Initial Results XPA-5 vs. Parasound HCA-1205A

[slbenz]

Just received the Emotiva XPA-5 earlier today and had a chance to compare it to my Parasound HCA-1205A 5 channel power amp. As expected the Emotiva at 70lbs. is larger and heavier than my Parasound at 46lbs. The Parasound puts out a true 140 watts/channel at 8 ohms or 200 watts/channel at 4 ohms and retailed for $2000 back in 2001 when I purchased it new. My system consists of a Pioneer VSX-74TXVi AV receiver used as a preamp/processor, Yaqin and Musical Fidelity tube buffers, Magnepan IIIa front and rear speakers, with an Eminent Technology LFT-XII center channel speaker and a Velodyne HGS-12 sub woofer. My source I used for the comparison is a Marantz DV-9600 universal disc player connected via iLink to eliminate jitter.

Shipping to the San Francisco Bay Area took 5 days and the Emotiva amp was double boxed and secure. Included are the owner's manual, a 3-prong power cord and a trigger cable. The only downside was a very small scuff mark on the top of the case. I contacted Emotiva and spoke with Sarah and she suggested to use a Sharpie pen to cover the scuff.

I connected the Emotiva in one of two configurations for the comparison, the first as a traditional 5 channel amp in a 5.1 system and the second using the Emotiva bi amping the front mains and a single line to the center channel. The Parasound for the comparison powers the front three channels in a bi amp mode.

Here are my findings:
In single amp mode the Emotiva immediately produces greater attack and decay especially with piano and drum notes compared to the Parasound. I listened to the Norah Jones album, "Come Away With Me" and used the track, "Lonestar" and her piano notes had a significant degree of additional attack and decay to them vs. the Parasound in bi amp mode. Hearing the instruments and her voice, there was a greater body and feel with the Emotiva. Magnepans as you probably know are known for sound stage and depth, the Emotiva took both to another level, especially with sound stage over the Parasound. There was a significant drop in the noise floor which contributed to the increased resolution and clarity of the Emotiva playing this track that I never heard before with the Parasound. Same held true when I played the SACD of Diana Krall's, "The Girl in the Other Room" in 2 or 5 channel mode. The title song, "The Girl in the Other Room", Diana's voice and piano had more body and feel to them. With the lower noise floor, once again, it was easier to discern positioning of instruments and in 5.1 mode, the sound was really enveloping. Just using these two albums, I was able to quickly determine that the Emotiva was a force to be reckoned with and it already bested my Parasound in a bi amp mode configuration for 2 channel listening.

Onto my findings with the Emotiva in bi amp mode since it already bested my Parasound in a standard single amp mode. In bi amp mode, the Emotiva brought out even more to these albums. There is even more stereo separation, greater clarity, more of everything that you are looking for in a high-end amp. The Lonestar song alone showed how well the Emotiva did in bi amp mode. There is an additional female singer in the background that accompanies Norah Jones. Lesser amps makes the two singer sound like Norah Jones is only singing with an echo in the background. My Pioneer Elite receiver does this. With the Parasound in bi amp mode, you can tell that there are two different singers there but they seem to be very close to each other in the middle of the sound stage. With the Emotiva, you can really tell there are two distinctly different people singing because one is definitely left of middle and Norah is definitely right of middle. Overall, the Emotiva in either mode I tried, presented a more balanced sound quality than the Parasound. No harshness in either configuration but if your speakers can be bi amped, that is what I preferred for the greater smoothness, detail and balance over the single amp mode. I always thought the Parasound didn't have enough power to do the Magnepans real justice at the mid bass and I was right. Greater clarity with better sounding mid bass which the Parasound lacked was found with the Emotiva. Also, after having the Emotiva on for half a day, it was only slightly warm to the touch. This can't be said of the Parasound which can run quite warm for the same period of time. Once I run the Emotiva another 100-200 hours, this top 500 reviewer of Epinions will do a complete review of the Emotiva and have it added to the Epinions database. Hope this initial review was helpful to you. Emotiva, you now have a new convert!

[Pauly]

Thanks for the great read! Very interesting to hear your thoughts of the Emo vs the Parasound. I have a little Parasound 75 watt/channel amp that I use for a small office, and I've been thinking about replacing it with the UPA-2. You covered different amps than what I'm using and what I'm considering, but I'm sure now that the outcome would be very similar to your findings with the XPA. Thanks again.

[slbenz]

Sept 25, 2009 18:52:11 GMT -5 Pauly said:

Thanks for the great read! Very interesting to hear your thoughts of the Emo vs the Parasound. I have a little Parasound 75 watt/channel amp that I use for a small office, and I've been thinking about replacing it with the UPA-2. You covered different amps than what I'm using and what I'm considering, but I'm sure now that the outcome would be very similar to your findings with the XPA. Thanks again.

Pauly,

I think the biggest surprise for me was how well the Emotiva sounded in a single amp mode over the Parasound in a bi amp mode. I am currently listening to Oscar Petersen and Sony Holland as additional reference recordings and the findings are still the same. Later this evening, my family and I will being trying the Emotiva with our DVDs. Thanks for reading my post.

