I used to own the Crown DC-300A, DC-150A, IC-150(pre-amp). Now mind you this stuff was built in the mid-late 70's bought them in 90 while still in high school (thanks for telling me to get the Crown Denny!):
All channels where still balanced, the 300A didn't start clipping until 191 watts/channel, the 150 at 90 watts/channel. When the pots on the IC-150 started to make noise I called Crown. At 1st they said it was an old piece. Then a tech called me back. Asked me to send it in with return postage. They rebuilt the entire thing and charged me $40.
I gave the Crown setup to a buddy as a wedding gift in 98'. He is still using it to this day.
Damn that 300A just simply POUNDED. Thing was a brute.
The bigger underlying issue with Behringer I have heard about is that Uli Behringer would reverse engineer another manufacturers product, produce it cheap as hell and flood the market. It's hearsay/rumor. But enough industry people feel sour towards them so...
Yeah, I've heard a buncha stories like that... people sending back old amps to Crown and they repair them for cheap. They have a whole tech department that is just for customer support, and they don't seem to care how big or small of a customer you are. They are also really helpful with selecting an amp; If you call them up and give them your speaker specs, application, preferences and budget, they'll really help you narrow down the right product.
As far as Behringer, I've heard that too, but I'm not sure how valid it is. The lawsuit Mackie filed was settled out of court. The settlement amount I don't know, I've heard all kinds of numbers. Just last year they were fined by the FCC for a million... something about radiation, haha.
Many of the sound reinforcement amps have some rolloff on both the high and low ends of the sonic spectrum since they don't normally reproduce much outside of 40hz to 11 khz. or so and sometimes won't extend much beyond that. That probably isn't an issue at all with movie soundtracks but it might insense audiophiles who want the amp to amplify things they can't hear and things that don't exist on their recordings.
Haha, you are I are SO on the same page.
If you want serious audiophile type sound quality get the Crown D75 - crown's best monitoring amp. It is a high current 75 wpc amp that is more powerful than anything in a name brand receiver. Flat as a pancake from 20 to 20K. I use one for mixing and mastering in my project studio. It drives my home made Vifa driven monitors. It is as clean as a whistle.
I had a pair of the old QSC USA 100 amps for many years in my home theater. These were also excellent - heavy and rugged. 100 wpc (RMS, not peak like the receivers rate it) I'm not sure which current model replaced them but they should certainly have something that is just fine for home theater applications. The USA 100 was pretty popular many years ago with the home theater crowd.
Either of these amps will blow you out of the room without working up a sweat. Either would be overkill for the listening levels I use.
Here is a list of THX-Certified cinema amps (and speakers, the amps are listed at the bottom) for Fall '07:
http://www.thx.com/products/professional/pdf/ApprovedEquipList.pdf
(obviously there are other awesome pro amps, this is just their list)
So, my Crown XLS402 is THX certified for cinema use... and I paid 330 after the rebate... I wonder what a comparable home amp would cost with THX certification? Could I even find one? Home audio stuff is just waayyy overpriced. There is no doubt in my mind that my next home theater upgrade will be all amplified by pro-audio seperates.
