Parasound A51 vs Anthem MCA 525 Gen 2

[perryleros]

At the end of the day, for whatever reason one sounded bad and one sounded good to my ears.
Regardless of what measurements and/or logic imply I had to go with whatever sounds comfortable to my ears.

Not trying to convince anyone that one is better than the other. Just described my situation and experience with these amps.

Trust your ears and use what sounds best to you.
All good

 

[PENG]

Completely agreed, no logic. My personal opinion (I'm not an EE) is that the main differentiator between amps, other than class, is whether their power supplies are sufficient to really deliver their rated wattage, and I think these days at anything other than the low-end of the market, that is a non-issue. I think chasing sound with amplification, rather than EQ/DSP and speaker choice is foolish, but it's not my money.

Agreed about your point on the power supplies, and by the way, post#76 made me realize that those who trust their ears, even when specs and test results tell the otherwise, often help us who don't just trust our ears. It helps us indirectly, by helping companies to have a heathier margin overall. So, I am not going waste time explaining to them why ears cannot always be trusted any more. There are tons of technical articles on why blind comparisons need to be done, in order to get valid/credible conclusion already, if they care to seek them out and read them.

 

[ben_]

Ultimately if you can afford it, and you like how it sounds, there's really no such thing as the "right" gear. I think the best you can ask for is that people look at things objectively and not let outside factors and preconceived notions blind them to reality. There's a lot of charlatans in this hobby/industry, and I think it's right (morally) to point that out, but ultimately the only thing that matters is if people are happy with what they have and how it sounds. None of this is a competition, even though some people seem set on turning it into one. Also, like most things, a little humility goes a loooong way.

 

[PENG]

At the end of the day, for whatever reason one sounded bad and one sounded good to my ears.
Regardless of what measurements and/or logic imply I had to go with whatever sounds comfortable to my ears.

Not trying to convince anyone that one is better than the other. Just described my situation and experience with these amps.

Trust your ears and use what sounds best to you.
All good

I re-read you post and noted that you are, or were, interested in downsizing. I recently downsized my A21 to a buckeye amp that has output power about the same or even a little better than the A21. In terms of sound quality, I did not feel there is any difference at all. I also have an anthem MCA amp used for my HT system's FL/FR channels and I never felt any harshness at all. So, I do feel you have a strange case indeed. If it is the speakers, then the same harshness should be felt with the other amps and preamps you auditioned, so again it is really "weird" as you described it yourself.

Regardless, if you ever have the itch to downsize again, I hope you would consider one of those little Hypex, or Purifi amps a chance. Your AVM90, or 70 (not sure which one you have) should have more than enough voltage to drive them.

See how much space you can save, if that matters:
I believe the A31 may be slightly bigger than the A21, may be not. The Purifi ones tend to be slightly larger.

Hypex:

Purifi:

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

Good grief. That Parasound is enormous.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

At the end of the day, for whatever reason one sounded bad and one sounded good to my ears.
Regardless of what measurements and/or logic imply I had to go with whatever sounds comfortable to my ears.

Not trying to convince anyone that one is better than the other. Just described my situation and experience with these amps.

Trust your ears and use what sounds best to you.
All good

At the end of the day, whatever makes us truly happy (for whatever reasons) is the right one.

 

[PENG]

At the end of the day, whatever makes us truly happy (for whatever reasons) is the right one.

Of course, though "Ignorance is bliss" need to apply, for those who come and ask after the fact, otherwise some people who frequent forums such as this one may end up getting buyer's remorse if they eventually realize what's actually making them "truly" happy. That's why sometimes I feel we should shut up and just congratulate people's new acquisitions.

 

[PENG]

I didnt even apply a tilt to my ARC curve, left the higher frequencies as they naturally are above 5kh.

I don't know how experienced you are on ARC Genesis, so I am going to mention the following points that are important for tweakers:

1) As you know the default range is 5 kHz, so if you tried to tweak out those bumps in the higher range, but forgot to change the default maximum frequency to above 5 kHz then the changes would have no effects even if you made changes to the target curve perfectly.

2) If you have done everything perfectly, and uploaded the tweaked curve to the AVM90, for the changes to take full effect, you should power cycle the unit. If not, some of the changes may not take effect, until it gets power cycled.

The manual does not really tell you that, but some of us found out the hard way.

 

[perryleros]

I re-read you post and noted that you are, or were, interested in downsizing. I recently downsized my A21 to a buckeye amp that has output power about the same or even a little better than the A21. In terms of sound quality, I did not feel there is any difference at all. I also have an anthem MCA amp used for my HT system's FL/FR channels and I never felt any harshness at all. So, I do feel you have a strange case indeed. If it is the speakers, then the same harshness should be felt with the other amps and preamps you auditioned, so again it is really "weird" as you described it yourself.

Regardless, if you ever have the itch to downsize again, I hope you would consider one of those little Hypex, or Purifi amps a chance. Your AVM90, or 70 (not sure which one you have) should have more than enough voltage to drive them.

See how much space you can save, if that matters:
I believe the A31 may be slightly bigger than the A21, may be not. The Purifi ones tend to be slightly larger.

Hypex:

View attachment 62125

Purifi:

View attachment 62126

Holy sh$$ these amps are tiny!!!
Look so pretty.
Will definitely consider going class D down the road!!!

 

[Will Brink]

I think most of us (myself included) started out young and thinking all amps, preamps, DAC, and even cables sound differently. It was very exciting.

I remember the first time I read from The Audio Critic that all cables/wires sounded the same. I wasn’t happy. Same thing when I read that all amps, preamps, and DAC sounded the same.

I have to admit things became a little less exciting after not believing in that.

This reminds me of Adam & Eve eating from the fruit of knowledge or Neo & Trinity being unplugged from the Matrix.

All amps, preamps, and DAC sounding the same sounds kind of boring.

But now I can focus on other important things like quality, warranty, support, reliability, features, etc.

I miss those days. Ignorance was bliss!

 

[lovinthehd]

I miss those days. Ignorance was bliss!

Nah. Just often more expensive.

 

[Will Brink]

Nah. Just often more expensive.

I was probably happiest when I thought my boom box in the 70s was the height of audio.

 

[lovinthehd]

I was probably happiest when I thought my boom box in the 70s was the height of audio.

That's because you were enjoying the content more back then and now worry about the gear?

 

[Will Brink]

That's because you were enjoying the content more back then and now worry about the gear?

No doubt, but I thought it was high end audio! I'd saved up all summer for that one.

 

[lovinthehd]

No doubt, but I thought it was high end audio! I'd saved up all summer for that one.

Boom boxes I don't think existed when I made my first audio gear purchases at 16 (Advent speakers, Dual changer to go with my dad's old Fisher receiver he had gifted me). I'd been a subscriber to a coupla audio magazines for a couple years by then, tho....and they were fairly factual back then compared to now.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I was probably happiest when I thought my boom box in the 70s was the height of audio.

Yeah, I thought I was total badass when I got that $400 Radio Shack stereo system. Was listening to music all day all summer.

 

[Eppie]

Boom boxes I don't think existed when I made my first audio gear purchases at 16 (Advent speakers, Dual changer to go with my dad's old Fisher receiver he had gifted me). I'd been a subscriber to a coupla audio magazines for a couple years by then, tho....and they were fairly factual back then compared to now.

I subscribed to Sound & Vision Canada back in the day. Full reviews with proper measurements and NRC data for speakers. Not that they didn't have their subjective content as well but I did enjoy that magazine a lot. Still have their Test LP and CD.