Parasound HCA 1500A vs. HCA 1200II vs. other ~$500 power amps

comfortablycurt

Hey everyone. One of the next upgrades on the horizon for me is a new power amp. The main two that I'm looking at are the Parasound HCA 1500A and the HCA 1200II. Can anyone explain what the differences between these two are? As far as I can tell these are the same amps internally. It looks like the HCA 1200II lacks a 12 volt trigger, but this isn't really a concern for me. The only differences I can see aside from this are purely aesthetic, and even those differences aren't too great.

What other amps should I be looking at in the $500ish area? I'd prefer something around 200 wpc. I've had a 100 wpc Adcom GFA 545 for years now, and I'd like to try an amp with more power. I've considered an Adcom GFA 555. I've loved my 545, but I think I'd like to try something different.

It will be used with a Marantz UD 5005 universal player, and a pair of Polk LSi9s. I'm buying a new preamp soon as well. I'm either going to be getting a Parasound New Classic Model 2100 or a Parasound Halo P5. I'm leaning heavily toward the P5 though.

I'd greatly appreciate any insight or suggestions.

Nightfall

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B-K-Reference-200-2-2-Channel-Amplifier-1-of-4-200W-per-channel-/151662037171?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234fc308b3

One of these, they're being sold by former chief engineer of B&K and they've just been calibrated.

comfortablycurt

Nightfall wrote: »

http://www.ebay.com/itm/B-K-Reference-200-2-2-Channel-Amplifier-1-of-4-200W-per-channel-/151662037171?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item234fc308b3

One of these, they're being sold by former chief engineer of B&K and they've just been calibrated.

That looks really nice. I'm not too familiar with B&K. I'm going to have to look into this amp some more. The price is in the right area though.

deronb1

1500A uses MOSFETS and 1200 uses JFETS I believe. Having owned the 1500a, I can attest to its overall well balanced sound and low end umph.

MrBuhl

I haven't heard the LSi9's, but they are reputed to be detailed and warm I think. Parasound has a great following here as does B&K, (I have a ST1400II myself) but I find the B&K warmish as well.

If you're looking for something different you could probably get in a used Proceed (ML), Acurus, or Aragon in that watt range for that price.

The Acurus & Aragon would be a brighter sound from what I've read, not sure about the Levinson Proceed.

FWIW I didn't pay a lot more than that for my McCormack, (but you'd probably have to be real patient). I cannot say enough good things about this amp.

There's lots of options in that range if you don't mind hunting CL, Ebay, or the FM here!

just my 2 cents - take it for what it's worth!

chumlie

Another vote for the 1500a but if your looking now and ones not available I would grab that B & K in a heartbeat.

EndersShadow

For the price that B&K is a nice piece, especially since its been refreshed and comes with paperwork to prove it. 500 is a very fair price, I'd almost expect the auction to BEGIN at that price TBH....

comfortablycurt

That B&K seems like a nice piece, but much as I hate to say it...the faceplate doesn't appeal to me at all aesthetically. I hate to use that as any kind of deciding factor, but it's of at least marginal importance.

deronb1 wrote: »

1500A uses MOSFETS and 1200 uses JFETS I believe. Having owned the 1500a, I can attest to its overall well balanced sound and low end umph.

I see. That seems like reason enough to go for the 1500A.



Speaking of which, one just popped up on eBay for $550 BIN +shipping. I'm wondering if I should jump on this or hold out for a better price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PARASOUND-HCA-1500A-HIGH-CURRENT-POWER-AMPLIFIER-WORKS-LOOKS-EXCELLENT-/281676284655?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41953702ef



edit - Doesn't seem to matter about the B&K now anyway. The auction is ended.

comfortablycurt

Interestingly, I originally planned on getting a new preamp, then a new power amp, then a new source. I've seemingly done just the opposite. I got a source first and it's looking likely that I'll buy a power amp before a preamp.

EndersShadow

Curt there were 4 B&K 200.2 listed from the same seller at the same price.

I'd snatch em up.

comfortablycurt

It's looking like all four of them are gone. I looked up the sellers other items and got 0 results unfortunately.

comfortablycurt

I do tend to be a fan of a warmer sound, so that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I've heard a lot in the past about the midbass hump in the 9s, but I can't say that I've noticed it myself yet. They are definitely a warmer sounding speaker, but that's one of the things that I like most about them.

The Plinius 8200 looks really nice. I'm definitely not ready to spend that kind of coin right now though. That's what I'll be spending combined for the power amp and preamp, but I can't really spend that much right now unfortunately.

I've always liked Rotel. I'll definitely look into some more of those. I'll look into some other Plinius and Classe amps too.

edit - Would you recommend any Rotel amps in particular? I'm looking at the RB1080 right now, and I'm really liking what I'm seeing. I recall looking into the 1092 in the past. That thing is a powerhouse, but I'm kind of skeptical of the Class D amplifiers.

deronb1

Really, an Adcom GFA 555 might be a good match with the 9s. Very neutral.

