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
There's no way to do a realistic comparison of amplifiers if they're not actually in your system with your own associated electronics etc. To use the car scenario you seem comfortable with, if you got on a track in a Farrari and Tony Stewart was on the same track in a Chevy Camaro, he'd probably kick your butt, not because of the car but because of his driving abilities. Your ability to hear the difference between a Parasound and Emotiva amp may be valid (neither of which are truely high end amps) but the true test is having the ability to hear and appreciate the subtle difference between a tube based single ended 18 watt pure class A amplifier and a 100 wpc solid state class A/B amp. My guess is you'd prefer the solid state amp at this point... When you understand and appreciate that difference, you'll look back in retrospect on this Emotiva revelation and laugh... No disrespect but we've all been there at some point in our audio evolution... Keep listening and enjoy the ride!!
I used to have Emotiva amps, and I've owned several Parasound Halo amps, the A21 & others. True, the Parasound Halos beat the Emotiva by a large margin.
I have compared the Halo A21 to my BAT VK-6200, and Mark Levinson 432. The BAT & ML amps are dead equals in my opinion. Very different sounding, with their own strengths, but overall...equals. The BAT & ML amp beat the Halo, by an equally huge margin (perhaps even more so), than the Halo A21 beat the Emotiva amp. They should beat the Halo, as they are much more money...just like the Halo is much more than the Emotiva. They are all, great bang for your $ spent on the used market.
I use Analysis Plus silver oval speaker wire, with Cary SLP-05 pre, Bryston DAC, and Lexicon RT-20 as transport. Speakers are Tyler Linbrook Supertowers, with custom 15" subs, with Velodyne SMS-1 for bass management.
Emotiva is a great bang for the buck and a lot of people are attracted to the price first then performance IMO. Through my observations I notice a lot of people who acquire Emotiva amps pair them with Klipsch and Polk. There must be some nice synergy with those products.

I just don't like the way they market their products as a High End with their famous motto, "Rethink Highend" They market their products as thousands less with the same performance. Quotes like, "The first generation XPA-2 set the bar for power and finesse at a price thousands less than the competition." They have slick marketing campaigns and in a way make it sound other products are overpriced. A while ago, they had used words like "Pure Class A" in their previous XPA-2 description so my friend ordered one. He kept on claiming it was pure class A when I had told him that it was a biased amp and really is a A/B amp. But he kept on insisting that it was all class A. He really tried to make me feel as if I overspent my money but I know I didn't . Its this type of advertising that convinces people of their products. IMO, they almost sound like every other amp is a waste of money over their product.

With that being said, I have the Parasound A21 and the A23. I enjoy both amps and will continue to hold on to them. I also agree that there are better sounding amps than the Parasound.