I have narrowed my power amp replacement down to either a Parasound A21 or an Anthem A2. I will not be able to in home audition either which makes this harder than I want. Both sound great in the stores but neither audition duplicates my home (as usual). I will be replacing an aging Hafler SE240 and the speakers are Focal 948's. Has anyone had experience in comparing these two side by side. Thanks for any info.
Not those two amps, but you should read all the reviews that you can about those amps and glean whatever information that you can from them. I'd suggest checking the usual suspects: Stereophile, The Absolute Sound, etc. Might be helpful. Good luck!
Both should be great amps. I had a Sonic Frontiers Anthem MCA 2 and it was a great amp for the money. A little forward in the soundstage but very detailed with excellent bass slam and very quiet. The Anthem A2 is the next series up, so I would think you'd have a more refined amp than the MCA, but I'm not sure how Paradigm is doing with Anthem since they bought them...Sonic Frontiers made superb stuff. Parasound Halo stuff gets lots of great reviews. A plus to the Parasound amp is you could mate with one of their preamps (which are supposed to be nice) and have some nice system synergy. Either the Anthem or Parasound shoule be a step up from the halfler.
Thanks for the comments. I do want to keep my Conrad Johnson Motif 8 pre for the moment. I have a local dealer who has made a very reasonable offer to sell me the Para. I have contacted an Anthem dealer who is a long time friend who has sold me before. This may come down to a price but maybe not...more to follow.
I heard the A21 on many occasions and it is a smooth, powerful sounding amplifier. Not a world beater in terms of detail or transparency but a very good deal for an amplifier with this amount of usable power. Huge footprint and height profile so do your homework to see if it will fit in your intended location.
Yes next step is to measure twice buy once . I need to check heights as well. I have read that the A21 runs warm and the Anthem a bit cooler. The amp location does not have a lot of headroom. More planning to do.
I have an A21 and it is very nice. An tally pretty phenominal for the money - and Parasound lets their dealers deal on them. As above, it's not the most detailed amp I own,but very listenable. I have never owned an Anthem amp, but I have had two of their MRX series and they are, by far, the best AVRs I have owned and sounded excellent. These are made by Sonic Frontiers as well.
Just pulled the trigger on a Bryston 4BSST2. Bryston has discontinued the the "Squared" and now is producing the "Cubed" 4BSST3. I happen on a deal to good to pass up. I should have the amp. some time next week. Thanks to all who gave input.
