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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
mitch4t's avatar
mitch4t
1,610 posts
 
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Brownsugar...you had a Emotiva XPA, then you went and spent three times the cost of the XPA and boast about how much better your new amp is. Dude, that formula works with just about everything. I could spend three times the amount of your Parasound on another amp and make your Parasound sound pale in comparison. Try comparing the Parasound to something in its price range...then come back here and report it.
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brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
excuse Mitch4t but the only reason why i compared the emotiva is because i believed the hyper cuz they claim HIGH END so that's why i did the comparison with emotiva for what i believed Rethink HIGH END!!! and of course you can get a better performance of what the halo does with other amps, but you would have to spent 10,000 to 12,000 dollars to just get 2 or 5% gain in performance, so the differences in performances doesn't justify price differences.

Thank You!!!
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Marketing will usually claim in some form that the product, regardless of price, is the best, but bears no relation to actual performance. This becomes evident in comparison.
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
To all The emotiva lovers, please don't take it personal, i'm just being honest here, emotiva is a good value mid-hifi entry level, but please they not even close to high end performance, i don't know about the XPR line, i saw the review of XPR-1 mono blocks in audioholics and they are insane according to the review, but anyway i'm gonna stay with HALO forever, i'm not buying Emo again.

if anything i would buy another brand like krell, pass lab or jeff rowland, but just class A amplification, in class A is where the magic happens. Happy listening

peace
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,624 posts
 
I will concur w/ Brownsugar-

even the older Parasound power amps are still excellent. I found the best pairing w/ a Pass Labs XP-10 or XP-20 preamp for outstanding results. For those who cannot afford this level of performance, Emotiva or Vincent offers great value.

Happy Listening!
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