suds1280
10-15-2003, 03:50 PM
I am very interested in puchasing a five channel amp, and I have heard nothing but good things about Parasound, so I put it on my short list of manufacturers, along with B&K, Rotel, Anthem and Bryston. As of right now, I would like to purchase a good 5 channel amp, and I do not need more than 125 w/c, as my listening room is pretty small. I would like to someday go into AV seperates, but as of right now I have a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 for 2ch listening and a Rotel 1055 for movies (the 75w x 5 is more than enought for my room) and running the front two speakers in SSP loop into my Krell 2250 amp while running the center and rears with the Rotel. My question is, are the new Halo amps a good step up from the last generation HCA series amps in terms of performance? I know the specs might be different, but I am talking strictly about sound. I am favoring the Halo series right now, but if I can get almost the same performance while saving 30-50% on an amp I would be very happy.
Also, are both the HCA and Halo series completely balanced, or only partially balanced. When I get a pre/pro (probably after this generation of pre/pros passes, meaning I will be looking at the next gen of B&K, Rotel, Anthem, Sunfire, Lexicon, Bryston, Integra, etc.) I would like to run the pre-outs using balanced interconnects and connections. Any info on any of the subjects above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Also, are both the HCA and Halo series completely balanced, or only partially balanced. When I get a pre/pro (probably after this generation of pre/pros passes, meaning I will be looking at the next gen of B&K, Rotel, Anthem, Sunfire, Lexicon, Bryston, Integra, etc.) I would like to run the pre-outs using balanced interconnects and connections. Any info on any of the subjects above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks