Parasound Owners Thread - Page 29

Thanks guys. I'll update this post with that info when they reply.

Edit: Parasound support let me know that the small case of the A23 is the limiting factor, and because of its size it cannot dissipate the heat that a 4ohm nominal load would generate. So they do not recommend bridging it into a 4ohm load.

My bad. I meant the A21 and forgot there is not really a 2 Channel equivalent of the A52. Again, the A23 is a nice Amplifier, but I just do not know if you would notice a major difference.
Cheers,
AD

Hi,

I am seriously considering adding an A21 to my system.

I have Kef XQ40 L/R, XQ50c center, B&W CCM616 ceiling for surrounds, and Kef IQ10 for Heights. For subs, I have my Velodyn Optimum 12 or my older Def Tech Powerfield 1500. For AVR receivers (to act as Pre/Pro) I have an Onkyo TX-NR1008 and a Denon AVR4310CI. The Denon and the Def Tech sub are currently on my second system. For music I have a Denon BDP2010CI, IPOD Classic 160, and Apple Tv with my labtop (decreasing order of quality). I-Tunes is all recorded in lossless except purchases.

Down the road I plan to purchase a preamp with HT bypass (NC2100?) for even better two channel. My concerns are heat. The A21 will put out about 90 - 150 w when on driving low volumes. That is like another body in the room giving off heat. My room is about 13' wide, 16' deep with 9' ceilings.

How close would the NC2250 sound and how much less heat would it give off? I am in Florida, and my media room can get warm if I have had things running too long.

Thanks,

Jim

You would probably get the best answer by contacting Parasound. As has been said before, this is not to put you off, but to let you know Parasound is excellent in responding to customers inquiries (this was one reason I bought a Parasound amp).

Saturn94,
I called Parasound. The A21 uses about 150 watts (measured, most of which ends up as heat) at idle or playing low volumes on higher efficiency speakers. The NC2250 is estimated to be around 60 watts playing lower volumes, again ~90 dB efficiency speakers.

Has anybody compared the A21 and NC2250 sound wise? Reviews are excellent on the A21, professional or in blogs. Doesn't seem like there is much feedback on the NC2250.

The A-21 gets warm but not hot when playing music at plenty loud levels. I've been very happy with my P-7 preamp (which has home theater bypass, btw) and A-21 amp combo. The amp replaced an aged Levinson 332, and while less warm in flavor than the 332, I haven't missed it at all. I will say that both the pre and amp, the amp moreso, required a good bit of burn-in to settle. Since then, everything has been transparent and complimentary to the music. Money well spent.

If it helps any I'm very happy with the sound of my 5250, which I would think would sound the same as the 2250 and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

For reference, for 2 channel music my 5250 is driving a pair of Salk HT2-TLs.

Jive Turkey / Saturn94,
Thanks for the feedback! When I can swing the purchase it sounds like I would be happy with either Amp. At this point I am still shooting for the A21 and am definitely looking forward to it, hopefully before year end.

Saturn94 - I would love to be able to listen to Salk speakers someday, I am sure they are pretty awesome! Lots of positive feedback from their owners, much like Parasound.

You're welcome.

I've found both Parasound and Salk to be great customer service oriented companies with great/high value products.

If you decide to audition Salks, contact Jim Salk and he can probably find an owner near you that would be willing to offer an audition.

You're welcome. I'm pushing Dunlavy SC-IVA's with my gear, with dual SVS powered cylinder subs rolling in below 50 Hz.

I was not familiar with SC-IV/A's but after a quick Google search I am sure they must be quite impresive. From other posts, I believe you may also have Q900's? What do you drive them with?

Jim

I demoed the PARASOUND Halo A21 for a very extended period before I finally decided on what to purchase. I brought all of my favorite CD's and Blurays and A/B'd the A21 against numerous other power amps costing substantially more... I am talking 4, 6, 8 10 times as much and the A21 sounded just as good if not better than they did. It was so good we ended up with a 5 channel Halo A51 and a 2 channel Halo A23 (this amp powers our front height ambient speakers). Coupled with our ONKYO pre-pro they are the best sounding power amps we have ever owned.

