Parasound Amps

[TRainH2O]

Yeah, I know how you feel. Right now I'm using a Nelson Pass designed First Watt J2 amplifier. It's pure class A and runs HOT. In my small office/listening room it can make the room nice and toasty. I'm also reviewing the Schiit Freya pre-amp at the moment and this thing runs even hotter! It's the tube gain stage that creates most of the heat. Luckily it's still spring and nights are cool. The combination of these two in the summer would be too much.

I'm seriously thinking of building the DIY Audio version of Pass' Aleph J amp and oddly enough, was considering the Freya.

Other than hot, what do you think about this combination?

I currently have an old Yamaha C60 preamp and an Adcom GFA-555 for my two-channel system. It works great, just looking to change things up a bit.

[David Vaughn]

My RS4500 doesn't even warm my room up. But, I have 12' tall ceilings, a ceiling fan, and my theater is 388 square feet ( excluding the projector closet )  and about 3547 cubic feet. With the AC on, it would take a lot to warm the room up much. Plus, I vent the projector hot air right out of the separate closet, which helps.

Our house is all 2 x 6 construction, heavily insulated, and stays about as cool as possible, even in summer.

Craig, one of these days I have to get over to your place. I'm only 45 minutes from you and I'm in Sac a lot for business. 

[AVSCraig]

Craig, one of these days I have to get over to your place. I'm only 45 minutes from you and I'm in Sac a lot for business.

You are more than welcome !

[Dylan Seeger]

I'm seriously thinking of building the DIY Audio version of Pass' Aleph J amp and oddly enough, was considering the Freya.

Other than hot, what do you think about this combination?

I currently have an old Yamaha C60 preamp and an Adcom GFA-555 for my two-channel system. It works great, just looking to change things up a bit.

Freya is interesting because it has 3 different output stages to choose from. You can choose between passive or the JFET gain stage if you prefer a neutral sound signature. Then you can switch to the tube gain stage which definitely has a warmer sound signature. Because of these options Freya is a great choice for just about anybody and at its price it's very hard to beat in overall sound quality and build quality.

I also have a Nelson Pass designed VFET amplifier in a FirstWatt chassis. It's based on Pass's VFET Part2 DIY amplifier design. Very, very good sounding amp. I may prefer it more than the J2. It has a very tube like sound signature but with all the benefits of solid state. It's pure class A with 20 watts per channel output. 

[AVSCraig]

I just checked my Parasound A 52+ after watching " Black Hawk Down " on 4K BR at reference +3 ( 83 ) - which is pretty damn loud. the T8 said 80F. That's not very warm.

[AVSCraig]

I've been running my front 5 speakers ( wide / L / C /R / wide ) with an A 52+, and my Denon X8500H for a while now.  All my guests have commented on how the audio sounds even better with movie soundtracks. Especially loud ! For me, the A 52+ seems like the perfect fit power wise for my room. I'm quite pleased with this amp. 

[AVSMike]

Parasound amps are outstanding. I had and A51 and A21 for a time, but in the summer they put off way too much heat in my room (Northern California gets quite hot). I ended up switching to ATI's digital amps (NCore) and they do an amazing job as well, but don't put off nearly as much heat. In fact, they rarely get to 100 degrees where the A51 and A21 would go north of 120 degrees.

This is why my rack of amps sit in a mechanical room below the theater.

[AVSCraig]

This is why my rack of amps sit in a mechanical room below the theater.

I'm not getting that much heat off of the A52+. And I check the Aircom temp. 

[AVSMike]

I'm not getting that much heat off of the A52+. And I check the Aircom temp.

You might be a little more concerned with heat, if you had a small room and 11 amps in your system.  

[AVSCraig]

I have been testing out my Parasound A 52+ for about a week in my home theater. I have a Denon X8500 running 13 Martin Logan 4 ohm Motion speakers ( 2 Motion 40’s, 1 Motion SLM XL center speaker, 4 Motion FX surrounds, 2 Motion LX16 wide channel speakers, 4 Motion 4 height speakers, and 4 SVS subwoofers ). I have been running my Motion 40's with an Emotiva XPA 200 I've had since the Denon 4520 days. Now I'm using the A 52+ to run the L / C / R and wide channel speakers, and letting the X8500 run the heights and surrounds. The difference last night watching the Mission: Impossible – Fallout 4K Blu-ray ( excellent Atmos sound track by the way ) was noticed by all my guests. The extra headroom just seems to give a cleaner, less fatiguing sound. Even cranked to 78 on my Denon ( which is pretty loud in my theater ). So far I think the A 52+ is the perfect compliment for my receiver. I also installed AC Infinity Aircom T10 cooling fans, and the amp and X8500 never got much over 80 degrees, even after 2 1/2 hours of " Fallout " 13 channels of Atmos audio hammerfest !

This is a great amp ! I think I can stop upgrading stuff in my theater for a while now ! 

Update - I wrote those initial impressions on January 25, 2019, after a week of use. Fast forward to Feb. 8th, 2021 - two years later. The current speakers in my theater are Martin Logan Motion 40’s ( 2 ), Focus ESL C18 center speaker, ElectroMotion FX2 surrounds ( 4 ), Motion LX16 wide channel speakers ( 2 ) , Motion 4 heights ( 4 ) . The Focus ESL C18 center speaker really shines with the Parasound - plenty of power. After two years of use with my Denon X8500H, I can definitely say that the added power of the A 52+ gives my home theater surround system a much cleaner sound. Even at reference levels! " Alita : Battle Angel " is the last 4K disc we watched, and sound was incredible.