I would opt for soundstage, clarity and detail to get the cleanest music possible. Quality always wins vs quantity. |
I would add that I owned Emo 1l monos and then switched to a Parasound Hint and the difference was astounding much more musical in all area's more significant bass and less harsh highs with the Hint. |
Thanks johnto! Presently, I am leaning toward the Parasound for the reasons you pointed out. Still, I love power so the Emotiva is enticing as far as that goes.
I can obtain either amp for the same price.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this or other products for consideration?
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The Parasound is in a much higher league than the Emotiva. I had an Emotiva XDA1 dac years ago. Cold, bright and brittle are the words that come to mind. There really is no comparison between the 2 brands. |
Without a doubt go for the Parasound for all the reasons you mentioned. Plus, it is a high current amp with a large transformer and high damping factor. High current, not watts, will drive the speakers with power and authority.
The Paradigm Tributes, tested by Stereophile, are 92dB efficient and have an impedance which drops below 4 ohms in the lower midrange, which shouldn't affect performance. The rest of the frequency spectrum presents an easy to drive load.
An excerpt...
"This is a speaker that plays loudly with very few watts."
The Parasound and the Tributes are very well matched. Raw power measured in watts will not provide optimum performance with these speakers.
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I’ve owned Paradigm Speakers (both the Studio and Signature line), Parasound amps (A21 and A51), and Emotiva amps (XPA2, XPA3). I had listener’s fatigue with Emotiva and Paradigm. Not so, with Parasound. |
My all time worst sounding amp was an Emotiva XP whatever, circa ten years ago. The sound of nails across a chalk board comes to mind. It actually sounded like the designer/maker/seller's intent was to make the worst sounding amp possible without instantly breaking the speakers.
#2: About 2 weeks ago via email I asked Emotiva for the input and output impedance of their best preamp (which I'm happy to report is the audiophile equivalent, looks-wise, of a bright metallic purple or orange '59 Chevy low rider with air jump suspension and no hood, IOW a stinkin' POS). No reply. They list 1000 specs but won't answer this critical Q.
Then there's this Emotiva website marketing: upon opening the home page, a huge ad is plastered, inviting visitors to "ENTER OUR SWEEPSTAKE TO WIN $500!!!" To proceed, visitors must answer, "SIGN ME UP!" or "NO I DON'T NEED $500."
If there's a reason to support Emotiva I have yet to find one.
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Emotiva is low mid-fi pretending to be high end. Those that own them and believe they are high end either have never really heard even a modest high end system, or need their ears cleaned.
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I've never heard a Parasound amp I didn't like.
Best,
E
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The A23+ is a very good integrated amp, but the A21+ is even better. All the soundstage, detail and clarity of the A23+ with better punch than the Emotiva. IMO
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I've owned Emotiva monoblocks and have an XPA-5 gen 2 in my bedroom system powering the center and surround speakers. I've owned the A23 (not +). I think there's some snobbery in this thread. The Emotiva are not as bad nor is the Parasound as great as some are claiming. The difference between them isn't huge, but I'd go for the Parasound, it will be more refined. It doesn't look like those speakers are hard to drive? Why do you think you need more power? |
@big_greg.......................It isn’t snobbery. I owned an Emotiva DAC at one time and speak from experience. I had their dac and it was so bright (it shouldn’t have been as it had an Analog Device chip). It was nails on a chalkboard and I couldn’t listen to it for more than 10 minutes before leaving the room. I resorted to listening in our kitchen with the stereo in the living room. The bright blue display would burn the retinas out of your eyes. I looked inside and the power transformer was so tiny, no wonder it sounded so bad. You gets what you pay for.
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I thought this thread was about amps, not DACs. So basically you're saying you have no experience with the subject at hand, but know that the Emotiva amps are junk somehow. |
@big_greg..............................Perhaps I should have been clearer. Yes, I had one of their DAC’s and hated it. A buddy had a pair of their big amps he bought new 2 years ago. He asked me to listen to his system as he said it sounded hard and sterile.
I went to his house with some of the music I use to demo equipment and it sounded like S***. He had the amps running constantly for 4 months and he said the sound never smoothed out. It sounded like my DAC did, bright, sterile and hard. Not musical at all. He traded them in and took a bath on them but was glad to get rid of them.
If you believe they are high end then there is no point discussing this with you. I have read many stories where people had them and when they moved on to something else, realized how bad they really were. I also don’t like the fact that once the equipment is out of warranty, Emotiva won’t repair it. I know of no other audio company that does that.
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I'm not sure where I said they were "high end". Probably because I didn't. |
To br3098, the Parasound A23+ is not an integrated amp. It is a standalone two channel amplifier. I am surprised no one caught his reply and that error... |
A23+
Got one? What did it replace?
I am buying one to rotate in every once in a while to give my tube amps a rest, and for long-term low level listening, background music. Don’t need more than the first 3 watts of Class-A operation, for what I plan to use it for. While I don't expect it to displace my tube amps, from what I read so far, seems reasonable, eh? |
Received the Parasound A23+ 2ch amplifier,
Bought it to test and evaluate with some custom speakers to sample different amps. This A23+ is stout. Already exceeding expectations.
Trickle-down JC circuit and technology it seems. I’m a tube amp guy, various SS amps and prior tube amps. Comparing to SS amps at 2-2.5x the price. Runs Class A first 3 watts (not published), auto-sensing for turn on, gain level controls for matching. Nice tone, texture, JFET input stage and MOSFET drive stage.
Currently driving it with a Cary SLP-98 (6SN7) based tube preamplifier to get insight on potential. Very nice. Not harsh, no grain or glare, not bright, and enough detail and air. Has sort of a tube’ish leaning type of sound in subtle way. Not as much layering as higher end all-tube mono blocks of course, and better than many comparably priced SS amps. Decent sound stage and focus, speakers disappear on most tracks so far. It could open up even more with a few months burn-in, we’ll see. Reading it’s a little warmer than the larger JC amps, which I prefer, particularly for streamed content. Substantial build quality.
Wondering if others have done any long-term comparisons of this amp to amps at 2-3x the price? |