As for comparisons... Spielberg, Lukas and a host of others listed on this page:

http://www.parasound.com/about.php

have money to burn and they can buy ANYTHING out there. What equipment have they chosen for their sound studios to as accurately as possible reproduce the music and audio sound they are mixing and adding to their films? = PARASOUND Halos. Look at the extensive list of studio's and people who have chosen PARASOUND; it speaks volumes.

One more thing, PARASOUND's customer service is exceptional and personal.

You will be very happy with your investment the moment you hear it in your home theater.

They are used in my Home Theater system with a Pioneer TXH94 receiver doing all the amplification.

Hello,
I love SC-IV's. They are utterly imposing in terms of size. However, they are surprisingly easy to drive considering how gigantic they are. I actually used them for a month before letting a friend purchase them last year. Amazingly, for their size, they stay in the 4 Ohm range for the most part and do not dip below 2.9 Ohms. They are also quite efficient at over 90db.

I tried my Aragon 8008bb, HCA-3500 and even my HCA-2205AT and all did not break a sweat driving them. I honestly think an A23 could drive them in all but the largest Rooms.
Cheers,
AD

Jmouse007,
Thanks for sharing! I hope I can make the move soon.

What do you think of Heights? I found it minimal in expanding the front sound stage but for my system it helped my surrounds blend in (Kef fronts, B&W ceiling speakers for surrounds). My feeling is if you have 5 identical speakers for 5.1 it would not be worth it, but in my less than ideal setup it was a good add.

General question: Which AVR would be better for the front end, the Onkyo TX-NR1008 or the Denon 4310?

Anyone ever compared a Halo amp to Emotiva? I ask because there is an Emotiva XPA-3 and a Halo A-23 available locally for the same price(used). I have a Rotel rmb-1075 doing centre and surround duties right now so I don't require a 3 channel amp.
I am using an Onkyo 885p pre/pro and powering Monitor Audio RS-6 mains and matching centre.
cheers

The Halo amps are designed without any RC circuits in the audio signal path.
Also, the Halo amps do run Class A up to 27w, I think it is.
Emotiva amps do not run Class A.

Good points, thanks 4DHD.

Hello,
I think the 25 Watts only applies with the JC1 with the others being Class A Biased where they operate into Class A at lower wattage with each Halo Series Amplifier down the line. My HCA-3500 goes up to 15 Watts in Class A. My Aragon 8008bb goes up to 26 or 27 Watts.
Cheers,
AD

Yeah, that might be true, I was going off memory of previous reading. But in any case, I would call the Halo series to be better than the Emotiva.
I know my HCA2005A operates Class A, up to some wattage, and also has no caps/inductors in the signal path.

I personally haven't but a friend of mine compared an A51 to an XPA5 and he said there was a difference but not $2000 worth of difference. He was trying to decide if he should sell the A51 which he had for a while and ultimately did sell it and kept the XPA5.

Understandable, as the a51 even used still sell at around $3000 here. The A51 also has twice the power per channel of the a23.
Are you suggesting I buy both to compare at home?

I like having the height speakers, for my set up (Parasounds coupled with an ONKYO PR-SC5507) it did make a difference in expanding the front stage. The problem for us is the front height speakers we have at the moment are not great (the one "weak link" in my system). I plan on eventually replacing them with Def Tecs to match the rest of my system and I have no doubt they will make a big difference.

Regarding your other question, I would recommend the ONKYO. If you can swing it go for the TX-NR1009 or something else in the 009 series. Our son owns the 809 and loves it. Tremendous bang for the buck, you will get more features than the Denon, the Audessy is better the higher you go and it can handle 2000 and 4000 as opposed to just 1080p, when it eventually comes on line. You can check out the specs on www.onkyo.com

I hope this helps.

