I don't doubt you might prefer a Parasound product to Emotiva. I mentioned that Parasound was one of the best bang for the buck brands out there.
However, did the products you compared sell for the same price?
What find surprising is how many threads like to call out Emotiva for their claims, yet there are tons of brands making even more outlandish claims and charging 10x more than Emotiva.
I guarantee your Parasound will outperform many amps that cost 2-5x what you paid...Why do people call out the brand that sells for much less instead of the real phonies who charge much more.
If you don't find Emotiva a "particularly good buy at all", I wonder if you've ever looked under the hood of most other amplifier brands that sell products for the same price or much more. Most have nothing better than a fancier machined aluminum casing and worse measurements on a test bench.
In fact, I would take an Emotiva amp over the $100k Siltech amp based on the horrible measurements and defects in the recent Stereophile review.
Not saying this applies to everybody, but I think some Emotiva haters are just people who spent way too much on their mediocre products and would rather speak negatively on the products that cost less, than those that cost more.
Here's my litmus test for a legitimate Emotiva criticism...Do they list better products at the same price or do they only compare them to more expensive? |
I've had 3 Emotiva products, including an amp that I compared with an A21. Emotiva is certainly not the equal of Halo amps any way you want to slice it. The point is, Emotiva is out there claiming that they are High End and why pay more, and once claimed in an ad that their UMC-200 was the equal of a $4,000 processor. People are going to call them on their wild claims, and don't be surprised if you come across another thread or two like this, Labtec.
I used to consider them good bang for the bucks spent at the 5-999 price points. But after I was able to clearly hear the difference with the A21, and got treated like an idiot at their forum btw, I don't consider them a particularly good buy at all. |
I use a couple Emotiva amps and, if you look at my systems, it's not because money is an object.
Granted...I use one of their big amps for just low frequency drivers on my Wisdom speakers and another Emotiva for just rear channels in my HT.
However, I've tried the XPA2 amp in other capacities and it's gives very strong performance on a super modest budget. If you try to pick this thing up, you quickly realize it's not your typical cheapo product. It has a big toroid transformer, good heat sinks, and speaker terminals/switches/connectors that compare well with virtually anything out there. Some parts could be improved internally, but you can say that about many amps charging $5k+
Their pre/processor is a bit clunky and "cheap" with the interface, but it actually sounds very nice, which is what I value most.
If you've got better speakers that are more resolving of differences in equipment than my Wisdoms or Maggies...plus a dedicated room with full treatments...and an active crossover/room correction like mine for even more refinement...more power to you.
Here's the problem with threads like these.
First, the original poster never mentions which Emotiva model he tried. Was it the same power rating?
He never mentions which preamp is feeding the amp. Parasound is a great value brand just like Emotiva, but I once made their JC1's sound terrible by driving them from a high quality Resolution Audio CDP that supposedly could go direct to amps. On other amps, it worked fine, but not the JC1s with the cables we were using. This is just one example of why these clowns who make categoric statements about brands without providing any details earn my "clown" title.
Next, he mentions using these amps on Sonus Faber Venere. I find it odd that someone would choose a solid state amp versus a tube amp for this speaker, but nevertheless, it is also very sensitive to setup and listening axis. Thus...just like the JC1s...I could easily make this speaker sound horrible with even $100k amplification.
Few people realize how much a speaker crossover impacts the sound from the amplifier. A tube amp can sound terrible on Speaker ABC which needs lots of current, but sound great on one that needs an amp to swing voltage.
Even without the drastic difference of tubes versus solid state, you can have large swings in performance within solid state and tube categories based strictly on the speaker.
For example, my McIntosh amp is rated at 250watts per channel. It will mate great with almost any speaker...especially because it has an autoformer. Thus, it has outperformed amps well above its price on many speakers.
Conversely, my modified Mccormack amps are among the best sounding (super transparent, liquid, and detailed) solid state amps I've heard...yet...they only do 125watts and can sound much less impressive when asked to drive certain demanding speakers full-range.
