Features, Price, Look

Average sound

This moderately-priced power amp has all the features I always dreamed of. Hence the high expectations, and the disappointment: it has a good sound for its price, but is no match for more expensive power amps. It is powerful, but the upper bass are ill-defined, the soundstage lack precision, the high are slightly harsh. Better than Rotel RB-1070, but inferior to Bryston 2B-LP or SonoGraphe SA250. More or less equivalent to Adcom GFA-545-II and Parasound HCA-1000A.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, NAD. Parasound, Adcom, Bryston, Musical Fidelity, Conrad-Johnson, Creek, Quad

looks great, cool red light

runs HOT, sounds harsh, MADE IN TAIWAN

overall i found the amp to be a little harsh in the upper mids and highs. I would prefer an anthem over this anyday, and the anthem costs a while lot less

Similar Products Used:

anthem, magnum, ATI

lots of real power to pump out rock and roll. Was mellow when playing jazz. Fantastic appearance.

Bright for rock and roll

It was a toss up between this and a Rotel. My old amp was Rotel and I would have gone with that but there was nowhere online to get one and no place within forty miles to get one. This amp came two days after ordering it from Audio Advisor online. I set it up with unbalanced RCA inputs. Like previous reviews this amp is bright but mostly with rock and roll. Stan Getz was absolutely mellow and perfect. My amp must be a different design than the earlier amps because even when it was pushing real loud music it hardly got warm. The auto turn on with audio signal worked real well. I thought that the auto off did not work at first. But I read the manual and it will not turn off until five minutes after the audio signal has turned off. The front panel is the coolest looking thing around. Glows blue and red.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel

Great sound with no backround noise

Have not ran into any yet.

I purchased the Parasound A23 amd with the P3 preamp and the T3 tuner with a pair of Paridigm 60/v2 speakers. The first amp started making hideous noises within an hour of listening but getting another one from my dealer calling Parasound was not a problem at all. The second amp I have never had a problem with. The sound has been superb. I listen to everything from Cat Stevens to Type-O-Negative to Johnny Mathis. I have over 1000 cds and have heard sounds on many of them that I simply was never able to hear on my old $1,200 Yamaha amp. I listen to music for at least four hours straight each day and have never had a problem with heat which I have read in other reviews. Then again, I do have it on the top of my rack with no other components within 1 foot of it since I bought it so it has always had great ventilation. I definitely recommend this amplifier for anyone looking for high end stereo at a somewhat reasonable price. The only problems I have had at all with my system is with the tuner which conked out after about two months. It blinks on and off on its own and does not come on at all when you press the power button on the tuner or on the remote. Luckily, I mostly listen to cds.

Similar Products Used:

P3 pre amp with no problems and a T3 tuner which I described above.

Great value. Fantastic looks, very, very good music!

Takes some time to break in. May need some patient tweaking, but well worth it.

The Halo A23 is nice to look at and has proven to be very pleasing to the ears. Like others, I suffered from listener fatigue for some time until I patiently worked out all the tweaks. I was using the matching P3, but found a good deal on a BAT VK-3i and grabbed it. My speakers are demanding 4 ohm RBH towers, SE-1266 and I feel that the A23 might be a little on the weak side for these hungry dogs. However, I must say that I am VERY happy with the sound I get. Nice open soundstage, depth, fairly good timber and very good tight, precise bass extention. I am surprised at how adequately this small amp can handle the load. I usually don't listen to levels beyond 25 (on the BAT preamp). All these positive characteristics improved with better cables. I went from low-level balanced interconnects to Cardas Reference- big improvement in soundstage and depth and detail. I have double biwired the speakers with Audioquest CV-6 to the lows and Pikes Peak to the high/mids. Cables do indeed make a difference. No more fatigue and hours of non-stop enjoyment. I would eventually like to try the A-21 because I think that my speakers might improve more than I can imagine (all recommendations and hints welcome). I recently purchased a pair of small bookshelf RBH 41s and they blew me away. These little guys could sing with the above set up. Of course, I did not get the deep bass considering 4.5" woofer and 1" tweeter, but the bass was there along with good soundstage, timber and depth. I recommend the Parasound Halo A23, P3, and its tuner, the T3.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, B&K, Hafler, Paradigm, Rotel.

Very musical and quite transparent. Uncolored, wide soundstage, reasonable depth. Pleasing front panel , good circuit design by Mr. John Curl ( I like his ML's design). Sturdy build. High-end connects. I am sure it would last long.

treble a bit bright, can become very hot.

