Parasound vs Musical Fidelity, please give me your perspective!!!


Hello all, I been a receiver kind of person for a long time and after moving to a bigger home have decided to move to separates about 3 years go, due to price restrictions and my interest to go Class A/B I got a Parasound HCA 1000 which was about 25 years old, I loved the sound and the dynamics compared to the Onkyo receiver I had.

After 1 to 2 years I upgraded to Parasound A23 which is basically the same thing with a bit lower noise and XLR inputs and later got a second Parasound A23 which is currently running as dual mono XLR, the funny fact is despite having now 400w per channel I don't feel much difference between dual mono and single stereo, my guess it could be my speaker going down to 2.9 ohms and the recommendation rating for mono to be 4 ohms.

Now I feel its another time to upgrade and currently considering a Parasound A21 or Musical Fidelity M6S PRW both are about 230-260 W per channel and stable down to 2 ohms on stereo mode.

any thoughts or suggestions, again the price point is 2000-3000 and if anyone has experience with Parasound JC5 or Musical Fidelity M8 500s I am willing to hear and maybe save a bit more money.

The current setup is for Focal Chorus 836v on a 260 sqft room and I sit about 9 feet away from speakers with about 4.5 feet from sitting to back wall and woofers to back wall, the streamer is Oppo Sonica DAC and CD player is a regular Bluray player connected to the DAC over optical cable.

 
badgod86
These two companies couldn't compete more directly.  They are virtual substitutes on several products.  I find the Musical Fidelity to be more musical and engaging while the Parasound is supremely competent, but unexciting.  In this price range, you are looking at the best amps available.  

I demoe'd the Parasound vs. Ayre and ultimately MF vs. Ayre on PSB T2 speakers.  Ayre one but MF was closer in terms of quality.  

For me, it is a slam dunk, Musical Fidelity all the way.  I assume you are running straight from the Oppo into your power amp.  The livelier nature of the MF will be a much better fit.  The MF saw a price cut today to $2490.  I am an MF dealer.  PM me if you are interested.