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Falling prey to upgraditis and all of the great things I have heard about Parasound I went ahead and got the P3 preamp and A21 to audtion in my home. ASIDE: if anyone wants an in home audition and your local dealer wont do it, contact Paul Brownlee at Parasound (paul@parasound.com). I contacted him Monday and by Thursday I got my demo gear.
Let me preface this review by saying I am not a technical audiophile. I just love music, always have, so I may not have the proper vocabulary to properly describe what I am hearing. For this I apologize in advance.
Gear:
Speakers: B&W 805S
Preamp: Parasound P3
Amp: Rotel 1080 & A21
Source: Sonos digital music server & Musical Fidelity A3.5
Speaker cables: Nordost Blue Heaven Rev II
Interconnects: Nordost Red Dawn RCA & XLR (from preamp to amp)
Music: Style Council (Cafe Bleu), Tony Rich, Anita Baker, Oleta Adams, Sade, The Gap Band, Everything But the Girl, Cassandra Wilson, JAck Johnson, Black Eyed Peas
I will spare everyone with the glowing reviews of how the A21 looks in the front. Yes, it looks great! However, I will comment that at the back it looks downright cheap compared to the Rotel. From the speaker connections to the XLR inputs, to me it felt and looked like something I would see from a Radioshack special. Another thing I noticed was just how big it is. I thought the Rotel was hefty. The Rotel looked like a little matchbook compared to the A21.
The first thing I noticed when listening to music was how "big" the A21 made things sound (as Jerry pointed out in this thread). Where the Rotel to me sounded paper thin and 2 dimensional, the A21 made the music 3 dimensional. The soundstage was deep and tall, extending in both dimensionals more than the 1080 ever could. In addition, maybe because of the added power, but the music played with authority. Before, I thought it was because of the fact that I had bookshelf speakers that music lacked a sense of power, strength. With the A21 everything changed. My 805S sounded like they commanded the room, making the music permeate every nook and cranny, enveloping the listener. This very evident when listening to Style Council's "My Ever Changing Moods". With the 1080, Paul Weller's voice sounded weak, the music sounded thin, poorly recorded, with too much treble. The A21 changed all of this. What used to sound thin and cheap sounded precise and full with the A21.
On to sound coloration. The A21 definitely had a warmer sound to it. I wont go so far as to say it is tubelike, but the sound I got was something along those lines. There was a warmth, a smoothness, an invitingness (is that a word) about the music. I felt like I was listening to music in a cozy little venue or small music hall. The 1080 never had this. The 1080 sounds more neutral, almost digital, sterile. Oleta Adam's and Sade's voice absolutely soared with the A21, seemingly reaching my to the top of my cathedral ceilings. With the 1080, it felt like their voices were being constrained.
Detail. As I would expect with my 805 and Nordost cables, both amps had great detail. I heard every guitar string pluck, cymbal crash. Maybe the A21 had more detail but this could be to the fact that the music was more "powerful". Bass seemed to be handled better by the A21, a tad more controlled and tight.
Thus far, this review was done listening to my digital music collection. Before I get killed for having mp3, let me explain. I have well over 15,000 songs in my library. Having it avaialble digitally is the only way I can ever easily have access to all of my music. Not to mention, my wife was getting very mad at the amount of space my cds took up. For critical listening I have a small stash of cds I keep ready.
Next up is the Musical Fidelity A3.5 cd player. I will report back tomorrow.
Initial verdict:
The A21 is very good. Is it worth twice the 1080? Of course that depends on much value you place on your music and if the characteristics the A21 has is to your taste. For now, I am going to say yes it is worth it to me. It made my 805s do things I thought they could never do, sound bigger. I no longer think I have to get the 803D (though I still will though, dont tell the wife). And, I know that the A21 will work well if I do decide to get the 803. To me, sound experience is very important. I like feeling like I am at a venue instead of at home. It reminds me of the days when I used to go live shows regularly. It appears to me that I have the best of all worlds. Very detailed sound because of the B&Ws and Nordost cables and a warmth and power because of the A21. To be fair though, I dont think comparing the 1080 to the A21 is really apples to apples. Perhaps a more appropriat comparison would be to the RB-1090.
It should be noted that I did not detect the same kind of low volume issues as Jerry. But we do listen to different kinds of music (I am not much a classical guy).
ASIDE #2: The P3 with balanced outputs is great. Just adding this to my 1080 setup made a difference. More detail, more presence. I know some people will say that unless I am running miles and miles of cable, balanced inputs make no difference. Maybe they are right. But I heard a difference and there was no subconscious bias on my part because I was just borrowing the cable, I had not made any committments either way. Before this turns into a novel, I will have to review the P3 in another thread.