I am using its P3 preamp driving a pair of bridged A23 power amps. Speakers are the new KEF XQ1 together with a REL Q100 acitve subwoofer. Interconnects via balanced cables. As expected, the system sounded harsh and bright for the first 30 minutes. Subsequently, the tone became mellowed and more pleasing to the ears. What impressed me most was the details it revealed, as compared with my just discarded Mark Levinson ML 26 and 27. I could hear subtle timbres and overtones that I did not get from the Levinson's. Soundstage was wide and resonably deep, depending on each recording. The piano's notes were particularly uncolored and convincing. Human voices were as good as the ML's. However, I still am not fully satisfied with its mid treble that sounded a bit bright. Headroom was gorgeous though. The mono A23 seemed to have unlimited power supply during play back of full scale ochestra pieces. 400 watts for one amp, to be exact , for 8 omp speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Mark Levinson's ML 26 and 27. Krell KSA 100, Quad ESL63, Sonus Faber speakers, Proceed CD player.

D*E*A*D quiet, incredible soundstage, sexy good looks, versitile back apron for flexibility with future upgrades, effortless reproduction, beefy power, current to spare, clean power even from dirty outlets (for shame!), you've-gotta-be-kidding-me price, easy connections, great owners' manual, terrific warranty, er... um... did I mention the sexy good looks? BUY THIS AMP!!!

N*O*N*E

I purchased this amp and the companion preamp from a reputable seller on Audiogon ($1225 for the pair, N-I-B) without having *ever* heard them in a stereo salon. The reviews, here and elsewhere, have always been stellar, and I've come to believe that there is little to be learned from listening to prospective new gear in a setting other than one's own living room, anyway. When venerated Stereophile chieftan Jon Atkinson confessed recently to owning the monoblock versions of this particular animal, I went for it. WELL... I was not disappointed, from the moment I took them out of their brand-spankin'-new shipping containers. The performance of these gems has been as relaxed and effortless as the kiss on the lips from that cool chick sitting next to you at the Crosby Stills and Nash concert. Full-up power from the matching preamp with no signal from upstream is DEAD quiet -- as quiet as your four-year-old kid when he's drawing on the living room wall. The soundstage is deep without being gimmicky, wide without being "hey what's that in the kitchen?" ridiculous, and every bit as detailed as anything I've ever auditioned. Indeed, it was this detail I noticed first and foremost -- several technically challenging recordings by the Propellerheads and Faithless and Cold Play and Radiohead revaled details I'd simply never even *heard* on my old Audio Research SP-5 and Bryston 3B. The squeaky guitar bridges on Amnesiac's "Morning Bell," and the subdued spoken lines at the beginning of Faithless' "Sunday, 8PM" are but two examples. The amp throws copious amounts of current -- more than enough to drive my big-hair vintage Kef C-80's and their tricky 4-ohm congugate load crossovers, without even breathing hard or stirring up enough of that ee-vuhl torroid transform heat to chase me onto the porch the way the ole Bryston did with such regularity, bless its tired Canadian heart. In fact, the power on this sleeky little doll is beefy enough to run any speaker I can think of that isn't made out of concrete or hooked up to it with bailing twine. Special kudos to the engineer who came up with the design for a power supply that could suck that much juice from the wall without having a tantrum when you flick on one of those big-butt halogen torch lights from the same outlet (that's me with the aroma of roasted bugs wafting through his listening room). Both pieces have the sly, sexy good looks and flexibility on their rear-aprons that you'd be less surprised to find on chintzy mid-fi "home theater" stuff, or else on a cocktail waitress -- one or the other. The amp's derriere, in particular, includes seperate channel gain adjustments, balanced and unbalanced input options, a twelve-volt trigger, and a ground lift switch, to name just a few of the "what did he just say" possibilities for future variations as your system grows. The manual is expertly written and the company is as reputable and long-lived as your granny's Lincoln. The price of the pair, even the full retail price, makes their reference-quality performance almost impossible to comprehend; or, at the very least, it makes the $5,000+ sticker prices of those "Oooh, man" seperates almost impossible to justify. I've never heard or even looked at or priced anything that is so easy to recommend to such a wide array of listening tastes, budgets, and needs -- from college kids planning to rock their dorm; to those THX-hungry, plasma-TV watchin' fruit loops with the art deco velvet chairs and cup holders; to that creepy unshaven guy down the street with the direct wire Wadia CD-transport and no radio -- these bad boy seperates are the kings of the hill in every department. I can scarcely imagine buying another piece of audio amplification gear in my entire life. 'Nuff said.

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Bryston 3B, Harmon/Kardon PM-665 integrated, Onkyo Grand Integra M-505.

