Parasound vs Emotiva

If your budget is high, no reason to even look at Emotiva. You do get better with more money, nobody disputes that.

But for the same money? Good luck with that!

I will add however that over 12 years I have owned a fair share of zemotiva stuff, and every time I’ve gone to sell it (here, in fact!) I’ve always gotten damn near what I paid.

If Emotiva is "junk" that would have never happened.

I liken them to the "Honda" of audio. Nothing wrong with a Honda! The Accord is a nice car!

I agree the Parasound is a higher end amp, however, for that extra bass punch, have you played around the crossover for your sub? Dead cutoff between sub and speakers may not always sound full based on your listening environment. 

Yeah, the subs are actually quite cool in that I go straight from the preamp to the subs, and the subs have a selectable high pass filter for the speakers, and I go from those to the speakers.

I have messed with it all, extensively, and I’m just not able to get that hit to the chest.

The A300 is not a bass monster, ar all. I would call it a little lean. Maybe high efficiency speakers would be different but everything I have, Maggie’s, etc are all hard loads

But I mean, look. How many 25 pound full on class AB, 250 watt amps in a full chassis.. are $399? Again, good luck besting that.

That said it is magic from midrange on up. Magic. At least with almost 3 grand of components feeding it and cut off from 80hz and below. And last night when I went xlr from dac to preamp, good enough to call it a day. Actually got a fair bit of punch enabling both channels of the dac.

I’m getting the Parasiund because I dont want to high pass the speakers anymore, I want some midbass punch and power and control.

So fully balanced to a brand new A23+? Should be pretty sweet!

I have had extensive experience with both Emotiva and Parasound amps.  Owned all generations of Emotiva, including the latest (XPA-1, XPA-1L, XPR-1, XPA Gen 3, A3).  I also owned three Parasond JC1 and an A21.

I don't think that the Parasound A23+ is going to solve your bass problems.  These amps are really not bass monsters.  The Emotiva XPA-1 had much stronger bass in actuality. 

The Parasound will give you extremely clean midrange.  I don't know about the latest "+" models, but first generation A21 had rolled off high frequencies.  Same with the JC1, but it also had a weird dry sound in the upper mids/highs.

In the end, I actually prefer the Emotiva sound because it has better extension into the high frequencies and better bass, but if you listen closely you can hear some of the flaws.  All my current Emotiva amps are completely rebuilt, upgraded and modified to fix the flaws.  These are mostly due to cheap capacitors.

Upgrading the fuse in your Emotiva amp will really help with the sound.  Also, an upgraded power cord.

One thing to remember is I’m nearfield in this system, i sit 2 feet away from towers and subs are behind me to the right and left. I am in the sweet spot for the amp, not driving terribly hard. If I were in a big room, might not be "magic".

I take that back, its a medium sized room, but I am near field, far away from walls.