Slbenz

[tchaik]

gosh,

if the xpa-5 did that much over a dedicated amp, i can't wait to see what it will do for
my denon 4800 when i divest myself of the amp section of that receiver.

tchaik.........

[Deleted]

Slbenz, thank you for your initial findings. That was an outstanding post, very well written. I look forward to more thoughts from you. Great feedback! ;D

[slbenz]

Sept 25, 2009 19:12:25 GMT -5 tchaik said:

gosh,

if the xpa-5 did that much over a dedicated amp, i can't wait to see what it will do for
my denon 4800 when i divest myself of the amp section of that receiver.

tchaik.........

Tchaik,

I think you will be quite impressed once you go with a separate amp with your Denon. My brother-in-law has the exact same AV receiver which has a really nice built-in amp as receivers go but he uses a Sunfire Cinema Grand to power his Definitive Technology speakers and you can definitely hear the difference going with a separate power amp. I would expect the same with the XPA-5 mated to your Denon.

Slbenz

[slbenz]

Sept 25, 2009 19:54:04 GMT -5 @chuckienut said:

Slbenz, thank you for your initial findings. That was an outstanding post, very well written. I look forward to more thoughts from you. Great feedback! ;D

Chuckienut,

Thanks for the compliment. Plan to add more to my review once I have more time under the XPA-5's belt. Currently listening to the DVD-A of Eric Clapton and B.B. King's, "Riding with the King", which has more "feeling" than ever before. May have to try my other tubes that I have for my tube buffers. Currently using JAN Phillips 6922 green tubes with Herbies tube dampers. Already sounds great.

Slbenz

[devani]

great findings, I also have XPA-5 and always wonder what XPA-2 or XPA-1 would do....

[vincedog3]

Slbenz congratulations on your XPA-5. It is a great amplifier. Nice initial review. Look forward to hearing more once you have run the XPA-5 in. Thanks for the review.

[slbenz]

Devani and Vincedog3,
Thanks for the compliments. Still running the XPA-5 in bi amp mode which stills sounds the best in my system. After a week of use, the XPA-5 seems to have mellowed out a bit on the highs but still retains its clarity, detail and wide soundstage that I first reported. Now the XPA-5 sounds very neutral vs. being ever so slightly tipped towards bright when first out of the box. The XPA-5 sounds even better than a $10K Karan 2-channel amp that I tried in my system. The Karan uses the same topology as my Parasound so they both sound very similar but again, the XPA-5 justs has more of everything I wanted to hear. Also, I have asked the Category Lead at Epinions to add the XPA-5 to their database so that I can put my full review there once I am done testing the XPA-5. So be on the look out for that complete review in the next couple of weeks.

[questor]

Interesting comments on the parasound and karan, because I was thinking of buying either one of these options (stereo amp) to replace my emotiva xpa-5 for the LR channels. would be great if you can elaborate vs the karan specifically as i had shortlisted that amp.

I admit the xpa-5 is indeed a very good amp for the money, but being better than a dedicated stereo amp at that sort of cost is kind of tough for me to believe. i have tried several stereo amps in my setup and there has always been improvement in certain hifi aspects (e.g. detail/separation, etc), although the emotiva sits very nicely in my setup now and i am finding it a little tough to move on. it just has the right tonality which several amps i felt did not, the right amount of decay, speed.. but i just want that bit more of expression and detail. before anyone mentions, i did give the xpa-1 a chance, but decided to go for a bigger upgrade than that.

[slbenz]

Oct 4, 2009 13:18:11 GMT -5 questor said:

Interesting comments on the parasound and karan, because I was thinking of buying either one of these options (stereo amp) to replace my emotiva xpa-5 for the LR channels. would be great if you can elaborate vs the karan specifically as i had shortlisted that amp.

I admit the xpa-5 is indeed a very good amp for the money, but being better than a dedicated stereo amp at that sort of cost is kind of tough for me to believe. i have tried several stereo amps in my setup and there has always been improvement in certain hifi aspects (e.g. detail/separation, etc), although the emotiva sits very nicely in my setup now and i am finding it a little tough to move on. it just has the right tonality which several amps i felt did not, the right amount of decay, speed.. but i just want that bit more of expression and detail. before anyone mentions, i did give the xpa-1 a chance, but decided to go for a bigger upgrade than that.[/quote

I was actually surprised myself until my friend who is a Karan dealer told me that they use the same amp design by Parasound. The only difference is the damping factor. The Karan as you probably know has a damping factor of 10000 vs 800 for the Parasound. According to my dealer friend it makes a difference but did we hear a difference that warrant the cost difference. Actually, the Parasound sounded more balanced while the Karan sounded dry and sterile to me. My dealer friend as you can imagine wasn't too happy about it. Now I have the XPA-5 currently bi amped to my Magnepan IIIa mains and the sound is very balanced with additional detail, sound staging and dynamics over both the Karan and Parasound. There is certain flaw in my comparison of the Karan as a 2 channel amp being compared to 5 channel amps both in a bi amp configuration. But it still shows if a speaker designed for bi amping is successfully done, it should offer better sound over a single amp configuration with quality components. I hope I was able to answer your questions about the Karan.

