Macintosch 8950 or parasound a21
I was looking for some advise on a new amplifier .I currently have a Line magnetic 508 1 A tube integrated ,with a Aurender A10 Dac.I have a pair of klipsch Forte 3s and a pair of Tekton double impacts.The Klipsch sound a little fatiguing on the top to my ears sometimes ,I’m sure a lot of this probably has to do with my room.. I was wanting to try out a pair of 1.7 magnepans sometime in the future. I have admired the Mac equipment and considered trying out one of the integrated pieces and have heard good things about the 7200 integrated but was thinking if I went the Mac route the 8950 ,or the Ma 352 would be a better choice for me.I was told by a local guy that the parasound JC 2 BP with a a21 would sound good with my klipsch ,tektons and Maggie’s.I was curious if anyone has experience with this combo or the Macintosh 8950 or ma 352 and would the Mac sound good with these speakers also?
Thx for help
OP- you might give some credence to the advice of @erik_squires and also @russ69. Both have lots of cred. They are offering you excellent advice based on decades of experience. You admitted the problem is probably the room. Get the room and setup right, then play around with gear swaps. |
To be fair to others, the room is pretty much half of what you hear. I've been in business for 20 years and in the industry for more than 30. I heard very nice gear sound bad and modest gear sound good, all depending on the room. It can be hard to "fix" a living space with treatment without impacting a room's aesthetic though. We deal with the balance between form and function in the Custom Integration business every day. NAD is including Dirac Live in their top-of-the-line Master Series. Anthem has ARC in the STR line and Martin Logan leverages ARC in their top Hybrid ESLs. Even McIntosh has the MEN220 which borrows Lyngdorf RoomPerfect from Steinway Lyngdorf. All are high-end solutions designed to address issues with listening spaces through DSP. You may be dealing with a few challenges here. Room, synergy and tastes. I don't see a problem experimenting with any and all. But buying a MA8950 is an expensive "experiment" and that may be the underlying message from some of the commenters here.
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I had the A21 power amp driving my revel salon1 speakers and it was beautiful. I took a peek under the hood and couldn’t believe how luxurious it looked for the price! That said, with the salons the a21 added some audible upper bass thickness that wasn’t obvious until I started bringing other amps home to compare. I haven’t had a chance to hear the A21+ so can’t say if the new one is the same? I took a long time to get around to McIntosh because it’s not easy to get a deal on them. They have tube, solid state and hybrid components and I expect whatever you pick will affect the sound. I am happy with the quality and sound |
