New Halo Owner

[Bugsy]

Today I added a Parasound Halo A52 amp to my HT setup. It replacd an Anthem MCA 50 which I was having problems with, and so far it is performing very well. Not quite as powerful as the Anthem, but it is delivering clean, smooth sound to my system. It's a keeper! Cheers.

[Chris D]

Congrats, Bugsy! :banana: I'm interested to hear how you would compare the performance of the Anthem to the Parasound unit, even with the power difference.




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[suds1280]

I, too, would be interested in a comparison of these two amps, as I have been looking to purchase one or the other for a while as they sell for around the same price. LIke comparing the overall tonality, soundstaging, imaging, depth, and whatever else might come into play. Congrats on the purchase, though, it looks like a great amp

[nicholtl]

Congratulations Bugsy, tis a fine amp indeed. Welcome to the club.

[Bugsy]

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I'm not much good at making comparisons but I'll give my impressions. First of all I really liked the sound of the MCA50. Prior to purchasing it I demoed 4 other amps from different makers, when I heard the MCA50 in my system I looked no further. Trouble is, every time I turned it on it sent a handclap like snap through my speakers, loud and very annoying. I was afraid it would damage my speakers and I became reluctant to turn it on. Leaving it on 24/7 meant leaving the AVM20 pre-pro on also, and I found that after being left on even overnight I could hear hiss coming from my speakers. Over a period of several months I rotated 3 MCA50 amps and 2 AVM20's through my system (great dealer), changed all the interconnects, removed sources one by one, and installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit. The snap remained.

So I started looking for an amp that sounded as good as the MCA50 in the same price range. My dealer had added two more brands to his product line so I tried an amp from each. The Parasound model was the A23. I had it for the weekend, and liked it so much I ordered the A52 on Monday.

Sonically the two amps sound very much alike to my ears. I spent most of today tweaking things like speaker toe-in and adjusting sound levels with a RS SPL meter. In the end I find that I have to run the AVM20 at a slightly higher volume level (-20 compared to -26/7 previously) to achieve the same slam when watching an action movie. I also increased the volume on my subwoofer another notch. In two channel stereo listening (jazz, blues, classical) the A52 is perfect, with the same superb imaging, detail and soundstage I liked about the Anthem. I cant add much more. I have only run the A52 for about 16 hours now and I expect it will sound even better two weeks from now. It sounds great, looks to be very well built, is 11 pounds lighter, runs cool, looks good, and there is N0 turn on slap from the speakers . I'm very pleased to have it. Cheers.

[Bent]

Hello Bugsy, on behalf of the rest of the forum (and from a relatively new but familliar member), welcome to the HTG.

I don't frequent the parasound forum at all, but you'll notice that this whole group of fellas is a fair bit different then the others we've been to. They (we) are a terrific bunch. I think you might like it here.

Ben.

[Bugsy]

Hey Bent! Thanks for the welcome, I'm a long time lurker here and on the HTG site in general. You are right, it's a refreshing change from the "mine is better than yours" mentality we are both familiar with elsewhere. Cheers.

[Chris D]

Yeah? Well... Well... MY 5-channel Halo amp is better than YOUR 5-channel Halo amp! (wait a tick... a Halo amp is a Halo amp) That's 8)

Very interesting on the comparisons. Hey, you hear what you hear on your stuff. So if your ear prefers one item over another in your house, then more power to you, regardless of what some magazine writer says. Hey, hold on... I am one of those magazine writers. That makes sense that you may have to turn the volume up slightly more with the Halo amp, having less power. And you're right--many have reported that Halo equipment improves after a short break-in period.




CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"

[suds1280]

Thanks for the comparison, and I am glad you are happy with you purchase, that Halo gear looks great
As for the volume setting differences, it might also be beacuse the gain on the Parasound in not quite as high as the Anthem, not that the Parasound is that much less powerful. Anyways, 125 watts vs. 225 watts is less than 3dB difference when driven to max.

[Bugsy]

Your welcome. Actually the Anthem puts out 180wpc, all channels driven into 8ohms, so the difference is really 55 wpc. I would quickly recommend either amp to anyone looking in that price range. Good luck in your decision. Cheers.

[Scarp]

Number of watts says little or nothing about an amplifier.
Many people prefer tube amps, which are generally in the region of 25 watts or so.

I joined a amp shoot-out a while ago with my A51 against a chord, Krell and Vincent. The krell had 2x 80 watts, while my amp used in stereo should have a lot more amps. However the Krell just sounded different and in the opinion of the listening panel was a bit more interesting to listen too. But obviously the Krells price per channel is a lot higher than my 5 channel amp.

Anyway ... its about preference and usability. That stereo krell amp will have a problem producing 5 channels of sound, while my multi channel amp has little problem with it

(note, the A51 did sound good and was just a correct playing amp. However compared to the other amps a little less interesting. THe "winner" was a Chord SPM1200E, which costs twice the price of my A51 and the chord only has 2 channels).

[Bugsy]

I've turned into a" HALO HO"! I added an A23 today to mate with my A52 for a 7.1 HT setup. I will use it a lot as I have my sytem set to start up in 2 channel stereo, A23 driving Paradigm Monitor 11 towers. Sweet! I seem to be having a problem getting the A52 to turn on in "audio" mode though. The switches are in the correct positions as per the manual but it wont turn on when a 5.1/7.1 signal is present. So I'm using a trigger from the A23 for now. That works fine but means the A52 is always on even when I just want 2 channel stereo. Any tips to try would be appreciated. TIA, Cheers.