designed to
take in the entire range of signals, but pro gear in general can
handle the wider range much better than consumer gear.
You mention
impedance, but this is largely a non-issue. Old-school equipment was
designed to use 600 ohm impedance signals. Modern equipment, both
consumer and pro, have low impedance outputs driving high-impedance
inputs. This is on the "line level" signals, of course.
For amplifiers, most
consumer and pro gear can handle 4 and 8 ohm speaker impedances.
Some, but not all, pro audio amps can handle 2 ohm speakers as well.
I should also
mention +48v Phantom Power. Consumer gear doesn't provide this at
all, while it is standard for pro gear that needs to connect to
microphones. But more importantly, most outputs on pro-audio gear is
designed to plug into inputs that are providing Phantom power.
Consumer gear cannot withstand the +48 volts, and could be damaged if
connected to a device that is providing phantom power.
Mixing Consumer and
Pro Gear
There is a lot of
mis-information about mixing pro and consumer gear. With a few
exceptions, you can mix them just fine. The exceptions are: Phantom
Power and Signal Level. As mentioned earlier, with Phantom power you
can destroy gear. If the signal levels are wrong you will just get
very quiet or very distorted sound but no damage.
So, go for it! Just
be careful about Phantom power and you'll be fine. It might not sound
as good as it could, but it will work.
Some of the
mis-information that I've heard has to do with the pro-gear producing
sounds (transients, etc.) that are too hard on the consumer gear.
This is complete nonsense. If it is doing that, then it will sound
distorted and you know to turn it down. That's all.
Disclaimer
What I wrote above
is a large generalization. There are exceptions to everything. There
is consumer gear that is well made, with low noise, etc. There is
also "pro" gear that is terrible. And, of course, there are
"crossover" products that have features of both pro and
consumer gear. As with everything, your mileage (kilometerage?) may
vary.
shareimprove this
answer
answered Nov 5 '12
at 15:52
user3624
I am constantly
amazed by high-tech lab environments connecting everything w/ BNC
cables and and how much time is spend tracking down noise. The best
treatment of interconnects is in audio engineering, where everything
important is double-ended. If you want to know how to avoid noise, go
to the audio engineering books. – Scott Seidman Nov 5 '12 at 17:17
Thanks, fine answer.
I've reworded my question. – Rob Kam Nov 5 '12 at 17:21
add a comment
up vote
0
down vote
HiFi is just short
for "high fidelity" and there is no technical definition.
I'd go as far as to say it's a marketing term alone and I didn't know
anyone still used it.
shareimprove this
answer
answered Nov 5 '12
at 12:57
Rob
206210
1
This isn't strictly
true: the German standard DIN45500 is the technical definition of
'hi-fi'. See saturn-sound.com/images%20-%20articles/… and
saturn-sound.com/images%20-%20articles/… – Chris Johnson Nov 5
'12 at 15:08
add a comment
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