H-713
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- Jan 24, 2021
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Usually they're evaluated by the users, and it either behaves well or it doesn't. Often as not, those "users" are the designers of the system - most speaker companies use one or two amplifier brands. For example, L-Acoustics sells their own line of amplifiers, and virtually every L-Acoustics system uses L-Acoustics amplifiers. Funktion One is partnered with MC2 and FFA. Those loudspeaker companies have largely worked with the amplifier companies to make sure that those amplifiers will work with the speaker systems being sold.
There's also a level of trust between the amplifier manufacturers and their end users. The end users expect that the amplifier will perform the way the manufacturer says it will, and the manufacturers know that if their products aren't up to muster, their customers will quickly find out and move to another vendor. The pro audio industry doesn't work all that differently from most other professional industries in this regard (IT, broadcast, industrial automation, etc). Often enough, amplifiers are chosen through a bidding process.
Tests of pro amplifiers is useful for some of us, but I rarely, if ever, have seen real issues caused by pro amplifiers not meeting their specifications. Of course, some amplifiers have a better reputation than others (more often than not, the ones with a bad reputation have a bad reputation for blowing up). The lack of 3rd party testing doesn't seem to be causing a real issue for the live sound people.
The only people who it causes a problem for are people like me who want to "misuse" audio amplifiers for other purposes... in which case, well, we get to do our own testing. I've tested a lot of pro amplifiers, and really haven't encountered too many name-brand pro amps that don't meet their specs, at least those that matter. Sure, some will trip power supply OCP mechanisms if you try to drive them at rated power into 2 ohms continuously... but a sub amplifier is more or less a pulsed-power application anyway.
There's also a level of trust between the amplifier manufacturers and their end users. The end users expect that the amplifier will perform the way the manufacturer says it will, and the manufacturers know that if their products aren't up to muster, their customers will quickly find out and move to another vendor. The pro audio industry doesn't work all that differently from most other professional industries in this regard (IT, broadcast, industrial automation, etc). Often enough, amplifiers are chosen through a bidding process.
Tests of pro amplifiers is useful for some of us, but I rarely, if ever, have seen real issues caused by pro amplifiers not meeting their specifications. Of course, some amplifiers have a better reputation than others (more often than not, the ones with a bad reputation have a bad reputation for blowing up). The lack of 3rd party testing doesn't seem to be causing a real issue for the live sound people.
The only people who it causes a problem for are people like me who want to "misuse" audio amplifiers for other purposes... in which case, well, we get to do our own testing. I've tested a lot of pro amplifiers, and really haven't encountered too many name-brand pro amps that don't meet their specs, at least those that matter. Sure, some will trip power supply OCP mechanisms if you try to drive them at rated power into 2 ohms continuously... but a sub amplifier is more or less a pulsed-power application anyway.
