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Parasound A21+ good bad ugly?

The first 6 watts are pure sweet class A sound - a slightly warm sound that reminds me of my Marantz 2275, but with the added benefit of solid bass control that the vintage equipment just can't match. The A21+ has a ridiculously high damping factor (over 1200) meaning is has total control over the woofers - the bass is crisp & penetrating at all sound levels (like a gut punch!). Also, six watts is actually a lot louder than you would think, especially with very efficient speakers-it is loud enough to make it hard to talk over. It sounds good with aall the music I listen to - (mostly rock/alternative, classical, some jazz and country).

The one thing that takes some getting used to is the slope of the volume control on the P6 preamp. The owners manual shows that turning it up to 75 (out of 100) is about 1/2 power. When playing the T3 tuner with RCA cables, I had to turn up the volume to 50/100 for a moderate volume level (40 for low volume), but when I switched to balanced XLR connectors (which give 6 db more gain) I only need to turn it up to 40 (32-34 for low volumes). When running the CD player with a coax connector it needs 50/100 for moderate, 40 for low level. The higher up you go on the scale the faster it gets loud: you have a huge range for low volumes (20 to 50) Moderate volumes from 50-60, and anything over 65 is loud as hell - but crystal clear. (I went up to 70 once and got red flagged by the wife!)
 
krautmaster said:
The first 6 watts are pure sweet class A sound - a slightly warm sound that reminds me of my Marantz 2275, but with the added benefit of solid bass control that the vintage equipment just can't match. The A21+ has a ridiculously high damping factor (over 1200) meaning is has total control over the woofers - the bass is crisp & penetrating at all sound levels (like a gut punch!). Also, six watts is actually a lot louder than you would think, especially with very efficient speakers-it is loud enough to make it hard to talk over. It sounds good with aall the music I listen to - (mostly rock/alternative, classical, some jazz and country).

The one thing that takes some getting used to is the slope of the volume control on the P6 preamp. The owners manual shows that turning it up to 75 (out of 100) is about 1/2 power. When playing the T3 tuner with RCA cables, I had to turn up the volume to 50/100 for a moderate volume level (40 for low volume), but when I switched to balanced XLR connectors (which give 6 db more gain) I only need to turn it up to 40 (32-34 for low volumes). When running the CD player with a coax connector it needs 50/100 for moderate, 40 for low level. The higher up you go on the scale the faster it gets loud: you have a huge range for low volumes (20 to 50) Moderate volumes from 50-60, and anything over 65 is loud as hell - but crystal clear. (I went up to 70 once and got red flagged by the wife!)
Click to expand...
First off, nice write up and thanks for the reply. The dampening factor, which I had no idea what it meant until now, is very important to me. I have had the same experience with woofer control and now it makes sense. My Emotiva mono blocks have a dampening factor of 500 at 8ohm. With 250 watts, they have plenty of power to push the Cornwalls, but it seems the bass could be more crisp and penetrating as you say. I tend to lean toward warm so that is a + with me.

As far as slope, I am having similar experiences.

Now my wife on the other hand, when she has a few and puts on Motley Crue, I have to take the remote away from her..........She did ask once when she was blasting away, will I blow the speakers? I said only one way to find out, but if you do, I will have to buy new speakers.........she turned it down lol!
 
I have had the A21+ and Silver 500's playing at low volume (40-45 on the "dial") for eight hours a day all week while I'm at work (Don't worry, my office is in the back bedroom). I must say the sound just keeps getting better the longer they are run: the highs are warmer, the bass is so deep and crisp, voices crystal clear, sound stage is wider (I play U2's Joshua Tree album every few afternoons after work to compare day to day).

Many people on the interwebs say the The A21+ needs a hundred hours or so to really break in, and Monitor Audio instruction specifically say 70 hours for the speakers to break in, so I'm about 1/2 the way there. By next weekend the sound should be all settled in.
 
I had the A21 and P6. The combo does tilt to the warm side of things, sound wise. I've heard it said that the A21's frequency response was slightly rolled off on the top end. I loved the sound, but my issue was it clashed with my speakers at the time, and I didn't know that you could tune the sound somewhat with speaker cables. I had Wireworld Oasis 7, also known for being warm as my near flagship Paradigm S6 speakers were. The end result was a too warm sound for my preferences.

So I'd suggest that matching and synergy plays a part. Parasound Halo amps are bullet proof, however.
 