Thanks for reading.
Let me preface this review by saying I am not a technical audiophile. I just love music, always have, so I may not have the proper vocabulary to properly describe what I am hearing. For this I apologize in advance.
Gear:
Speakers: B&W 805S
Preamp: Parasound P3
Amp: Rotel 1080 & A21
Source: Sonos digital music server & Musical Fidelity A3.5
Speaker cables: Nordost Blue Heaven Rev II
Interconnects: Nordost Red Dawn RCA & XLR (from preamp to amp)
Music: Style Council (Cafe Bleu), Tony Rich, Anita Baker, Oleta Adams, Sade, The Gap Band, Everything But the Girl, Cassandra Wilson, JAck Johnson, Black Eyed Peas
I will spare everyone with the glowing reviews of how the A21 looks in the front. Yes, it looks great! However, I will comment that at the back it looks downright cheap compared to the Rotel. From the speaker connections to the XLR inputs, to me it felt and looked like something I would see from a Radioshack special. Another thing I noticed was just how big it is. I thought the Rotel was hefty. The Rotel looked like a little matchbook compared to the A21.
The first thing I noticed when listening to music was how "big" the A21 made things sound (as Jerry pointed out in this thread). Where the Rotel to me sounded paper thin and 2 dimensional, the A21 made the music 3 dimensional. The soundstage was deep and tall, extending in both dimensionals more than the 1080 ever could. In addition, maybe because of the added power, but the music played with authority. Before, I thought it was because of the fact that I had bookshelf speakers that music lacked a sense of power, strength. With the A21 everything changed. My 805S sounded like they commanded the room, making the music permeate every nook and cranny, enveloping the listener. This very evident when listening to Style Council's "My Ever Changing Moods". With the 1080, Paul Weller's voice sounded weak, the music sounded thin, poorly recorded, with too much treble. The A21 changed all of this. What used to sound thin and cheap sounded precise and full with the A21.
On to sound coloration. The A21 definitely had a warmer sound to it. I wont go so far as to say it is tubelike, but the sound I got was something along those lines. There was a warmth, a smoothness, an invitingness (is that a word) about the music. I felt like I was listening to music in a cozy little venue or small music hall. The 1080 never had this. The 1080 sounds more neutral, almost digital, sterile. Oleta Adam's and Sade's voice absolutely soared with the A21, seemingly reaching my to the top of my cathedral ceilings. With the 1080, it felt like their voices were being constrained.
Detail. As I would expect with my 805 and Nordost cables, both amps had great detail. I heard every guitar string pluck, cymbal crash. Maybe the A21 had more detail but this could be to the fact that the music was more "powerful". Bass seemed to be handled better by the A21, a tad more controlled and tight.
Thus far, this review was done listening to my digital music collection. Before I get killed for having mp3, let me explain. I have well over 15,000 songs in my library. Having it avaialble digitally is the only way I can ever easily have access to all of my music. Not to mention, my wife was getting very mad at the amount of space my cds took up. For critical listening I have a small stash of cds I keep ready.
Next up is the Musical Fidelity A3.5 cd player. I will report back tomorrow.
Initial verdict:
The A21 is very good. Is it worth twice the 1080? Of course that depends on much value you place on your music and if the characteristics the A21 has is to your taste. For now, I am going to say yes it is worth it to me. It made my 805s do things I thought they could never do, sound bigger. I no longer think I have to get the 803D (though I still will though, dont tell the wife). And, I know that the A21 will work well if I do decide to get the 803. To me, sound experience is very important. I like feeling like I am at a venue instead of at home. It reminds me of the days when I used to go live shows regularly. It appears to me that I have the best of all worlds. Very detailed sound because of the B&Ws and Nordost cables and a warmth and power because of the A21. To be fair though, I dont think comparing the 1080 to the A21 is really apples to apples. Perhaps a more appropriat comparison would be to the RB-1090.
It should be noted that I did not detect the same kind of low volume issues as Jerry. But we do listen to different kinds of music (I am not much a classical guy).
ASIDE #2: The P3 with balanced outputs is great. Just adding this to my 1080 setup made a difference. More detail, more presence. I know some people will say that unless I am running miles and miles of cable, balanced inputs make no difference. Maybe they are right. But I heard a difference and there was no subconscious bias on my part because I was just borrowing the cable, I had not made any committments either way. Before this turns into a novel, I will have to review the P3 in another thread.
Thanks for reading.
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