Parasound pairing?

[macsmith777]

Anyone out there have experience with Parasound (Hint 6, specifically) and the Sierra tower? I am wondering about opinions on if they play nice. I am trying to put together a 2 channel system, and have started research. Living in a somewhat remote area, auditioning is difficult at best. Thank you all!

[Beave]

Given that the towers are fairly high sensitivity and a fairly benign impedance load, just about any receiver or integrated amp will power them just fine. The Parasound is very nice but far more than you probably 'need.' If that's what you want, that's great. Go for it. But you could probably get by with something far less expensive if your budget is tight.

[macsmith777]

Thank you Beave! My concerns lie in terms of tonality, general sound, etc. Like pairing a 'bright' amp with bright speakers, that sort of thing. Another option is a Hegel. I am not looking for loads of power per say, just that clear sound that the Sierras are reported to have. I appreciate your input as I am flying somewhat blind here..

[Beave]

Since you appear to be dealing with solid-state amps and not tubes, the idea of amps having a sound quality to themselves - such as 'warm' or 'bright' - is audio mythology.

Competent solid-state amps are dead neutral until driven past their limits. I doubt you'd drive even most AVRs beyond their limits with the Sierra towers.

Do you plan on using a subwoofer or two? If so, that reduces power amp requirements even more. If not, then how much power you need will depend on listening levels, distance from speakers, size of room, etc. Unless you're gonna play the towers at really loud levels in a big room, you don't need much power.

[DaveHo]

Since you appear to be dealing with solid-state amps and not tubes, the idea of amps having a sound quality to themselves - such as 'warm' or 'bright' - is audio mythology.

This is complete & utter bullshit.

[Mag_Neato]

Let's keep things on track in this thread in order to be helpful to the original poster without starting a flame war as is common on that "other" forum!

I will agree here that amps sound different. When I replaced the onboard amps in my old Marantz AVR with a beefy ADCOM, there was a nice bump in performance. Mainly the dynamics and things staying "together" improved. After replacing the Marantz with a Parasound P5 for preamp duties I noticed another leap in performance. Swapping the pre had a bigger impact in my opinion. I just had the ADCOM upgraded with new higher quality components vs stock, as well as some redesigned circuitry. That has made a very noticeable improvement in the form of amazing control of the bass, giving it clean extension with solidity and impact. The mids sound richer and the highs very extended and smooth. I know the AVR could never approach that level of sound.

2 local friends have had similar experiences with changing amps and have said each time there has been certain differences that they either liked, or made them regret the change.

[Beave]

This is complete & utter bullshit.

Feel free to give evidence supporting your claim. By evidence, I mean double-blind, level-matched listening comparisons, not anecdotes of "I can hear a difference."

Or feel free to show measurement differences that show *audible* differences.

Otherwise, well...

[RicardoJoa]

I have parasound halo a23 class a/b that replaced with nuforce st100 D class because the nuforce was having a minor floor noise.
When i listen and compare both, i can’t find a difinitve difference in tone but in long term listening, i find nuforce more pleasing, less harsh presentation.
So my experience suggest that amps can sound different but sometimes is hard to point out.

[Beave]

I always forget about Class D amps - they sometimes have a high enough output impedance to interact with the speaker's impedance and result in non-flat frequency response.

But I'd still guess *most* alleged sound quality differences are results of 1) sighted comparisons 2) non level-matched comparisons 3)too much time to switch back and forth between amps

[jimb]

In extreme cases, amplifier output impedance certainly can impact tone. Cables too. But it is not a universal class D issue. I know about one example, for reference. Hypex NCore NC400 'DIY' modules have a specified maximum output impedance of <0.001 ohms, up to 15 KHz. That is SPECTACULAR. To put it in context, just the contact resistance of speakON connectors on a cable (4 contacts, round trip) is specified at <0.008 ohms. Three meters of 10 gauge cable adds 0.020 ohms of resistance ("impedance" will be higher, as a function of frequency and cable construction). So, just the resistance of the best practical connection you will get between your amp and your speakers is 0.028 ohms or more - 28 times higher than the maximum specified output impedance of the NCore amp. If you could connect the output of the amp to an 8 ohm driver, directly, the damping factor would be >10,000. When you consider the loses in just connecting your speakers to an amp, a damping factor of >300 is essentially perfect.

NCore amps have been out for 7 years. I don't know about the output impedance of other class D amps.