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My Parasound A21 review and VS Emotiva XPA

l bought the Parasound halo a21 and the differences of improvement in the sound quality are just unreal, it's like too good to be true, before the parasound i had an Emotiva XPA and after listened to the differences btw the emo and the parasound i got to the conclusion that emotiva made my speakers sounded so bad, the sound quality is night and day differences, I'm was shocked!! It's just unbelievable, to give you a better hint of what I'm talking about, the emotiva is a Honda and the Parasound is a mercedez Benz s63 AMG, or Toyota vs Ferrari lol. I can't believe the sound just can get that good.

Emotiva is not High End they not even close to what high end sounds like, they are good products but never can consider high end, but they claim to be high end, for the price you can get a good Mid-fi sound, but they are out of the high end league, that's a true statement. it's not an opinion, It's what it's. when i demo the parasound i put it side by side with 10,000$ and 12,000 dollars amplifiers and the parasound just sounded as good as those super expensive amps.

The emotiva was my first amplifier so that's why i wrote a review on amazon saying that Emotiva was a truly High end Amp with a consumer price tag LOL, what the Hell i was thinking OMG i was soooooo wrong.

I was only getting 20% of my sonus faber veneres with the emotiva, now I believe I'm getting their full potential 100%, I believed the hype of the emotiva for a while, I was a believer but now i know emotiva is just a good mid-fi amp, nothing more!! If you looking for the best sound as possible please don't get the emotiva, emotiva is not even close to high end, you will be disappointed!! The parasound is the best AMP you can get for the money, i believe that you can spent the double of the money and won't get this kind of performance, Halo is the best Bang for your Buck and i finally found the product that i want to use forever.

to get a better understanding of what i'm talking about, let's say Parasound vs krell is like mercedez benz S Class AMG vs roll royce!!! all depends your budget and how much money you want to spent, but me personally i'm gonna stick with the parasound halo forever.

i use the Cars Example cuz i don't have no words to describe the sound of my system with the halo LOL.

the part that i was even more impressive is with movies, since the Denon X4000 receiver is running the center and surrounds i didn't expect so much differences in the sound quality in the Movie department, but the movies sound nigh and day differences also, but i still need the halo A51 to finish the full amplification department, i'm gonna save up for the A51 cuz i want the same sound quality in the surrounds and center channel, but for now i'm so happy with the performance and soundstage i got from the A21.

I'm very very happy cuz this past saturday i went to the high end show and they were demo the Devialet amps that sounded so good, but the parasound sounds better to me, i can't believe i can get 20,000 dollars performance for 2,500$, THIS IS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE!!! but it's true.
brownsugar_ny
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
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-
runnin
397 posts
 
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.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
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.
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