I have already searched for this but the threads are pretty old. I have long been a huge fan of the Parasound Halo series. I owned a few A51, A52, and recently had tried their "New Classic" line. However, I feel Parasound has NOT updated their technology for a long time. The Halo is pretty much still what John Curl has originally designed. Also their pre-amps are also lagging behind, unlike Rotel which already has the latest Dolby ATMOS and DTS:X.
Therefore, Rotel has always been my choice for the Pre. I had the RSP 1570, and now the latest RSP-1576. So what's everyone's view on rotel Amps? Do they sound as good the Halo? My choice is either a new Rotel or continue with my Halo. I've looked at many manufactures and it seems like Rotel has the best warranty (5 years).
I have ML eletrostats for the front an dynaudio audience 42 for all the surrounds.
The older Rotel 10xx series amps are somewhat forward and dry sounding with grainy treble and tonally on the cool side of neutral when not paired carefully with the right speakers, upstream components and cables. But the newer and current Rotel 15xx series amps are very different from the older Rotel 10xx series amps. The new 15xx series sounded way better than the older 10xx series amps. All gone those dry grainy treble and cool lean sounding that you hear from the older 10xx series Rotel Amps. The new current 15xx series eg RB-1590, RB-1582 Mkll, RMB-1585 have warm rich dense tonality and fulsome sound with smooth highs and the noise floor is much lower than the older 10xx series Rotel amps. The new current model Rotel amps, especially the RB-1590, RB-1582 Mkll, RMB-1585, are much quieter design than the older 10xx series amps and have much fuller sound than the older 10xx series amps.
However, the Parasound Halo such as the A21, A31, A51 are excellent and IMO are superior to the newer current Rotel 15xx series amps. You should stick with your Parasound Halo A51 amp.
Fyi, Parasound does not make HT preamp surround processor. Parasound only makes stereo preamps. Rotel makes both stereo preamps and multi-channel preamp surround processors (HT processors).
As a matter of fact when building and designing HT preamp processors Rotel is way behind compared to other manufacturers in keeping up with the latest and most up-to-date surround sound formats and codecs as well as latest video processing such as 4k, HDR and stuff. Rotel is always behind in implementing the latest AV or HT technology. Recently Rotel has just implemented supports for Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, 4k, etc in their HT receiver (RAP 1580) and their lower end HT processor (RSP-1576). Rotel has finally caught up with the latest HT formats whereas other manufacturers have done so few years back. But Rotel amps are great for the money.
I was disappointed opening up this thread to find the topic about newer products from both of these companies. I was hoping for the good ole days discussion when both Parasound and Rotel had some great amps for pennies. I still use some of them and enjoy the heck out of their earlier designs.
I didn't have good luck with the 15 series but it was quite new when I owned the flagship amp, pre-amp and cd player. It was fatiguing to listen to with B&W CM7 speakers and then even with Harbeth C7es-3's. That was quite some time ago, maybe 7 years, so I can't really speak of what they've done since then. Prior to that system I had a NAD integrated that I really liked a lot.
@caphill thanks for the detailed feedback. I shall keep going with the Halo A51s then.
Regarding the latest HT codes though, what other brands has the latest codes? I researched Anthem, Marantz and Denon. It’s true they are early adopters, but those aren’t any better than the Rotel.Also I take customer service seriously as well. Rotel’s warranty service has always been the best for me, plus their 5 year warranty. I’ve looked at Krell and Nad and they are even further behind on the latest codes.
Side tracking question, would a tube amp truly beat the Halo A51 for the Electrostats? I’ve heard great stories but am not ready to drop $3000 for minimum improvement. They sound pretty good as is now.
Yes you should keep your Parasound Halo A51 amp. The Marantz, Anthem, Arcam, Audio Control, McIntosh, Yamaha, Onkyo / Integra HT processors are early adaptors and especially the Denon Marantz Onkyo/Integra are usually the first that adapt new AV technologies and new formats & codecs.
The new Marantz AV8805 will perform and sound better than your Rotel RSP-1576 processor. Rotel makes great amplifiers but when it comes to HT processors IMO the Marantz is slightly better. Besides, your Rotel RSP-1576 is not a Rotel’s top of the line HT processor. Currently the RSP-1582 is Rotel’s top of line HT processor but the RSP-1582 does not support latest formats and codecs eg Dolby Atmos DTS-X Auro 3-D, 4K HDR Dolby Vision. The RSP-1582 sounds and performs better than your RSP-1576. I got a feeling that Rotel is probably going to release a new replacement for its flagship RSP-1582 possibly next year.
In regards to a tube power amp vs your Parasound Halo A51 driving your ML electrostats, I don't think you will be able to find a five-channel tube power amp. Or unless you're thinking to use a stereo or monoblock tube amps to drive your front ML electrostats? What kind of ML electrostats do you have? The big ML electrostats would need big high current solid state amp to drive them properly. Their speaker impedances are very low and can drop to around 2 ohms or below. So a low wattage tube amps just won't cut it, unless if you get a hybrid amp (tube input stage & solid state output stage) such as the PS Audio BHK 300 monoblock amps or the BHK 250 stereo amp.
@caphill, the model amp was the RB1582 and the pre was the RC1580. I know they were the top of the heap at the time. A friend worked at a dealer and I was always fond of Rotel because my brother had some good Rotel gear in the late 70's. I tried hard to like it and spent a lot of time fiddling around with speaker placement, bass traps etc and I just couldn't make it work in my room. I'm sure they've come along way now because I don't think they sold many of them at the time. I was actually shocked because I've always been a fan of Japanese gear and the best system I've ever owned is Japanese and it's my current setup. I'm glad to hear they've ironed things out with the series.
