Which Would You Choose?

I have thought of upgrading my power conditioner many times.

I live rural in the mountains of Colorado on a cul de sac. The closest house to us is 1/4 of a mile away. The power is supplied to our home by our own transformer.

I have looked at many power conditioners, just never changed due to our unique situation of power supply.

I agree with @erik_squires ​​​​@mahgister that you should invest in your room. Even canvas art work strategically placed can improve acoustics. 

The Michi S5 is a stellar amp and better than than any Hegel or MF.

Hegels are noisy (loud hiss) and their damping claims are absolute horse manure.

MF is not the brand in once was. These days they employ inexcusably cheap parts in all their products. Rotel also uses cheap parts but not in their Michi series.

Michi may not quite be in the same tier as TOTL Luxman, Esoteric, Boulder, Gryphon et al., but dollar for dollar, it’s a better value.

I say all this as someone who has no emotional investment in their products. I don’t own any of their gear. I merely respect the engineering and performance, maybe more so than those aforementioned brands because of what Michi manages to accomplish for reasonable money.

Regarding the S5 against Parasound, it’s no contest. Parasound, similar to MF, is not the brand it once was. Other than bling factor, many of their current products are measurably proven regressions over previous generations. The JC5 for example, is a noisy amp for its price point, relatively speaking, and noisier than the first gen A21 believe it or not. Other than bling factor and raw power numbers, most of their products have not improved any. Again, these comments are not emotionally driven, or even subjectively driven. If tomorrow they are to launch a provably amazing product at an amazing price, I would not hesitate to purchase that item. Brand loyalty is a waste in this hobby and doesn’t often lead to audio nirvana.

Lastly, I know a guy who switched from a Coda No.8 to the Michi S5 and didn’t have any regrets. The Coda is already a class above most of the options mentioned upthread (Hegel, please…🤣). So take that for what it’s worth.

I couldn’t believe how nice my Michi 8 are in build quality and sound quality. I imagine the stereo version Michi S5 is also in that class.

ozzy

have you tried a really well built tube preamplifier?