I have owned the Parasound HCA 2200II for several years now. It was a big improvement over my Adcom 545 II and my brief encounter with the 555 II. I had a 545II for a long time and wanted a more powerful amp when I moved into a house with a big room. I bought a used 555, but while that transaction was going through, I found the Parasound, and bought that also. The Parasound was much more powerful and much more revealing than the Adcom's. Playing some concert Laserdisc's that I was familiar with revealed a lot of low level sounds that I never heard before, because they were buried by the louder stuff and muddied with the Adcom amps. So I was very satisfied. As I was shopping for $8K-10K speakers, nearly everyone that asked about my amp gave me a disappointed look, so I feel that perhaps I am missing out. After the speakers I will be shopping around for an amp to see how much better it gets. I imagine that there are many amps that would give me the same step up in quality that I noticed by going from Adcom to Parasound. It is a great bargin as a used amp, plenty of power, good quality for the price, although I'm sure there are lots of better sounding amps, but they are probably a decent amount more expensive.
Parasound HCA2200II , Yeah or No-Way!
I am in need of an amp, used(older is ok) for my biamp custom speaker. Each cabinet has 2-12" woofers, 2-6.5 midbasses and a tweeter in the D'appolito/MTM array..all of high quality. Very similar to Dunlavy 5's or 6's. I am using an Adcom GFA-555II to power from approx 80hz to 20hz, with an electronic Marchand active crossover. I am in need of a solid state amp (under $1000) to power from 80hz-20,000hz and dont know what to do. I cant use tubes as I pick up radio interference from a CB tower several houses over. Speakers are 94db/1watt/1meter,but I am a volume freak at times and like to play it at concert levels(115-120db), with all types of music. I am considering Muse 100, Aragon 4004 MKII, Parasund HCA 2200II, ARC D-240,Classe 70,McCormack DNA-1, Musical Design D-140i, etc. Which of these amps will give me a smooth tubelike sound without being euphonically colored too much, or does anyone know of some other amp I need to consider. My other equipment is a Linn LP12/Vahalla/Circus/Ittok/ClearAudio Signature turntable, NAD 502CD, Hafler Musical Concepts Preamp(decked out), 2- Chang lightspeeds filters, and quality cables. Please be as honest as possible. I need some help very desparately!!