Polkie2009

deronb1 wrote: »

Really, an Adcom GFA 555 might be a good match with the 9s. Very neutral.

The 555 might be worth a try since it can handle a 4 ohm load. I have a spare Adcom 545 amp laying around I was thinking about running my 9's with ,but noticed the amp isn't rated for the 4 ohm speakers.

comfortablycurt

DSkip wrote: »

Class d is a no go. They've got a balls to the walls sound but it's highly artificial sounding.

That's what I figured. I've always understood that class D amplifiers were really best served for larger PA systems and such where high amounts of power were needed, but at the sacrifice of sound quality.

Do you have any thoughts on the Rotel RB 1080? There's one I'm watching on eBay. It's looking like it's going to go a bit above my current price range, but I'm really liking the looks of this amp. The reviews I'm reading are very positive.

Polkie2009 wrote: »

deronb1 wrote: »

Really, an Adcom GFA 555 might be a good match with the 9s. Very neutral.

The 555 might be worth a try since it can handle a 4 ohm load. I have a spare Adcom 545 amp laying around I was thinking about running my 9's with ,but noticed the amp isn't rated for the 4 ohm speakers.

I'm still looking at the 555 as well. I've been very happy with my 545. I've had it for something like 5-6 years now and I've never had a single issue with it. I've driven both Monitor 7As and SDA 2As with it, and both of these are fairly lower impedance. About 6 ohms as I recall, and sometimes dipping to 4 ohms. So far the 545 is doing just fine driving the LSi9s as well. Although to be fair, I haven't really turned the volume up past 10 o'clock or so. Perhaps as far as a 11 once. I've been checking the amp to see how warm it's gotten while driving the 9s, and it hasn't gotten unusually warm yet. The 545 is a fairly warm running amp to begin with though.

This raises the question...which of the various versions of the 555 is the one to look for?

My main concern is that the 555 is going to sound very similar to the 545, just with more power in reserve. This isn't to suggest that I dislike the sound of the 545 in any way, but I'd like to try something different. Should I be concerned about this, or does the 555 have a different overall sound than the 545?

MrBuhl

Go over to the Fleamarket right now! @Rick88 is selling the below - there's your huckleberry. Good Luck!

B&K Reference 200.2 amp.
I purchased this on Audiogon from the original owner, and it is in excellent condition. I could probably safely rate it a 9/10, but I'll conservatively rate it as an 8/10. It looks great, sounds fantastic, and is dead quiet. I am selling it for $550 plus shipping with the stock power cable, or $625 with a 3 meter Pangea AC-9 power cable (bought new just for this amp). It was shipped to me in a B&K preamp box that it fit perfectly in, and I will use it to ship it to the buyer, as well as double box it for safety.

Nightfall

MrBuhl wrote: »

Go over to the Fleamarket right now! @Rick88 is selling the below - there's your huckleberry. Good Luck!

B&K Reference 200.2 amp.
I purchased this on Audiogon from the original owner, and it is in excellent condition. I could probably safely rate it a 9/10, but I'll conservatively rate it as an 8/10. It looks great, sounds fantastic, and is dead quiet. I am selling it for $550 plus shipping with the stock power cable, or $625 with a 3 meter Pangea AC-9 power cable (bought new just for this amp). It was shipped to me in a B&K preamp box that it fit perfectly in, and I will use it to ship it to the buyer, as well as double box it for safety.

He doesn't like the way it looks. Already passed on a 200.2 that was just calibrated for $500 shipped. I think he's pretty set on a Parasound.

MrBuhl

^^ My bad! I just thought it was a result of the calibrated ones being sold out ^^

comfortablycurt

I feel like it's stupid to pass on something because of appearances, but I can't deny the fact that it is of at least some importance to me.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of the B&K at this point. This one in the FM is tempting.

Edit - I see that he also has a Parasound P5 listed along with the B&K. Now THAT I am incredibly tempted by. This is the preamp that I've wanted, and used ones don't pop up too often.

EndersShadow

I too would pass on a piece of gear for cosmetics. Call me what you will, but that matters to me.

If its silver and all my other gear is black.... that matters at least to me a slight bit.

comfortablycurt

Well I'm buying the Parasound P5. I'm looking forward to getting my ears on it. I'm anticipating a huge difference from this preamp. I'm currently using an Acurus L10, which is a good little preamp in its own right, but it's not in the same league as the P5.

I'm looking forward to having some bass management and a built in DAC in my preamp. I'm 3/4 of the way done with my upgrades now. All that's left is an amp. With the purchase of the P5, the amp is going to get put off for a little bit while my bank account recuperates. I'll most likely end up buying an amp toward the end of July or so. I'm definitely still looking for input on them now though.

