2. amps-preamps
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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

Showing 8 responses by brownsugar_ny

brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
Telescope_trade i love the parasound A21 and even more now after the 130 hours breaking, this amp is really the real deal, i don't understand how people say that i can get better sound quality than this, i'm super happy with the sound quality of the parasound, i'm going to stick with HALO line, plus i'm not planning to spent 10,000 dollars for a amp.

Peace and keep listening
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
Wwchange i did side by side comparison btw the emotiva and the halo, the halo is very musical, the fidelity is pristine it's just superb, the bass response and the control the halo has over my speakers drives is unbelievable, the bass got smoother and has more impact and control, the halo just do everything better than the emotiva, i had the emotiva for almost a year and it served me well for that time, but i was getting listening fatigue from my speakers, and the bass wasn't controlled, to me emotiva is for someone who like Rock and hard music that just want to crank the volume and party all night, for someone who wants to make a lot noise, but emotiva is not for a real audiophile, don't get me wrong i'm not taking anything away from emotiva, but i was a believer of emotiva and now that i know what is the real deal. i have a better understanding of what Audiophile means.

thank you!!
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!!!
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
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
Hello guys

Please chill out, it's not a big deal! I'm a former owner of the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen2 and XPA-5 Gen2, I have compared both with the Halo A21 and the halo blew them away in every single area PERIOD! it doesn't really matter xpa2 or 5 the XPA line sounds pretty much the same, I wrote this review because emotiva claims to be HIGH END with the famous Motto Rethink high end, so I was completely disappointed when I found out what emotiva is all about, to me emotiva is a good entry level product for those peoples who like ROCK and electronic music to go extremely loud and crank their speakers and make a lot of noise, but if you want real detail and exceptional sound quality emotiva is not for you, but emotiva offer a good bang for your buck but it doesn't sound high end at all.

thank you guys for all your comments and thoughts, like I always say everybody is entitled to their own opinion and mi opinion is that emotiva is not even close to high end performance.

Peace and Keep listening

Enjoy.
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
Yioryos excuse me i'm not taking anything away from Emotiva, like everybody here in this Threads has mentioned, why emotiva claims to be high end when they are not, but emotiva does a pretty decent JOB for the money, but just don't compare emotiva with high end Gear and a pair of JC1 will blow away you XPR, no question about it, and we not talking about how the amp look inside, we talking about sound quality performance, i'm sure even my A21 will blow away the XPR 2.

it's what it's, emotiva is good but not so good, i don't think is a good buy at all, i will never buy emotiva again for me it's a waste of money, but probably in the future i will get Krell or Mark Levinson.

Peace

Happy listening
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
Emotiva makes very good products for the buck, they have a great value, but they are not exceptional in performance as they claim to be, they are not bad for audiophile beginners who are starting their journey in this expensive hobby.

If you want the best performance out of you speakers
Emotiva is not the way to go, I'm sorry but it's what its.

Peace

Chill out guys its not a big deal
brownsugar_ny OP
10 posts
 
emotiva AMPS are priced EXACTLY where they should be. If they sounded close to, or "99% as good as" a parasound a21, Emotiva would raise the price. You get what you pay for.

I feel so naive. For a while, I thought that Emotiva's amps were essentially just as good as the others. They look impressive. They are heavy. They're well made. They have TONS of power.

The parasound advantage is its grace and nuance. It has clarity beyond Emotiva's wildest dreams, but expresses feeling. It does more than hit a bass note. It convinces you that someone's thumb just plucked a string, and makes you lean back in your chair as you feel the sound. You don't hear a snare drum. You visualize the technique that the drummer is using. I looked around for someone to brag to when Norah Jones was IN my living room--singing to me about lost love.

I wish so badly that Emotiva amps were good enough. The last thing I wanted to do was spend this much money on an amplifier. But to say that the two amplifiers are close in performance is to say that they are both, indeed, amplifiers.

like i said before you can't get the performances of a mercedes benz AMG 63 with a toyota corolla LOL
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