Hi All,
This is my first post to Audioholics, so bear with me if I haven't got all the terms/jargon right or if I've missed a post where this has been discussed (though I did do a pretty thorough search). Also, apologies for hijacking this thread, but doesn't seem like I'm allowed to start a thread before I have a certain number of posts!
I'm having a bit of difficulty deciding between these two options for a 2.1 channel system that I might later also use for home theatre. I thought maybe the Audioholics forum could be a good source for recommendations!
As background, I live in Hong Kong where I very fortunately have a relatively large secondary room that I was planning to purpose for a home theatre system with an emphasis on 2 channel performance. Originally, I was planning to just build a budget home theatre using an extra Pioneer Elite Sc-55 that I have lying around, but unfortunately have been the victim of an awful Pioneer defect that involves a faulty board that breaks down after 2 years of use. Pioneer has strangely offered to replace the unit with THE SAME FAULTY board, which I think is patently ridiculous.
So, not wanting to deal with that, I did some research (dangerous!) and as I'm not in a rush, I thought maybe about building a stronger two channel system first and adding all the other speakers later. For reference, I have 2 Polk LSim 705 fronts and the LSim center and a couple Mission speakers lying around that I can use as surround.
Having done a bit of research, I've found that after the shipping cost for Emotiva gear, it ends up being USD 485 MORE than the Parasound unit through the distributor here. Additionally, because Parasound has a representative here in HK, they offer a 1 year warranty on the units. Emotiva has a more generous warranty offering 5 years, but would require that I ship units back and forth where I would bear the cost.
Given the above, I'm leaning towards the Parasound option for convenience, but the idea of a differential system with monoblocks is enticing, to say the least. Has anyone had any experience with the monoblocks vs the a21 stereo? Would the fully differential emotiva system sound better than the p5/a21 combo or the other way around?
Finally, I'm also open to other options. I've looked at the XPR-2 and XPA-2 in addition to the Benchmark ABH2, etc., but I think I'd prefer the A21 to these options, though I would get a better cost savings with the emotiva xpa2. As this is a secondary system, I'd prefer to spend less than more, but would be prepared to spend more for a better system.
Would appreciate any and all thoughts!