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I never really believed that speaker wiring could make a difference beyond using cables thick enough to handle the load (10 -12 gauge vs 16-18 gauge wires) but I was wrong. I had my new Monitor Audio Silver 500's hooked up to the A21+ with a set of 12 gauge "Samurai" wires using spade connectors and the factory supplied brass strips that connect the High and Low frequency posts together. Soon after, I bought a set of Spectrum Series12 Gauge BI-Wired cables (fatter than a AA battery) and made sure they did not contact the floor. I was surprised at how much crisper the mids & highs became...who knew...
1. Cable

1. Cable

B-Wired
 
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running the a21+ for a few months now being driven with a Rogue Audio RP-7 tube preamplifier. my progression has been from a rogue audio cronus magnum integrated to a rogue audio tube preamp with Cary SA200.2 power amp, then to the rogue preamp and a Rogue Audio Stereo 100 power amp.
the cronus magnum ii sounds better than most amps available but i wanted more dyanmics and went to separates.
the rogue preamp / cary power amp had tons of dynamics but lost the tube refinement.
the rogue preamp / rogue stereo 100 tube amp sounded amazing but lacked just that nth amount of volume to crank it up when needed.
the rogue RP-7 tube preamp with parasound a21+ amp does it all. the smoothness and refinement of tubes, excellent dynamic energy and the power to go loud when needed.
Sound quality is superb however cables between preamp and amp are important. also make sure to use the XLR connections.
My system is finished- the a21+ sounds as good as anything regardless of price.

good bad or ugly? how about end game amplifier.

link to my system-
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/7899
 
Yes, use the XLR connections where possible: I have them from the P6 Pre to the A21+, and from the T3 tuner to the P6 preamp and that is all the in-outs I have that are XLR. My CD is run through a $60 Pangea coax cable- made a huge difference from the generic $12 Amazon cable.
 
I love having the A21 around. It's a great amp in it's own right and is NOT embarrassed being in the company of my Pass X250 amp. No, the two amps don't sound the same, but both have complementary attributes that serve the music excellently. My P5 has a faulty DAC however! Should have gotten a replacement for it when it was new but Audio Advisor told me my old CD player was more likely at fault. Now it's doing the same thing with a 4K Blu Ray, SACD player. It won't play the data stream for more than 20 seconds and then there's a click and everything goes silent for a second or two and then it pops back on again.

The JC3+ is absolutely phenomenal with my Koetsu!

Focals by Rick S., on Flickr
 
How is you Pangea Vulcan stand holding up to the weight of the A21? I have a 47 pound Parasound 2250 V2 in my office on the same stand and the MDF shelf it holds the weight easily. I don't think it would last very long trying to hold the 71 pound A21+ (I think the older A21 weighs in around 60 pounds). I have their X Braces on every shelf which really firmed it up.
220

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Marantz 2275 in new WC-22 case
 
krautmaster said:
How is you Pangea Vulcan stand holding up to the weight of the A21? I have a 47 pound Parasound 2250 V2 in my office on the same stand and the MDF shelf it holds the weight easily. I don't think it would last very long trying to hold the 71 pound A21+ (I think the older A21 weighs in around 60 pounds). I have their X Braces on every shelf which really firmed it up.
220

220

Marantz 2275 in new WC-22 case
Click to expand...
It’s solid. Three years and no sign of strain or buckling. The VPI weighs about 50lbs too plus maybe 30lbs for the preamps.

The Pass labs amp is too wide and deep for the stand and being it runs the first 40watts class A it puts out a lot of heat. It also weighs over 100lbs.
 
Ok guys and gals OP here, I have a A21 in my lounge as a demo. This amp is by far the best amp I have ever heard. My Mac and tube gear with Cornwalls would get irritating after a short time, just couldn't stomach the mid horn. With the P6 and A21 combo, I can listen for hours to all types of music, Metallica to Diana Krall without missing a beat.

Now I have a dilemma, the A21 is priced fair and local. I can probably swing the A21+. Should I take the plunge (double the cost of the A21) and get the A21+? If so, why?

Thanks, Bob
 
That’s a tough choice you have there. If it were me and I could swing for the A21+, that’s what I’d do. But it’s not my money!
 
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It is like the dilemma of buying a Used car vs a New car. It all depends what you want out of it: the old A21 was around for 15 years because it was so good. The new A21+ has more grunt at 300 watts at 8 ohms (independent tests have show it to be closer to 400Watts), 108,000 uF capacitors, and 60 amps of current.

Safe & Sound has specials on Parasound stuff all the time.. wait till they list an "open box" A21+ for $2600 and snatch it up.
 
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I am late to this really interesting thread. Two quick points:

1) I am jealous of your new amp.

2) Customer service: Sometime back I was having a problem with a Parasound amp *that I bought used on ebay*. I sent an email to the company asking about it and had a really helpful response from their president within an hour or so with lots of great advice about what I could do to solve my issue. Amazingly great of them. Very impressive. When I buy a new amp someday Parasound will go right to the top of my shopping list based on that experience alone. It's the right way to make/keep customers for sure.
 
the A21+ is a bit beefier than the A21. Both sound quite good; would think better than Emotiva, but have not compared. I used to have a quad set of JC-1s for veritcal biamping. Great sounding amp, that seemed to have unlimited power. Never felt the amp was being pushed that hard even at higher than normal listening volumes. Have nothing but good things to say about the Parasound amps....Well made, and really huge transformers and power supplies.
 
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A buddy has a home theatre setup (8 foot screen, seriously comfy seats, even a popcorn machine) and uses an Emotiva XPA (GEN3) FIVE Amp and an Integra DXR-R1.1 for processing. the system sounds great for movies, not so much for music (class D amps). We both prefer my A21+ with Monitor Audio 500s for stereo listening.
 
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