Quick, engaging sound. Excellent PRAT factor. Nice cosmetics and build quality.

Runs a bit warm. Not the last word in dynamic or low bass authority, but then, it should not be paired with speakers that demand these qualities from the amp.

I purchased the A23 and my current pre-amp, the Aragon 28mkII, as an upgrade to my now-discontinued Musical Fidelity A220 integrated amplifier. I run the A23 via its standard RCA connections, and have experienced no problems with noise or subjective weak bass response. One should note that the primary benefit to running a balanced amp like the A23 in its balanced mode is to reject spurious noise artifacts and to supreess hum as a result of power line and component voltage interactions. Additionally, the A23 and its companion, the P23 pre-amp, are output-to-input balanced. In this sense, they are only partly balanced designs, unlike its more expensive and fully balanced (from input to output stage) big brother the JC 1, and components from the likes of Mark Levinson and Krell. As such, I would think that problems associated with perceived weak bass are a result not of running the amp in unbalanced mode, but of amplifier-speaker incompatability. As to the sound of the A23, I will only note that it represents a sigificant improvement over the A220 in several ways. First, it drives my Epos ES 22s far better than the A220 ever could. The increased headroom means that digital sources in particular sound more open and three-dimensional. The A23 is also more detailed and resolving. It crafts a more expansive and fully-populated soundstage, and sounds truer to instrumental timbre than my old A220. The midrange is a bit cooler and more forward, but I do not perceive the A23 to be a bright or forward sounding amp. Certainly, it has a vivid and immediate balance which proponents of the laid-back school might find objectionable. I don't mind its presentation in the least. The PRAT issue also bears mention. While my former amp did many things well (clean midrange, full bass, tube-like warmth), it proved far less accomplished in capturing the transient attack and subsequent decay of notes that makes home music reproduction genuinely convincing. In this sense, the A23 is a champ. I will even go so far as to suggest that the A23 is the perfect partner for speakers like the Epos M12, M15 and the older ES 22. This transient quickness seems to be a quality shared by all the amps in the Halo range, not just the A23 (See Michael Fremer's review of the JC 1 in Stereophile for example). The folks at Naim no longer seem to have an outright monopoly on the PRAT factor, and I am a big Naim fan. Finally, don't expect miracles from such a modest package. Amps in this size and price range cannot be expected to deliver the authority and sophistication of larger, more powerful units. Nevertheless, it has proven ideal at driving my none-to-amplifier friendly Epos ES22s with nary a hint of strain or congestion. Still, I would probably avoid driving speakers whose impedance drops below 4 ohms, and that have substantial bass response below 30 hz. For driving such loads, I would consider one of the A23s bigger siblings, the A21 or the JC 1s. The starting line-up: Aragon 28mk II pre-amp Parasound A23 amp CEC 5100z CD player Rega planar 25 table with exact cart. (the A220 serves as the phono stage until I can afford a replacement dedicated phono amp). Epos ES 22 speakers (bi-wired) DH Labs Silver Sonic speaker cables MIT and Kimer Hero interconnects Salamander Racks

Capable of excellent sound IF matched to the right preamp and speakers.

Don't know why it lacks bass when used w/ the RCA connectors. ??

System: - Parasound A23 amp - Parasound P3 preamp - Paradigm Studio 100 / v2 This is a response to the previous, rather negative, review. The weaknesses pointed out: overheating and weak bass CAN be a problem, but they can be overcome, and the end result is a great amplifier. It's true that this amp runs toward the hot, so I have mine at the top of my audio rack where it can breathe. I have yet to cause the current protection to kick in. So it's not really a problem. As for weak bass this CAN happen if you use the RCA jacks instead of the balanced (XLR) connectors from your preamp. Of course you do have to have a balanced OUT on the preamp to use this. Using this kind of connection and with the speakers I have the bass is both profound and tight.

Neutral sound, reasonable price

Lean bass, runs hot, problems with automatic shut down circuitry

This is a very nice amp in many respects with a very neutral and open sound. Unfortunately, it seems rather lean in the lower bass frequencies. I find that I have to augment my floorstanding speakers with a subwoofer even though they are capable of very low frequencies given the right amplification. Also, the amp runs very hot (hotter than any other amp I've experienced including tubes), even at very low volumes. I suspect that my 4-ohm speakers may be just too much for the amp, even though its rated at 200 wpc at that load. I've also noticed that the automatic signal detection function has some problems and will sometimes shut down the amp even though a signal is coming from the preamp--i.e., while music is playing. Overall, this component does not seem to be a good match for my system and I need to look for a replacement.

Similar Products Used:

Anthem, Carver, Rogue Audio