Parasound Halo Integrated vs Yamaha AS2100

The New Record Day guy has reviewed both and claims the Yamaha is a better amp, but I think he was likely going off memory of the Parasound. I personally find back to back comparisons yield a more accurate comparison. I compared the A-S1100 to the Halo back to back, listening to each amp in the system for a whole day before switching. I did this for a week. The A-S2100 might be considerably better than the A-S1100, but i doubt that. I wanted to like the Yamaha more due to its aesthetics, but in the end, the Parasound had "more meat on the bones" without sacrifice to clarity, dynamics or soundstage.

I have own both of them and I prefer the as2100 over the halo ,the Yamaha is better in sound and build quality but you can’t go wrong with either one of them !

I ended up with an A-S1100 after all. I noticed I was suffering fatigue anytime I listened to Halo for about an hour or more, which never happened with my A-S500. So I bought another 1100 and all has been well. Now that the amp has broke-in, I couldn’t be more satisfied. The second time I compared it to the Halo, i did notice a larger soundstage and greater instrument separation with the Yamaha. The Halo still had a meatier sound, only slightly, but was still fatiguing for whatever reason - maybe something drifted out of spec.

The fatigue is puzzling. I had the Halo playing Maggie 1.7I for hours always sounded great, even my classically trained musician friend would listen and express amazement at how good it sounded.

The fatigue is puzzling. I had the Halo playing Maggie 1.7I for hours always sounded great, even my classically trained musician friend would listen and express amazement at how good it sounded.

Very puzzling. It made no sense because the Halo is really quite a smooth amp, even smoother than the Yamaha. I also had Maggie 1.7is with the Halo for a while. 

I can only guess it may have had something to do with the noise floor - it always produced a low-level buzz through the speakers, something the Yamaha doesn't suffer from. I believe they claim to have lowered the noise floor with the Hint 6.