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
Ok,guys this is what me and a freind did for a week end. We swapped power amps,his Parasound a21 and my Emotiva xpa - 2 gen1. He has a pair of dq30i's and I have a pair of Dq20's. When I hooked up the a21 to my system it was sounding like the music was coming out of a big pipe. It only got a small amount better over the weekend. The Emotiva xpa - 2 gen1 on his system was impressive sounding. We both have the same cables in are systems. He was using a nad m51 dac And a music fidelity m1cdt transport. Myself I'm using a Emotiva dc -1 dac and a Marantz cd600 cdp. The Emotiva xpa - 2 gen1 power amp sounds great b on my system and sounded near even sounding on his system. Basically it's a $800 amp putting out nearly  $2,500 worth of sound.

Sorry your post proves nothing as the systems and listening rooms are totally different.  Its just your opinion and I'll bet your friends opinion who owns the Parasound is exactly the opposite.  And he probably couldn't wait to get it home.

But thanks for reviving a thread that is now 15 months old. 

It's amazing to read some reviews of people going back and froths when one owns both Parasound and Emotiva. I own many speaker types and amps, so I easily get the different types of signature sounds from different manufacturers. I do own quite a few different amps and speaker brands. I have Parasound A21 amps, Rotel RB-1090 amps, Parasound JC-1 amps, Emotiva XPA-1 amps and Emotiva XPR-1 amps that I use in my home theater room for music and movies. In my 2-Channel room upstairs in the living room I use Emotiva XPA-1 amps for music.

I've been amazed at the performance and price of the Emotiva gear. Most people do not know it but Emotiva makes many brands out there under their OEM/ODM. The list would surprise you who they make amps for, this includes Parasound. The Parasound are bias more towards warm side as the Emotiva's are more towards neutral. Both does a fine job of detail and sound quality. The internal Emotiva builds are built quite well and a little more so than the Parasound for equivalent model. I find that I listen to my Emotiva XPA-1 more than I do my Parasound A-21, the A-21 is a little warmer sounding but I like the XPA-1 that it's neutral and the little extra resolution it gives to detail. I also like my Emotiva XPR-1 more than my Parasound JC-1. The build quality on the Emotiva XPR-1 certainly out does the Parasound JC-1 by far and sounds outstanding in all areas that meet or surpass the Parasound JC-1 for far less the price, that is always a great achievement.

We live in an era of today's times that many manufacturer far exceed asking price than what is fair. Many people just don't get this. We no longer live in era that you get what you pay for, now days it's for highest possible profits at the lowest cost, this mean over-charging the end user. I once brought this up to the attention of a well known brand that we were doing some consulting work with and I asked the owner why he changed many times more than even the build quality of his amps, they were cheap compared to the prices they charged. He turned red and told me it doesn't matter what they charge, they can charge what ever they want and breaking no laws and they offer utmost customer service, two days later he had me fired off the team.

Emotiva offers some great equipment and especially for the price. I think it's great in an era where it's the opposite and many people are far over-paying for what they really get. We all should be applauding Emotiva for this!!!

There is not a night and day difference or knock your socks-off in Emotiva vs. Parasound like some folks post. To me it's being overly dramatic of some sort. They are near the same league but I would give the nod more towards Emotiva because I like the more neutral side to sound than Parasound's warmer side but both sound very nice. My Parasound JC-1 have been repaired twice so are from problems.... yes Parasound was great about fixing them and addressed the problems they had along the way but seems to have fixed them now. I haven't had any problems with my Emotiva equipment yet so far but I hear Emotiva has been great as well taking care of it's customers. Emotiva is now being made here in the USA and I think it's great how Emotiva is giving quality at a fair price and jobs back to the USA.

I'll never understand how some like to condemn a great company like Emotiva who is just trying to offer fair prices with great quality products like it used to be before the now mass majority over charges for quality audio products.
Great job Emotiva, keep the great work up!!! Emotiva is now sold in brick and mortar local stores in your area.

I'm very happy with Emotiva compared to my Parasound!!!
Well, you're all over the board and appear to have at least 10 amps, unless you are incorrectly pluralizing the word amp.  At any rate all one can do is listen to their system and pick the one that sounds better to them.

And to me, in the exact same room, with the same system, the same music, the exact same volume level, the same cables and the same $6000 speakers, the A21 was clearly superior to the Emotiva amp.  I would have sent back the A21 had I not been satisfied, why spend a big chunk of money for no improvement?  

And when one realizes that Emotiva is way over hyping their products and being dishonest to say the least, I can certainly understand why some criticize them.  
That is what's great about different choices, we pick what sound best to our ears.  It's great you found the sound you like.

I am hoping soon that our distributor will carry Emotiva, as one local A/V a few blocks from us now carries Emotiva.  The distributor tells us they will soon and our plan is to set up Emotiva among the rest of our amps and let our customers hear for their own ears and decide.  This will be fun.

We are about to see great things for Emotiva's future!