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 runnin

runnin
397 posts
 
I believe he said he demoed the A21 against more expensive amps in store sound rooms.

Anyway, I've had a similar experience with Emotiva and Parasound. I had an XPA amp and was getting distortion with high frequencies at volume levels above 80 db. Nothing I tried got rid of it until after researching Parasound, tried the A21.

In my room and system, the Halo amp was head and shoulders above the Emotiva. More accurate bass, better soundstage, no distortion at higher volumes and gorgeous vocals. It was no contest.

I still think Emotiva makes okay entry level amps for home theater if your speakers are on the warm side, but for the better music reproduction I really had a bad experience with them. Mind you, that was with TOTL Paradigm speakers.
runnin
397 posts
 
I've had 3 Emotiva products, including an amp that I compared with an A21. Emotiva is certainly not the equal of Halo amps any way you want to slice it. The point is, Emotiva is out there claiming that they are High End and why pay more, and once claimed in an ad that their UMC-200 was the equal of a $4,000 processor. People are going to call them on their wild claims, and don't be surprised if you come across another thread or two like this, Labtec.

I used to consider them good bang for the bucks spent at the 5-999 price points. But after I was able to clearly hear the difference with the A21, and got treated like an idiot at their forum btw, I don't consider them a particularly good buy at all.
runnin
397 posts
 
No doubt there are some Emo bashers out there.

You asked if the Emo (XPA-3) amp I had was the same price as the A21? But that's my point, Emotiva claims their products are the equal of much more expensive brands, but they aren't. True, I haven't tested other brands claims, only the components I buy. The XPA's used to be measured by Emotiva at .1% THD to get to rated power. Most other amp companies are at .0-something when reaching rated power. That means they have more useful headroom, because they're not already rising. Emo also has smallish power supplies and caps for rated output. They save a lot by doing this.

I've looked under the hood of many amps. I put Emotiva on par with Adcom build quality, the Halo products are in another class altogether. Mind you, I've never owned any XPR amps from Emotiva, they could be better. But the 5 or 600 watt per channel output is really overkill for me. I've never seen under the hood of anything more expensive than Halo except online.
runnin
397 posts
 
I don't get why people buy $6000 speakers at all. But if they do, why use a bargain brand amp? Those Tyler Acoustics go for over 7000. Why don't you save some REAL coin and buy some Crown pro amps for 500-600 a piece. What's the point? If you want to save money on the amps and got Emotiva, you should have saved money on the speakers in the first place.
runnin
397 posts
 
Mitch, you still seem to be missing the point. Emotiva makes wild claims and their fanboys make wild claims. I am simply holding them to account. The XPR line may be the equal of the Halo series, but based on the build quality of the XPA line and every Emotiva product I have owned, I have my doubts.

I was where Brownsugar was when I started out in Audio, but I wish I would have made the switch to Parasound much sooner. I am satisfied at this level of refinement. With good speakers and cables, it's really quite impressive, but it's like Ricred1 said, there is better than Parasound Halo. I'm not interested in spending to get there though.
runnin
397 posts
 
Yioyos, you state that it is not fair to compare the Emotiva amps with brands costing several times the cost. But then your supporting argument seems to support the idea that it IS fair to compare. Perhaps I am missing something?

At any rate, I agree with the idea that since Emotiva themselves state that their gear is as good as the much more expensive stuff, that it is fair to compare. And Emotiva's gear does not measure up. Their processors have been buggy, clunky and several years behind the feature set of a $600-700 receiver. The first 2 generations of their DAC and CD player units had various weaknesses and bugs/issues that would have made a third generation off the table had it been any other manufacturer.

Their attempts at subwoofers were likewise weak offerings. Frequency response that starts dropping below 50 Hz? My HSU sub is flat down to 20 Hz. Their UPA and XPA amps have smallish power supplies and capacitor banks. They rate these amps at 1% or .1% at rated power. That means they are already climbing into distortion and have less usable headroom than an amp achieving rated power at .01%. My point here is, it's much cheaper to make an amp with the above specifications as Emotiva does. And it shows up in sound quality.

The XPR amps may be better, that is true. The XPR weighs 102 lbs and has 600 wpc. 99.5% of people don't need 600 watts or even have speakers that can handle 600 watts. But if one does, Emotiva is the only game in town. Just don't pull a muscle trying to get that boat anchor into place!
runnin
397 posts
 
Labtec, Emotiva IS snake oil.

Audioholic's owner has admitted that he's friends with Dan Laufman. I mean, whatever, but the thing is, Audioholics has NEVER had a critical review of an Emotiva product, even the piece of crap UMC-1, when a large percentage of owners of the UMC were having major problems with it. The last Emotiva sub Audioholics reviewed started dropping below 50 Hz. Audioholics called it a best buy when they were critical of the HSU Research sub, VTF-15H, which outperforms the Emo sub in every category. They lost me after that review.

I have a Parasound A21 2 channel amp and compared it side by side with an Emotiva XPA-3 amp. The A21 is in another class, but hey, there's no free lunch.
runnin
397 posts
 
I've had the same impressions of the Emotiva pieces I've owned, and sold off the lot of them over a year ago now. The cd player might have been the best of theirs I had sonically, but the clunky cd handling, and random freeze ups weren't worth the trouble. Their DAC had bad design, when I tried to get my iphone to play through it with a Pure i20, it was badly schrill, and the DAC was bright overall. The XPA amp was okay for $700, but I learned that what you get with 600 watts at that price point has easily identifiable limitations. Sonically, a little better than a mid range AVR, with of course more power than the AVR.

I"ve now got Parasound P7, and an A21. An Oppo 95 on music duties and Paradigm Signatures S6. Beautiful soundstage. Imaging , air, and all frequencies are just gorgeous. Special note for the vocal range, a real treat!

For a first foray into separates, Emotiva would make an upgrade, as long as your speakers aren't forward or bright sounding(Find out where your speakers are in the spectrum between bright and warm). But if you really have an ear for music or quality audio, you won't stay with Emotiva. Which makes starting out with better brands than Emotiva a smart buy in the long run since you're not buying twice.
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