New speakers need new amps...Halo?

[Drew_W]

I will confess right off the bat that the new Halo series have the best sexiest styling I have ever seen in an amp. The "halo" on the buttons is beyond cool. (And I hear the red Parasound P lights up too? Does it? )

Ok, now on to real content. Bear with me, this is my first post in Club Parasound. So I think some background might help. Please endure.

My main office/bedroom system consisted of Energy Take 5.2 satellites + S8.2 sub powered by a Harman/Kardon AVR225. Because I listen to alot of dymanic classical music (and alot of organ music...killer), I could clip the H/K. I was also not satisfied with the stereo performance, having to always use DPLII to get good imaging, and rely on the sub to "complete" the satellites. Well no more. I recently upgraded the fronts to Energy Veritas 2.1s. Absolutely fantastic speakers. Due to a leaky hot water heater, boxes from that room moved temporarily in my theatre, and I was able to liberate my Pioneer Elite 53TX, which is now powering this setup (the centre, surrounds and sub are still from the original setup). Movies are rare as there is no TV in the room, and I have a theatre for that.

What am I looking for? The Elite has to go back to the theatre, so for this system, I need solid solid music performance (stereo). I was thinking of getting another receiver (Pioneer Elite again perhaps? They make great preamps imho), and then adding an A23 for the fronts. Both the Elite and the Halo use MOSFETS, so while I've never actually heard this pairing, in theory it makes sense to me. Does it make sense to anyone else? Or is there a better path for me to take?

[P-Stone]

And I hear the red Parasound P lights up too. Does it?

Yes, it does! 8)

P..

[Scarp]

The Parasound P and the Halo around the on/off button are always on (when power is on the unit). They are brighter when the machine is turned on. Really cool indeed (although the halo for the on/off button shines brigher than that of my C2 when both units are off).

From what I understand you have two setups ... one stereo and one surround? Or both surround?

My suggestion, for your stereo setup get the A23 amp together with the analogue P3 pre-amp. This combined with your best front speakers will get you a great stereo performance. Obviously this needs to be paired with a good cd player which has a good DAC (the P3 has analogue inputs only). A pre-amp determines just as much of your sound, as the power amp does, so just adding a poweramp will get you a bit further. The whole chain must correctly matched.

For your surround setup you can do something else

I don't know your speakers, so I have no clue if they match with the Parasound amps, but knowing parasound amps I think you will be happy with organ music. Organ music contains a lot of deep bass and parasound amps are terrific in producing that.

Combining Pioneer with Parasound is a less good option I think. I'm not a big fan of the pioneer sound and it doesn't go well with parasound IMHO.

[Drew_W]

Both are in fact surround setups. The setup I'm talking about has L&R Veritas 2.1, C Energy Take.2, SL&SL Energy Take.2, SUB Energy S8.2. I thought about moving to 2 channel entirely, but I don't want to give up the other channels, since I just bought a multichannel audio player and a few discs to get me started. (My theatre setup which is Athena speakers with the Elite 53TX I speak of is fine. For the increasingly rare usage that it gets, any additional investment there would be a waste.)

Much as the A23+P3 would be an ideal combination, I want to stay 5-channel (even though most of my listening will be in stereo anyways, I still want the flexibility.)

Sorry to confuse you Scarp, but with this in mind, what would you recommend? I can only budget about $1000-1200USD for this, and being in Canada means buying used equipment from the US is more expensive due to import charges. The A23 can be had used for around $600, so that leaves me the rest to find a receiver to power C,SR,SL and to act as a preamp. Suggestions, or should I be taking another route entirely?