Hi Slice, remember me ?.
Your presence here on DIY has much improved I am glad to say, and I welcome you to keep your happier tone.
Anyway, just as with domestic audio gear, it all depends what brand and model of pro amp we are talking about.
Some pro amps are bloody good, and some are ear bleeding turds !.
In my experience of Australian made pro amps, ARX and Jands are really good.
New Zealand made Perreaux FET with the right tweaks are magnificent.
Of other makes, IME Mackies are horrid - wrong lows, nasty mids and highs and profoundly fatigueing and plain just wrong.
Old Carver with SMPS are totally rotten - no bass balls, and M/H will drive you up the wall.
The by now getting older, Crown Macro Tech 600, 1200 and 2400 were really good.
These will drive low impedence loads, at full power all day long, sonically pleasingly and reliably.
The 1200 and 2400 have an interesting bass characteristic - they sort of push the bass big and clean, and damp really well at the same time, giving a neat bass dynamic range improvement, and the mids and highs are clean and never irritating if using star-quad speaker cable.
If you hunt you might find some second hand.
A couple of very educational reads, if you study them thoroughly are these owners manuals -
http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/amps/130252.pdf
http://www.crownaudio.com/pdf/amps/103169.pdf
A lot of pro amps trounce a lot of domestic amps if driven correctly, and loaded correctly in my experience.
If I am correct your application is home theatre, so because movie soundtracks are NOT pristine, clean, good, strong and ballsy sound is what is required, and not load dependance and idiosyncratic nervousness.
Try to audition some good pro amps at home if possible and you might be pleasantly surprised by the price/performance ratio.
Hope this fills you in some,
Regards, Eric.