[strindl]

I owned a pair of Manepan IIIa's that I bought in about 1988 as I recall. I had them bi amped with a pair of Threshold S200 power amps..using a Nikko electronic crossover and by passing entirely the outboard IIIa crossover. That sounded really nice.

How are you handling the bi amping with yours and the XPA-5?

I currently have a pair of the magnepan 1.6qr's in my living room system and had my XPA-5 hooked up to them in two channel mode when I first got the amp. I compared it head to head with a far more expensive Threshold S-500 power amp. That amp is rated for 500 watts per channel at the 4 ohm impedance of the maggies.

I switched back and forth multiple times over about a week..and I could not distinguish between those two amps. They both sounded excellent driving the maggies

[questor]

Oct 4, 2009 15:29:24 GMT -5 @slbenz said:

I was actually surprised myself until my friend who is a Karan dealer told me that they use the same amp design by Parasound. The only difference is the damping factor. The Karan as you probably know has a damping factor of 10000 vs 800 for the Parasound. According to my dealer friend it makes a difference but did we hear a difference that warrant the cost difference. Actually, the Parasound sounded more balanced while the Karan sounded dry and sterile to me. My dealer friend as you can imagine wasn't too happy about it. Now I have the XPA-5 currently bi amped to my Magnepan IIIa mains and the sound is very balanced with additional detail, sound staging and dynamics over both the Karan and Parasound. There is certain flaw in my comparison of the Karan as a 2 channel amp being compared to 5 channel amps both in a bi amp configuration. But it still shows if a speaker designed for bi amping is successfully done, it should offer better sound over a single amp configuration with quality components. I hope I was able to answer your questions about the Karan.

Thanks for the comments. Very interesting to find out the karan and parasound have similar guts. I always thought karan has a very unique construction, but maybe I should find out more about parasound first.

I guess the differences in what you heard may be due to different speakers, where your speaker benefitted from more power and bi-amping vs mine (my speaker, the focal 1027be, only offers single binding posts), overall matching (where you felt karan is more dry sounding - which could be due to cabling), and genre of music used (noticed you used mainly light jazz). imo, high damping factor might only be obvious with certain music such as electronica or certain orchestra pieces.

Nonetheless, congrats. You saved a bundle if the xpa-5 fits you better!

[artiek]

I'm not surprised; quality ss power sounds the same no matter what pretty packaging wraps it.

[vincedog3]

Isn't it crazy, all that aluminum and steel and Titanium, and Carbon Fiber, and upsidasium and unobtainium and it still sounds the same. ;D

That is why I love the gems on the reasonable dollars because it really comes down to whats inside. Very interesting about the Karan and the Parasound indeed.

[slbenz]

Oct 4, 2009 17:33:18 GMT -5 strindl said:

I owned a pair of Manepan IIIa's that I bought in about 1988 as I recall. I had them bi amped with a pair of Threshold S200 power amps..using a Nikko electronic crossover and by passing entirely the outboard IIIa crossover. That sounded really nice.

How are you handling the bi amping with yours and the XPA-5?

I currently have a pair of the magnepan 1.6qr's in my living room system and had my XPA-5 hooked up to them in two channel mode when I first got the amp. I compared it head to head with a far more expensive Threshold S-500 power amp. That amp is rated for 500 watts per channel at the 4 ohm impedance of the maggies.

I switched back and forth multiple times over about a week..and I could not distinguish between those two amps. They both sounded excellent driving the maggies

I am currently using a Pioneer VSX-74TXVi AVR that has a bi-amp mode for the front mains. So I am using four of the XPA-5 channels to run the front mains and the remaining channel for my Eminent Technology LFT-XII center channel.

[slbenz]

Hello Everyone,

For those interested, I just added the XPA-5 to the Epinions website for review. Here is a link to the review I just did for the XPA-5:
www.epinions.com/review/Emotiva_Audio_XPA_5_Five_Channel_Audio_Power_Amplifier_epi/content_488382893700

You can see my thoughts and decision with the Emotiva vs. my Parasound there. Enjoy!

[altpensacola]

nice review - and all true! your detailed descriptions of the music is just like I experiance it.

I am so glad I found Emotiva before I traveled out of state to buy a Parasound or NAD.

[slbenz]

Oct 15, 2009 17:14:17 GMT -5 altpensacola said:

nice review - and all true! your detailed descriptions of the music is just like I experiance it.

I am so glad I found Emotiva before I traveled out of state to buy a Parasound or NAD.

Alpensacola,

Thanks! I am really quite impressed with the XPA-5. I was just listening to AC/DC's Back in Black and had my Magnepan IIIas just belting out the bass with Brian Johnson sounding like he was singing to me live just like at their rock concerts.