Parasound Halo A21 or Rogue Audio Stereo 90 amp

Mikey081057

I couldn't imagine the A21 not making any speaker sound their best. Doesn't it run cooler than you thought it would?

Mike Reeter

dhart86 wrote: »

Just got the A21 yesterday. Didn't have time for a quality listen. This thing is Beautiful. Solid build and beefy. Quick initial listen, I plugged them up to my modded (westmassguy) monitor 5a's. The 5a's never sounded better than this, not even with the Rogue. The detail and bass were obvious and stood out. Together they produced a very pleasing sound.........

Erniejade and Mikey ....I hear ya! Spot on fellas

Will do more listening on this pair b4 I turn to the 705's.......then the SDA 1c's

Glad you're diggin the A21 Darren, "sounds" like you made the right decision!

dhart86

Mikey081057 wrote: »

I couldn't imagine the A21 not making any speaker sound their best. Doesn't it run cooler than you thought it would?

Definitely does.....It doesn't run hot all

dhart86

Yeah Mike I am digging the A21. I don't want to be over the top with my enthusiasm as I may just be enjoying the difference in sound.....but I'm pretty sure the A21 is a keeper. I do love Rogue's stuff, I still have the 99 pre in the chain, but the A21 is better than I had imagined it would be

erniejade

See its more "tube like" sound then a lot of tube amps as far as the nice liquid mid and top end. Not harsh, very musical and listenable Not missing anything and really doesn’t do anything wrong at all and does a lot right . The bass just seems more solid and the soundstage to me is nice and wide / deep depending on the pre used with it and it also has a great presence to it. Things just seem to pop out more. Just like my tests with the Emo vs P5 preamp.

I am told besides the P5 preamp, the JC2 is amazing and I am interested in hearing one of them next. The P5 and A21 are the 2 pieces that got me interested in Parasound. I know 3 people that have an A21. In every case it was defiantly an improvement vs what they had before. I know it’s not everyone’s taste but, I can’t see anyone not liking the sound of the A21. Is it perfect? No. I don’t think there is a “perfect” anything. It is about personal preferences but, the A21 can do warm or analytical depending on the preamp in my opinion.

Even new, at this price point, its a hard unit to beat. In a couple of years when you see more on the used market, that will be an amazing deal LOL.

I am glad your digging the unit.

Mikey081057

So my A21/P5 has about 400 hours on it now... The 1st 200 hrs I listened to the 703's as I was doing mods on my 2.3's. I was very impressed with what it did to the 703's... It made them sound like floor standers and just engulfed the room in wide deep sound stage. Once I moved the 2.3's to the A21 it was like breaking the sound barrier. It's not like you can walk into a store today and say let me hear that P5 with the A21 on those 2.3's anymore and like Ernie did, the best you can do is do a shootout with components you might consider. Me I just made a leap of faith and looking at reviews and testimonials I made a decision to go with them and use the 30 day window as my safety net....I couldn't find a negative review. The worst I could find was somebody saying he'll stick to his huge$$$ monoblocks but they thought it was great for the $$$. I don't know if you could find any thing that beats it for the money. And it is freaking rock solid in build quality too. Hope lifting it was ok for you

BTW i hooked up one of MP3K's for S's&G's yesterday to the P5... I like the functionality, but have concluded that I don't need a sub which was what I kinda knew but decided to give it a shot. The P5 gives you great control of your sub. And BTW the Polk Room Optimizer will scare the livin' snot out of you in a small room when it starts.

Keep the feedback coming... Glad you are enjoying !