In short, be careful who you listen to and be wary of anyone making categoric statements with little experience or details.
Also, for the record, Benchmark, PSB, Emotiva, and Parasound are my recommendations for "best-bang-for-the-buck" brands. |
I will concur w/ Brownsugar-
even the older Parasound power amps are still excellent. I found the best pairing w/ a Pass Labs XP-10 or XP-20 preamp for outstanding results. For those who cannot afford this level of performance, Emotiva or Vincent offers great value.
Happy Listening! |
To all The emotiva lovers, please don't take it personal, i'm just being honest here, emotiva is a good value mid-hifi entry level, but please they not even close to high end performance, i don't know about the XPR line, i saw the review of XPR-1 mono blocks in audioholics and they are insane according to the review, but anyway i'm gonna stay with HALO forever, i'm not buying Emo again.
if anything i would buy another brand like krell, pass lab or jeff rowland, but just class A amplification, in class A is where the magic happens. Happy listening
peace |
Marketing will usually claim in some form that the product, regardless of price, is the best, but bears no relation to actual performance. This becomes evident in comparison. |
excuse Mitch4t but the only reason why i compared the emotiva is because i believed the hyper cuz they claim HIGH END so that's why i did the comparison with emotiva for what i believed Rethink HIGH END!!! and of course you can get a better performance of what the halo does with other amps, but you would have to spent 10,000 to 12,000 dollars to just get 2 or 5% gain in performance, so the differences in performances doesn't justify price differences.
Thank You!!! |
.
Brownsugar...you had a Emotiva XPA, then you went and spent three times the cost of the XPA and boast about how much better your new amp is. Dude, that formula works with just about everything. I could spend three times the amount of your Parasound on another amp and make your Parasound sound pale in comparison. Try comparing the Parasound to something in its price range...then come back here and report it.
. |
Wwchange i did side by side comparison btw the emotiva and the halo, the halo is very musical, the fidelity is pristine it's just superb, the bass response and the control the halo has over my speakers drives is unbelievable, the bass got smoother and has more impact and control, the halo just do everything better than the emotiva, i had the emotiva for almost a year and it served me well for that time, but i was getting listening fatigue from my speakers, and the bass wasn't controlled, to me emotiva is for someone who like Rock and hard music that just want to crank the volume and party all night, for someone who wants to make a lot noise, but emotiva is not for a real audiophile, don't get me wrong i'm not taking anything away from emotiva, but i was a believer of emotiva and now that i know what is the real deal. i have a better understanding of what Audiophile means.
thank you!! |
Telescope_trade i love the parasound A21 and even more now after the 130 hours breaking, this amp is really the real deal, i don't understand how people say that i can get better sound quality than this, i'm super happy with the sound quality of the parasound, i'm going to stick with HALO line, plus i'm not planning to spent 10,000 dollars for a amp.
Peace and keep listening |
I'm happy to see someone willing to tell the truth about Emotiva; that it's a mid fi brand. Nothing more, nothing less.
Enjoy your Parasound... |
Chayro,
You are so very right! It depends where in the journey you are and if you see a piece of equipment as "worth" the improvement, for the price paid. |
I'm glad you like your equipment, but it's very hard to take anyone who uses the word "cuz" seriously. Remember, audio is a journey. You liked the Emotiva yesterday, you like the Parasound today. Tomorrow - who knows? |
Alright then,any other Emotiva haters ,please come forward. |
Emotiva is a great bang for the buck and a lot of people are attracted to the price first then performance IMO. Through my observations I notice a lot of people who acquire Emotiva amps pair them with Klipsch and Polk. There must be some nice synergy with those products.
