Upgrading my Crown Xti2002 to a Parasound A23+ worth it?

I've been happily using my Crown Xti2002 for some years now, but I'm interested in a nice upgrade.
Despite the Crown being class AB (in contrast to other Crown amps), it outputs an ever so slight hiss.
Getting rid of that slight hiss is nice, but it's only audible on quiet evenings when no music is playing, so it's not a big deal.
The A23+ is a big step down in power, but I'm not that power hungry anymore.

I don't have much experience with various power amps and I suspect that most of them sound more or less the same.
So now I'm wondering if it's worth the upgrade.
They're about 2100 euros over here - so that's a bit more than in the US, lucky bastards lol
Despite the higher price, from the look of its build quality it still looks like good value.
Other than that, I don't really know if the A23+ is able to drive my Wharfedale EVO 4.4 at higher levels without distorting or getting really hot.

Other power amp recommendations are also welcome of course, within the 2.5k pricerange.

 

Are you able to bring the A23+ home for a demo?

 

I'm not sure about that.
It's probably possible to return it to an online store, but I'm not able to actually request a demo.

 

I owned an A23+ that drove a pair of MA Gold 200 speakers - not the most efficient 4 ohm speakers. It did an excellent job and never reached volumes where it distorted.

 

What made you change amps?

 

Curiosity more than anything. Moved to an A21+. The change did make a difference in SQ, although the A23+ holds it own.

 

i would be shocked if the a23+ didn't sound smoother, more refined, enjoyable and musical.

 

I have been wondering about Parasound power amps for a while but never managed to borrow one. I am not saying your Crown is not to blame for the hiss but I wonder whether the type of tweeters you have or even the pre share part of the blame. If I were you, being the hiss the only concern you seem to have, I will make sure I demoed or buy from where I can return otherwise you could face an expensive disappointment, hiss wise of course.

 

Plenty of power....and lots of happy owners on here

 

I would definitely go with the Parasound or something with a little more power but not much, your speakers are rated at 200w max and that crown is pushing 475w at 8ohms (dual) I am surprised the crown has not shutdown on you

 

The A21+ would be the very best purchase, however, the A-23+ is a fine piece of equipment and will drive your speakers just fine. Parasound is a wonderful product, I have owned several of their amplifiers and pre-amplifiers and still do, it will be a good purchase. I have never had a Parasound amplifier fail in 20 years.

 

I've been using for a few years a 800w+800w amp on speakers that -if I wished to do so- could be melted by it. What makes you think any powerful amp should shut down because the speakers are rated at less?

 

It's called a speaker protection circuit ever heard of it ?

 

How would an amplifier know what the power rating is on a pair of speakers?

 

I once owned an A-23 and it had no problems driving a pair of Maggie MMG's. I'm sure that the newer A-23+ is just as capable.
[email protected] nice rig.

 

Protection of any kind on amps is only activated when something is wrong either with the amp or the speakers, that is not the case here. There is no reason for my amp or Oelewarper amp to shutdown unless you have melted the speakers and caused them to become a short circuit but more likely they will go open circuit.

As pointed out by Glmoneydawg the amp does not know the power rating of the speakers, in my particular case my amp can work down to 2 ohms so it will keep pumping power for quite a while before it switches off. It is up to you to know what you are doing, anecdotally every time I've managed to blow speakers it was with underpowered amps that did not find any good reason to activate their "speaker" protection.

 

Like I said I'm surprised it did not shut down before as you say "melt the speaker" isn't that why it's called a "speaker protection circuit" to prevent the speaker from melting down ?

 

Yes and no, The meltdown I referred to was more of a figure of speech but it can happen. It is more complicated than just thinking the protection in an amp will protect everything from everything.
It can serve to protect the speakers, it can serve to protect the amp, depending on the circumstances it might not even protect either from being damaged.

Depending on the amp design, the protection might not cover everything. If the protection in an amp is meant to serve as speaker protection, it generally protects only against DC voltage going to the speakers. That only happens when there is a fault in the amp. It will not stop the amp from sending too much power to speakers that can't take it. In that case it is up to you to have some idea of how much volume you are using and if it is commensurate to what your speakers can take.

There are other problems the protection could detect and switch off the amp to prevent the amp getting damaged like when you have the speaker cables making a shortcircuit but you never have 100% certainty damage will be avoided so it is best to be careful instead of relying on supposed protections.

In short, the protection in the amp won't stop it sending too much music power to the speakers, you have to be the judge of that, but it is also there to protect the amp as well, it is not just for speaker protection.

 

Think about..

 

Ok..

 

It’s like plugging a US 110V device into a European 230V socket.
The protection at the mains panel won’t do anything - the fuses won’t pop and the RCD won’t trip.
The device will just burn out.

Unless it makes a short during meltdown; in that case the RCD will trip if it’s a short to ground.
Or a short between neutral and line, which will pop the fuse.

 

Just think about it this way:
A power amp output is a voltage source.

For example:
If you put 1V on the input and the amps gain is 40dB (amplification of 100 times) it will output 100V.
Regardless of the speaker, it will keep (or at least try to keep) the voltage at 100.

The current is what differs depending on the speakers impedance.
Impedance is actually reactive so the speakers resistance changes depending on frequency.
But for the sake of simplicity we can see impedance as a kind of resistance and use ohm’s law.

I = V / R

Voltage divided by the resistance gives us the current.

Using the 100V we had on a speaker of 2 ohms would mean the amp is outputting 100 / 2 = 50 amperes of current.

The amount of power can be derived from this:

P = V * I

So 100 volts times 50amps gives us 5000watts.

If your amp is rated at 200W, its protection circuit will kick in.
If your amp is up to the job, so it’s rated at 5000W, it will output this.

However if the speaker is only rated at 200W, the voicecoils will likely pop like a fuse when 5000W is applied.

After all, it just a piece of thin wire like a fuse, but wound around a bobbin instead.

 

So...your saying that you want to fry your voice coil or have to change fuses ?
If your amp is rated at 200W, its protection circuit will kick in.
If your amp is up to the job, so it’s rated at 5000W, it will output this.
If your amp is rated at 200W, its protection circuit will kick in.
If your amp is up to the job, so it’s rated at 5000W, it will output this.
If your amp is rated at 200W, its protection circuit will kick in.
If your amp is up to the job, so it’s rated at 5000W, it will output this.

 

It was a reply to the “meltdown” you and @Uglyversal were discussing; as in, providing an explanation why sometimes protection kicks in and sometimes it doesn’t.

 

Got it, yes I know how the protection circuit works I'm just curious and have always been..as to the mixing of pro and consumer based audio by some individuals. So..I take it, you're not driving those Wharfdales very hard with that crown ?