Nightfall

Congrats man. Good to see you get a piece of kit you really wanted and Rick gets some help as well. Win, win.

comfortablycurt

DSkip wrote: »

I think the P5 is a good fit for your needs. It's not an end game preamp, but it is exactly where you need to be right now.

This is how I see it. My eventual plan is to integrate the P5 with a combination HT/2 channel system, and then set up a dedicated 2 channel rig. This is a long distant plan at this point though. I've got 2 years of college left, and I'll be a grad student for about 6 years after that. So needless to say, my funds aren't likely to allow for 2 separate rigs for a good while.

I think I'm going to be very happy with the P5. It's going to make for a huge improvement in my sound.

Nightfall wrote: »

Congrats man. Good to see you get a piece of kit you really wanted and Rick gets some help as well. Win, win.

Thanks! I was really glad to see a used P5 pop up. I've been watching them for about 2 months now, and I haven't even seen any used ones anywhere. This was too good of a deal to pass up.

comfortablycurt

I should have clarified that the HT aspect of this rig is a future plan at this point as well. For at least the next couple of years, it's going to be solely used in a 2 or 2.1 channel rig. I sold off all of my HT gear several years back when I started getting into 2 channel. My 2 channel rig serves as my "HT system" currently. I rarely watch movies, but when I do I send the audio through my 2 channel. I use it when I'm gaming as well.

The SDAs have always been great for watching movies. They don't compare to a good surround sound system of course, but with how wide the SDA sound stage is, they do quite well given the limitations.

comfortablycurt

It just occurred to me that whatever amp I end up with needs to be common ground. I'm not planning on getting rid of my SDAs, so I need to be sure that I can run them.

I know this isn't an issue for the Adcoms. What about the Parasound amps? I'm also really interested in the Rotel RB1080. Does anyone know if this is common ground?

EndersShadow

comfortablycurt wrote: »

What about the Parasound amps?

I think the ones your looking at are. I'm 99% sure my 1200ii is. I believe @nbrowser is running SDA's on his 1200ii and I think @tophatjohnny ran SDA's on his as well.......

I'm a big fan of the 1200ii myself (since I own one ). I just wish it had XLR inputs, ya know like the B&K 200.2 lol.....

EndersShadow

nbrowser wrote: »

EndersShadow wrote: »

comfortablycurt wrote: »

What about the Parasound amps?

I think the ones your looking at are. I'm 99% sure my 1200ii is. I believe @nbrowser is running SDA's on his 1200ii and I think @tophatjohnny ran SDA's on his as well.......

I'm a big fan of the 1200ii myself (since I own one ). I just wish it had XLR inputs, ya know like the B&K 200.2 lol.....

I can confirm, SDA 2's on a HCA-1200II, sounds amazing and tons of power.

And I believe the 1500 is just a updated new model of the 1200ii so it shouldn't have a problem.

Not sure whose running one of those currently....

comfortablycurt

Good to hear that there shouldn't be an issue running the SDA's. I figured they'd be okay.

EndersShadow wrote: »

I think the ones your looking at are. I'm 99% sure my 1200ii is. I believe @nbrowser is running SDA's on his 1200ii and I think @tophatjohnny ran SDA's on his as well.......

I'm a big fan of the 1200ii myself (since I own one ). I just wish it had XLR inputs, ya know like the B&K 200.2 lol.....

If I could swing it, I would have bought the B&K as well. Rick offered me a great package deal on the P5 and the 200.2, but unfortunately spending that much right now just isn't possible. The B&K is on my short list though.

The main amps I'm looking at are the Parasound HCA1500A (and the 1200II to a somewhat lesser extent), the Rotel RB1080, the Adcom GFA 555, and the B&K Reference 200.2.



Realistically I'm probably not going to be able to spend too much time with any of this new gear for the next 3 months or so. I've got finals coming up, so leisure time is pretty limited right now. The P5 probably won't even get hooked up until after the 15th (my last day of finals). Then I'll have two weeks of relaxation when I can enjoy my gear, and then I'll be gone for ten weeks this summer for an internship at Fermilab, so I'll likely hold off on an amp until after my internship. My bank account will have a lot more padding at the end of the summer. It's taken a couple of large hits lately with the LSi9s, Marantz UD5005 and now the Parasound P5.

EndersShadow

Trust me, I get it lol...

Ricks B&K is tempting enough that I'm debating putting my 1200ii up for sale to pick it up.

It would mate with my Ref 50 pre-amp perfectly lol....

comfortablycurt

I know the feeling. I need to start burying my wallet in my backyard before logging into Club Polk...lol

RamZet

I have some Rotel and B&K stuff laying round, including a 200.2.