Jmouse A question for you:
Since you have the A51 and A23. Also you demo the A21. Have you ever compared the these amps sound when driving the two front speakers ( left and right fronts) in 2 ch stereo ?

Most would use the A21 to drive the front speakers. I am wondering if you have ever used two channels of the A51 to drive the fronts? Is there a clear difference in sound?

Thanks,

Harrison

Can anyone help with a problem with a Parasound 2205a 5 channel amplifier. Has worked fine for years but suddenly sound failed. It made a buzzing noise just before it failed. Still displays Normal and Channels 1-5 in green. Have restarted it but no output and does not get warm. I'm im the UK so not much support available here.

Thanks for any help on this.

Send an email to Parasound's service center. They can advise you what to do.

Topology: Fully Discrete, Dual Differential, High Current, Short Signal Path Class A/B
http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm

What does this mean? I had assumed this mean Class A and B amp.

Parasound JC-1 mono block: Ultra-high bias Class A/AB operation
Parasound A21 stereo amp: High bias Class A/AB operation;
That is the difference. Emo are good amps, but Parasound are better.

Class A
An amplifier in which the grid bias and alternating grid voltages are such that anode current in a specific tube flows at all times.

A transistor amplifier in which each transistor is in its active region for the entire signal cycle.

Class A/B
An amplifier in which the grid bias and alternating grid voltages are such that anode current in a specific tube flows for appreciably more than half but less than the entire electric cycle.

A transistor amplifier whose operation is class A for small signals and class B for large signals.

Class B
An amplifier in which the grid bias is approximately equal to the cutoff value, so that anode current is approximately zero when no exciting grid voltage is applied, and flows for approximately half of each cycle when an alternating grid voltage is applied.

A transistor amplifier in which each transistor is in its active region for approximately half the signal cycle.

Anyone in the market for a C2 and T3 tuner? I have one that was cosmetically damaged in the back rear corner. Wouldn't even notice if it was in a rack. PM me.

Thanks.

Having demoed the A21 and the A51, I found them exceptionally similar (that is why I went with the A51 over the A21. If they had not been I would have just gone with the A21 and looked elsewhere for powering my other channels).

As to how the A51 sounds in stereo mode only... my ONKYO 5507 has "Pure" and Stereo audio modes which only play sound through the L&R front mains (the "Pure" mode adds no processing at all... LOVE IT!). As a matter of fact, when playing CD's or records (remember those?) the A51 in Pure or Stereo sounds better than anything we have ever owned, bar none. Like I said; Lucas, Sony, Spielberg , WB, Universal etc... ALL OF THEM could buy ANYTHING they want to reproduce the audio for all of their movies in their studios and they have all chosen PARASOUND Halo power amps. Why? Because they are very accurate in reproducing sound.

Is the Halo A51 expensive, sure but it is a steal when you realize that it sounds as good if not better than power amps costing up to $30k (I know because I A/B demoed them, it was amazing how good they sounded compared to the competition). Apart from the Rogers Ls35a BBC monitors and Satterburg woofers I purchased almost 30 years ago, the Parasound Halo's are the best long-term audio investment we have made (they will be passed down to our kids once we are gone). To top it off, PARASOUND's customer service is nothing short of outstanding. They stand behind their products and they genuinely care about their customers and making sure their products perform flawlessly.

I could have gone with the A21 and A51 but the reality is I didn't need to because I don't need 250 watts per channel going into the front height ambient speakers... total over kill. So the A51 powers our L&R mains, center channel and side/surrounds (more effective than rears) and the A23 is dedicated to the front main heights.

One more thing re the A51 over the A21 in stereo mode. I believe the A51 may actually have more peak power available when playing stereo because it has the capacity to draw on power not being used by the other 3 channels. I could be wrong but I remember someone on the PARASOUND thread mentioning this quite a while ago.

I hope this helps in your decision making process.