Confused and need help


After finding out that my 1.7 maggies were going faulty and losing their sparkle i went on the hunt for new gear.
I took my gear (2x parasound A21 and my ARC LS17se preamp ) and went shopping. 
I had heard great comments about the 30.2 harbeths so i hooked up my gear and listened for a few hours, i was not impressed, something was missing, it was flat, and boring. 
I connected up the new Ayre integrated amp and wow, the 30.2 sounded so full, warm, accurate.
Surely my electronics are not that poor quality?  
motorsportmatt1

Showing 1 response by almarg


2x parasound A21

I presume this means that you have used the two A21s in bridged mode. The manual for the A21 states as follows:

You should not connect a speaker with an impedance of less than 8 Ω to the A 21 when it is configured for bridged mono operation....

... We strongly recommend against using speakers rated at less than 8 Ω when bridging.

The Maggie 1.7 has a nominal impedance of 4 ohms. The Harbeth 30.2 has a nominal impedance of 6 ohms. Both speakers are therefore not good matches for bridged A21s.

Also, given that a single A21 operating in stereo mode is quite powerful (spec’d at 250 watts into 8 ohms and 400 watts into 4 ohms), and given that both speakers have sensitivities in the vicinity of 86 db or so, I would think it likely that a single A21 operated in stereo mode would provide enough power anyway.

And, finally, I see that the Harbeth has a "power handling" spec of 150 watts "programme," which is to say that a single A21 operating in stereo mode can most likely supply more than twice as much power into its 6 ohm impedance than the speaker can safely handle.

Regards,
-- Al