I had an RCD-1072 and RA-1062 paired with Audioquest cables. The result was an excruciatingly forward, thin sound with no soundstage depth at all. It was very fatiguing and tiresome to listen to. I replaced the AQ with Acoustic Zen cables which managed to smooth the system out and inject some richness and warmness into it.
I don’t know how the newer 15 stuff is, but the 10 series components are cold as ice if you’re using Audioquest cables (which, ironically, most dealers and hi-fi shows use to demonstrate Rotel products).
Sonically and totally the new 15xx series Rotel gears are very different from the old 10xx series gears. The latest 15xx series gears such as the RB-1582 Mkll stereo amp, the RMB-1585 five-channel amp, the RB-1590 stereo amp & the RA-1592 integrated amp sounded fulsome rich warm, much fuller sound and much smoother much more refined sounding than the old 10xx series gears. The newer 15xx series amps have more body and volume and smooth highs and are much quieter than the old 10xx series amps due to much lower noise floor (better S/N ratio). The new latest 15xx series gears have been greatly improved over the old 10xx series gears.
I agreed that the old 10xx series Rotel sounded cold grainy somewhat thin and very forward and can be kinda bright and can be fatiguing at times when not carefully matched with the right associated speakers, cables, upstream components and front end source components, etc. I found the old 10xx series Rotel gears possessed somewhat grainy trebles but I can assure you that the new latest 15xx series gears are nothing like that at all, in fact it’s a total opposite of that of the old 10xx series characteristics I just described, especially true with the higher end or flagship new 15xx series gears such as the RMB-1585 amp, RB-1582 Mkll amp, RB-1590 amp, RA-1592 integrated amp. These new latest 15xx series amps are much more refined sounding than the old 10xx series amps and they exhibited midrange bloom warmth and richness similar to that of McIntosh gears.
As a matter of fact, when reviewing the Rotel RMB-1585 amp for Stereophile, Kalman Rubinson (Stereophile senior reviewer) commented that the RMB-1585 exhibited greater level of warmth compared to his McIntosh MC303 amp and the Parasound Halo A31 amp that he had on hand.
But IMO the Parasound Halo A51 overall is a better amplifier than the Rotel RMB-1585.
@caphill thanks for the detailed feedback. I just have the entry level ML Aeon. I’m thinking next year I’ll replace them with a pair of summit Xs. I was thinking to get the PrimaLuna Dialogue One just to power the electrostats. Since the dialogue one is an integrated amp, I can wire a separate, stereo connection to the turntable thus bypassing the Rotel.
My neighbor has one and wanted to sell to me for $2500.
Parasound versus Rotel? I own, compared, and still use some vintage stuff. Namely Rotel 900 series - 980BX & 981 compared them to Parasound’s HCA-1000/1000 collectively tri-amping towers.
The P’sound were great for driving unmodified Polk RTi A series speakers as their mid & top are a bit forward & bright.
My RTi A series are bi & tri amped - yes no passive filtering save for Clarity DC blocking caps on the tweeters. To me the P’sound sounded “flat” & the top rolled off.During one energetic listening session, I saw the P 1000 “Overload” LED flash driving 4 ohm tweeters.
Rotels make the speakers disappear. They idle & run cooler and even during very demanding program material I’ve thrown at them, they don’t seem to break a sweat. My $0.02. Thanks. Tony
I think the older 900 series gear was very musical with a slight grain but not enough to detract. The 10 series seems to follow the trend of much gear of detail and more detail which leads to a thin lean sound. Parasound is also good but I would not say one is better then the other Just different I see the word technology thrown around a lot I worked in the audio bizz back in the day and it seems amp technology has not changed much since 1980 other then Class D. Things are made cheaper and you do get better sound for less money it seems. Things keep recycling. Tubes are in tubes are out MOS FETs are in MOS FETS are out (usually at the same time). The only way to know for sure what you like is to bring them in and compare.
geph0007"I think the older 900 series gear was very musical" I think it is so funny when people say the sound was musical it is like having a fine meal and saying it was food and spice like in flavor. very funny!
I do not think it is that hard To many sit around audiophile style with there hand in the chin listening to the gear NOT the music.. The brochure for the legendary New Advent Speaker 1978 ( which still sounds better then a number of speakers out there today) they close with this( modified slightly )
note just
how
quickly you tend to cease listening to the speaker/electronics r itself
and
begin to listen to the music.
I found despite the Rotel 990 and 995 ( owned 2000 to 2006) slight grain and just slightly lean sound when drinking cocktails on Saturday getting ready to go out it was a rocking time I replaced it with a Bel Canto EVO II gen 2. Lots of WOW factor It took me 3 years to figure out why I was not getting into it Turns out others had the same issue It had no soul . That is the difference between musical and un musical for me. . NAD 3020 ,musical. Exposure 2010S and S2 ,musical . A lot of older vintage gear despite its flaws, musical Things are detail driven now I do not hear the guys nose hair moving when he is standing in front of me with guitar. I do not want to hear it through my system. A well known speaker maker said to me about 10 years ago "There is more crap coming out of peoples speakers then you ever hear at alive performance" I was not sure I got it at that time but I get it now.Your mileage may vary
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