My Parasound A21 review and VS Emotiva XPA

I use a couple Emotiva amps and, if you look at my systems, it's not because money is an object.

Granted...I use one of their big amps for just low frequency drivers on my Wisdom speakers and another Emotiva for just rear channels in my HT.

However, I've tried the XPA2 amp in other capacities and it's gives very strong performance on a super modest budget. If you try to pick this thing up, you quickly realize it's not your typical cheapo product. It has a big toroid transformer, good heat sinks, and speaker terminals/switches/connectors that compare well with virtually anything out there. Some parts could be improved internally, but you can say that about many amps charging $5k+

Their pre/processor is a bit clunky and "cheap" with the interface, but it actually sounds very nice, which is what I value most.

If you've got better speakers that are more resolving of differences in equipment than my Wisdoms or Maggies...plus a dedicated room with full treatments...and an active crossover/room correction like mine for even more refinement...more power to you.

Here's the problem with threads like these.

First, the original poster never mentions which Emotiva model he tried. Was it the same power rating?

He never mentions which preamp is feeding the amp. Parasound is a great value brand just like Emotiva, but I once made their JC1's sound terrible by driving them from a high quality Resolution Audio CDP that supposedly could go direct to amps. On other amps, it worked fine, but not the JC1s with the cables we were using. This is just one example of why these clowns who make categoric statements about brands without providing any details earn my "clown" title.

Next, he mentions using these amps on Sonus Faber Venere. I find it odd that someone would choose a solid state amp versus a tube amp for this speaker, but nevertheless, it is also very sensitive to setup and listening axis. Thus...just like the JC1s...I could easily make this speaker sound horrible with even $100k amplification.

Few people realize how much a speaker crossover impacts the sound from the amplifier. A tube amp can sound terrible on Speaker ABC which needs lots of current, but sound great on one that needs an amp to swing voltage.

Even without the drastic difference of tubes versus solid state, you can have large swings in performance within solid state and tube categories based strictly on the speaker.

For example, my McIntosh amp is rated at 250watts per channel. It will mate great with almost any speaker...especially because it has an autoformer. Thus, it has outperformed amps well above its price on many speakers.

Conversely, my modified Mccormack amps are among the best sounding (super transparent, liquid, and detailed) solid state amps I've heard...yet...they only do 125watts and can sound much less impressive when asked to drive certain demanding speakers full-range.

In short, be careful who you listen to and be wary of anyone making categoric statements with little experience or details.

Also, for the record, Benchmark, PSB, Emotiva, and Parasound are my recommendations for "best-bang-for-the-buck" brands.

I don't doubt you might prefer a Parasound product to Emotiva. I mentioned that Parasound was one of the best bang for the buck brands out there.

However, did the products you compared sell for the same price?

What find surprising is how many threads like to call out Emotiva for their claims, yet there are tons of brands making even more outlandish claims and charging 10x more than Emotiva.

I guarantee your Parasound will outperform many amps that cost 2-5x what you paid...Why do people call out the brand that sells for much less instead of the real phonies who charge much more.

If you don't find Emotiva a "particularly good buy at all", I wonder if you've ever looked under the hood of most other amplifier brands that sell products for the same price or much more. Most have nothing better than a fancier machined aluminum casing and worse measurements on a test bench.

In fact, I would take an Emotiva amp over the $100k Siltech amp based on the horrible measurements and defects in the recent Stereophile review.

Not saying this applies to everybody, but I think some Emotiva haters are just people who spent way too much on their mediocre products and would rather speak negatively on the products that cost less, than those that cost more.

Here's my litmus test for a legitimate Emotiva criticism...Do they list better products at the same price or do they only compare them to more expensive?

I can't believe people are still wasting time bad mouthing under $1k amps compared with all the snake oil and over-priced products in this hobby.

XPA amps were measured by a third party who does this for a living and doesn't live in the snake oil delusional world that many do. Here is just one of their measurements - http://www.audioholics.com/amplifier-reviews/emotiva-xpa-2/xpa-2-measurements

Like I said before, I use them as low frequency amps on my Wisdom speakers and surrounds in my HT. I can easily afford much more expensive amps, but they measure perfectly fine for these applications and would be more than suitable for any budget audiophile system.

In fact, I could spend $5k on most any tube amp and it would do a worse job controlling the low frequencies.

Of course, I'm sure there will be 1,000 excuses for ignoring measurements and more wasted time claiming that this $800 amp isn't worthy of comparison to $5k amps.

What's worse?

1. A company using normal fluff marketing to hail their products as competitors with more expensive options?

2. A company charging much more for essentially no better product.

I see tons of people bashing Emotiva, but how often do you see anyone bashing this $9500 CDP with the same parts as a $100 CDP - http://homepage1.nifty.com/iberia/column_audio_goldmund-e.htm

What's even more criminal are speakers costing the same as a car, yet not even giving you an active crossover (which is superior to a passive in every way)!

I seriously question the motives of this criticism. Emotiva creates products for almost any budget, with no distributor and dealer markup. They give you a liberal return policy, yet people on hear still like to bash them.

And again for the record, Parasound is another quality company with great value for the money, but, in most cases, it is more than double the cost of Emotiva equivalents.