Upgrade to Parasound Halo A21?

[DrJRapp]

i am a bit confused by the comment you made about anything adding distortion. Doesnt a tube output add distortion in way? That is how it add "character" and "warmth". Does it matter if this distortion occurs at the CDP level or the amp or preamp?

To me, distortion is not a bad thing as long as it makes the music sound the way you like it.

Interesting point about warmth of tube output, I never thought of it quite like that, however you are right, it is distortion. And yes, I do think it matters where that comes into the picture. Perhaps the biggest sorce of "distortion" is at the speaker level. In a way, an equalizer is a controlled distortion device. Perhaps that is why I have such low opinions of Bose speakers.

One thing that both my wife and I noticed independently, the Rotel was much easier to listen to for extended periods of time. And she doesn't even know what the term "listener's fatigue" means.

[tboooe]

hmmmm...i wonder if the fatigue has anything to do with the "power" i observed in the way sound is delivered. i dont know the technical reason but it seems to be that the sound is muhc more forceful with the a21. whereas with the 1080 and my 805S, the sound felt like it was more a part of the room the a21 makes the music have more presence, as if the sound dominates the room.

[DrJRapp]

the a21 makes the music have more presence, as if the sound dominates the room.

Interesting you use the word "presence" because that is a word attributed to midrange. In fact on some older equipment that had bass, mid and treble controls, the midrange control was called "Presence". Makes sense that the A21s fat mid has more "presence"

Ok, now turn down the volume so the sound no longer dominates the room and you will see what I mean about loss of detail.

[tboooe]

huh, learn something new everyday...i will try the volume thing right now...i am not sure if the loss of detail has to with the fact that the amp is doing something or if I can longer hear the details since the volume is so low. i dont expect to be able to hear detail if the volume is lower than my normal listenign level. Maybe I should expect?

[DrJRapp]

You should not loose detail at lower volume. Detail will be quieter, but still there and focused.

I've now had the A21 cooking for 3 days straight and it's finally starting to come out of the fog at lower volumes. I've also found that it sounds better when using the 24bit 96Khz mode on the Shanling and with the ground lifted. The 1080 sounded a bit bright and harsh in this mode. For that matter so did a Krell Theater. I also gave the A21 a brief spin using the Shanling as a transport and having the DACs in my Rotel 1098 do the conversion. I'll never do that again! I still have a lot of things to try to find the A21s best performance. That's why I didn't want to make any quick decisions. I think the real test will come in a few days after I get to the optimum configuration for the A21 and I switch back to the 1080. I already know the setup to get the max out of the 1080. That will be the proper a/b.

[Chris D]

Jerry, thanks for posting all this. I very much like reading all Parasound reviews, whether positive or negative, if they're well thought out.

The necessity of break-in has been well documented among Halo owners and reviewers. Like Peter said, since yours was "used", who knows. It may be already broken in, it may not.