I just don't like the way they market their products as a High End with their famous motto, "Rethink Highend" They market their products as thousands less with the same performance. Quotes like, "The first generation XPA-2 set the bar for power and finesse at a price thousands less than the competition." They have slick marketing campaigns and in a way make it sound other products are overpriced. A while ago, they had used words like "Pure Class A" in their previous XPA-2 description so my friend ordered one. He kept on claiming it was pure class A when I had told him that it was a biased amp and really is a A/B amp. But he kept on insisting that it was all class A. He really tried to make me feel as if I overspent my money but I know I didn't . Its this type of advertising that convinces people of their products. IMO, they almost sound like every other amp is a waste of money over their product.
With that being said, I have the Parasound A21 and the A23. I enjoy both amps and will continue to hold on to them. I also agree that there are better sounding amps than the Parasound. |
I used to have Emotiva amps, and I've owned several Parasound Halo amps, the A21 & others. True, the Parasound Halos beat the Emotiva by a large margin.
I have compared the Halo A21 to my BAT VK-6200, and Mark Levinson 432. The BAT & ML amps are dead equals in my opinion. Very different sounding, with their own strengths, but overall...equals. The BAT & ML amp beat the Halo, by an equally huge margin (perhaps even more so), than the Halo A21 beat the Emotiva amp. They should beat the Halo, as they are much more money...just like the Halo is much more than the Emotiva. They are all, great bang for your $ spent on the used market.
I use Analysis Plus silver oval speaker wire, with Cary SLP-05 pre, Bryston DAC, and Lexicon RT-20 as transport. Speakers are Tyler Linbrook Supertowers, with custom 15" subs, with Velodyne SMS-1 for bass management. |
Brownsugar,
I'm confused!?!?! Did you like the Parasound amp???? LOL.
Congrats! Good stuff for sure! |
What is a good preamp to go with the parasound Halo A21 |
Emotiva amps are only good on paper and reviews as suspected. It's a highly promoted brand and highly advertised. For many adventurers it's the first amp uptill they'll listen to something descent.
The Emotiva isn't that bad after all since it's priced reasonably to the performance that isn't any higher or lower per expected price(you've got exactly what you've paid for). There are certainly and most-definitely more amps that have substantially better performance per price paid ratio and your Parasound apperently one of them. I have the same feeling about my Sunfire 300 amp. |
I believe he said he demoed the A21 against more expensive amps in store sound rooms.
Anyway, I've had a similar experience with Emotiva and Parasound. I had an XPA amp and was getting distortion with high frequencies at volume levels above 80 db. Nothing I tried got rid of it until after researching Parasound, tried the A21.
In my room and system, the Halo amp was head and shoulders above the Emotiva. More accurate bass, better soundstage, no distortion at higher volumes and gorgeous vocals. It was no contest.
I still think Emotiva makes okay entry level amps for home theater if your speakers are on the warm side, but for the better music reproduction I really had a bad experience with them. Mind you, that was with TOTL Paradigm speakers. |
There's no way to do a realistic comparison of amplifiers if they're not actually in your system with your own associated electronics etc. To use the car scenario you seem comfortable with, if you got on a track in a Farrari and Tony Stewart was on the same track in a Chevy Camaro, he'd probably kick your butt, not because of the car but because of his driving abilities. Your ability to hear the difference between a Parasound and Emotiva amp may be valid (neither of which are truely high end amps) but the true test is having the ability to hear and appreciate the subtle difference between a tube based single ended 18 watt pure class A amplifier and a 100 wpc solid state class A/B amp. My guess is you'd prefer the solid state amp at this point... When you understand and appreciate that difference, you'll look back in retrospect on this Emotiva revelation and laugh... No disrespect but we've all been there at some point in our audio evolution... Keep listening and enjoy the ride!! |
So you gushed over the Emotiva amps and have now had a change of heart and have decided to gush over the Parasound amp. Interesting. And you go to a a show and listen to other amps that are not connected to your system and you're able to tell that they are not as good as your Parasound. Even more interesting...
-RW- |
