Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[jandl100]

How do you find the Parasound, Jerry? It has a massive reputation in the USA. John Curl design, I think?

Hi Martin - the Parasound Halo A21 is totally, utterly, wonderfully amazing. Yup, it's a JC design.
Amazingly (just attach that word to all of the following) transparent, detailed, focussed, powerful, delicate, dynamic, slammy, 3D, extended, natural, musical ...

I've had quite a few amps pass thru here - owned, loaned & just visiting with their owners - in the 18 months or so since I got the MBLs and I find it hard to imagine a better match than the Parasound/MBL sound. It just sounds right.

Most pleased, I am. It thoroughly deserves the great reviews and awards it's been given, imo.

[Reid Malenfant]

I loves my JC designed 6 channel Parasound HCA1206 to Does a wonderful job on my front speakers driving lower mid, mid & treble..

One amp i'd also not be parted with

[MartinT]

Hi Martin - the Parasound Halo A21 is totally, utterly, wonderfully amazing. Yup, it's a JC design.

I've just seen the price
That's a fantastic amount of amp for the money!

[jandl100]

I've just seen the price
That's a fantastic amount of amp for the money!

The RRP, or have you stumbled upon the price I paid? Both prices are bargains!

The Parasound Halo A21 - aka Halo Hal - is the 2nd best component I have ever bought - which is a bit of a pain for a boxswapper like me - the MBL speakers being numero uno.

[MartinT]

The RRP, although I'd love to know what you paid

[jandl100]

Well, well - here's another very pleasant turn-up for the books.



An Acurus RL11 pre-amp.

It came up on ebay a few weeks ago, I did a bit of Googling and found some very positive reviews, so .... a timely left-click on the mouse and it was mine. And I have been enjoying it muchly ever since.

Remote control of power, volume, mute ... and balance - which is damn handy for some of my older LPs which can do some very strange things with L/R effects! If it had a mono button that would be good, too, but you very seldom see that. All RCA sockets - it would be nice to have balanced connections too, as my Parasound power amp seems to dredge up even better sound with those. Ah well, you can't have everything.

Very open, transparent and focussed sound - not an ounce of spare flesh on it, but still has a beguiling tonal richness - a neat trick that. There's a lovely liquidity to the mids that just sounds "right". Good soundstaging, although not quite as deep as a good valve pre can manage. Perhaps the deepest bass isn't quite given full weight, but you'd not notice that with most speaker/amp combinations or without direct comparisons.

Makes me wonder what it's big brothers in the Aragon range sound like! One came up on eBay a week or so back, but no remote control.

T'will be interesting to see how my noo Krell KRC3 pre compares - that should be with me in a day or so.

[jon1]

I loves my JC designed 6 channel Parasound HCA1206 to Does a wonderful job on my front speakers driving lower mid, mid & treble..

One amp i'd also not be parted with

mark ..Found your parasound amp then



jon

[jandl100]

Cor, lummy - what a fabulous sounding combo !!



Sorry, Dave (DSJR) I forgot to pop the lid for an internal photoshoot of the Krell pre for you before I installed it. I'll get around to that sometime soon.

[Reid Malenfant]

Let it cool down first Jerry

[jandl100]

Let it cool down first Jerry

Mmmm ... well, it's been on for a few hours now, and it's barely warm.
Perhaps there was summat wrong with the one that you were frying eggs on, Mark? Or maybe there's summat wrong with mine! Sounds good, though.

I've had a few pre's that got a lot warmer than this - and not just valve ones either. Certainly no heat-stress with mine.