I have 3 of these amps in my system. They are very good performers. I use them to power M&K750's in my Home Theater setup. I have owned many power amps of different price ranges & these units perform as good as 90% of them. Including, Bryston, Cinepro, Hafler,.
Great midrange & high end. I can Not comment on bass because my monitors are crossed over @ 100HZ, but I sometime listen at BLISTERING levels and the amps WILL NOT CLIP. I have Tried.
The soundstage and imaging are very imperssive, to say the least. Paired with the right equipment. These amps can not be beat at this price range

Bass control, clean mids, extended highs, first-rate imaging and soundstaging, great drive and dynamics

Could sound a bit bright if the associated equipment leans in that diorection, especially the speakers. If you are looking for "tube-like" this isn't it.

Having owned and enjoyed a Parasound HCA-1500A for several years (I gave it to my youngest nephew for his HT system), I was happy to find its little brother on eBay at a very reasonable price. Using basically the same setup otherwise, I can compare the two amplifiers. Since both use basically the same design (by John Curl) they should sound identical when used within their limits. However they do not, to my ears at least. The 1500 is slightly sweeter and warmer in the upper mids and lower treble when copmpared to the 1000. A closer examionation of the specs for both amplifiers reveals a possible reason. Both use matched JFETs in the input stage and beta matched Bipolars in the output stages. However the 1500 uses a MOSFET driver stage while the 1000 does not. It's not that the 1000 is overly bright or shrill. It isn't. It's just that the 1500 is a bit more lush sounding. This shows particularly in female vocals. On Amanda McBroom's "Dreaming" CD, her lower registers are more "burnished" sounding via the 1500. Both amps have outstanding bass performance and control, clear, clean mids and highs and excellent soundstaging and dynamics. Associated equipment includes: Music Hall MMF5 turntable with Goldring 1012GX cartridge. Pioneer DV-563A SACD/CD/DVD-A player Creek OBH8 phono stage. Creek OBH12 passive preamp Magnepan MMG speakers Interconnects are StyraightWire Chorus and Rhapsody and speaker cables are Audioquest Type 4.

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Parasound HCA-1500A

Value and overall sound

Don't even think of using this thing near its full power rating!

This is overall a decent amp, especially on the used market. At low to moderate listening levels, the sound is relatively clean and dynamic. When approaching rated power levels, the sound is compressed, and very shrill sounding. Bass resolution and existance disappear! While auditioning on my KEF Model 4s, (4 ohm speakers) exhausting this amp was not very difficult. The musicallity of this amp at low to moderate listening levels is right on par or better for its retail pricepoint. Fairly even tonal balance and good soundstaging. Currently used to bi-amp my KEF 4 ohm center channel and doing well at that. I'm adding an extra star for this amp's clarity and forward projection of content on my center channel.

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Adcom GFA-555, Sunfire 300, Denon POA 6600 monoblocks

powerfull bass, smooth midrange, detailed and smooth treble

none

Absolutely fantastic. Picked up my B&W p5's and gave them a good shake. very powerfull and controlled. Also has a good smooth midband and sweet treble. On the whole a perfect cinema/music amp

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cyrus power

Price, good sound (I need more listenings to give an educated rating)

Badly build ! Messy inside, bad threads for screws, cheap supports, etc. Look very "utilitarian".

Out of the box, it sounded harsh. I discovered that there was an annoying, constant noise produced. Get this : it is not the amp by itself, but its toroidal transformer which was inducing that noise in my active crossover (placed on top of the Parasound). The crossover must be at a distance of 6" minimum to attenuate this enerving noise ! Now, my Parasound HCA-1000A sounds good.

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Nad 214, Adcom GFA-545-II & GFA-535-II, Quad 405

At the price it may be the best overall in terms of bass, imaging and detail extracted. Match with a good D/AC and cables to exemplify these traits. Low level sound is fabulous, as is had with most highly biased Class A amps...

Harsh and brittle topend, layed back midrange, almost cold sounding overall at loud levels and not as musical/involving as other amps, but at the price I'd take this over anyting I've heard under a grand. Great entry level amp, but once you get the bug and hear other amps this one goes on e-bay fast!

Nice entry level amp. On the plus side it offers the ability to extract detail and image such that it raises the hair on the back of your neck. Bass performance is quite good for the price, which is the strength of all the Parasound amps, but at loud levels it looses oomph. The soundstage size is good at this price point as well. Never could get the amp to clip with 88dB speakers, which is impressive. My favorite quality of this amp is low level listening, which is mainly running in pure class A, which makes late night playing very intoxicating from the warm sweetness. On the negative side it has a very brittle, bright, grainy and down right harsh top end. Sibiliance on metal dome tweeters is a serious problem and doesn't make you want to listen to many "hot" female vocals. This amp also has great trouble in complex passages where the images smear together and there is also a total lack of depth/3D imaging. The soundstage is also pushed back a fair bit and the quite passages could be much quieter.

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Chiro, Adcom, Parasound, McIntosh, Rotel, NAD, B&K, Aragon, HK, Denon, few others way out of price range....

Clear sound! Enough strenght!

Interior of the amp is not a beautty. Parts are not orderly placed!

Have been playing with several European amp's (Thule, AVM and ASR) in combination with Dynaudio and Driade speakers and used several brands of CD-players (Denon 3xxx series, Pioneer and Micromega with a 1500 DAC from Parasound. Nothing stays long with me because there is always something better! I have found on the Internet two HCA 1000 THX amp's and a PSP 1500 preamp. I must say it sound great on my Driade 35.2 speaker system. There is much more openess and it has a great dynamics. Specialy the price was nice. I have paid for the whole lot less than $ 900,00 But besides the price it sound great.

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AVM Evolution 1 Thule IA 100 ASR Emitter 1

price,performance,built,quality and SOUND

MADE IN TAIWAN

I have two of these parasound amps and I am running them as monoblocks for my 2 channel set up. I used a nakamichi av10 receiver which is very cool for pre amp....then I hooked up the amp to the receivers left right preouts...then boooom!!!! I immediately noticed the warmth and crispness in the sound. Better sound than when I just have the receiver running my speakers. I tried running just one parasound thru 2 channel stereo is was good but two monoblocks was better. With one amp running stereo at 125wpc. compared to two amps bridged at 400wpc was like night and day big difference in highs,lows,mids and imaging. I am running this thru NHT supertwo. I am in the process changing my speakers to paradigm reference studio 100 soon. Highly recommended system on a budget.

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receivers(HK,denon,pioneer elite,sony es}

Everything. i think it''s maybe a smidgen better than my older Bryston. The store had a $1400 power condition powering it.But i really don''t hear much of a difference. It''s got a fat sound and it tremendously detailed without a harsh bone in it. I use it with some low end Boston Towers that are also unreal for the price and all i need in my one bedroom apt.

for a minimal investment it seems as good as most of the snob amps i''ve heard which seem overpriced. i''m still waiting for my tube amp to get it''s hum reduced at the repair shop and i''ll compare em further.

Bought a Bryston 3B from the local music store and then promptly sold it cause i thought my tube amp sounded better. Since then i fell in love with the bryston. so i needed another amp. Good Guys was using this to demo their energy 2000 dollar speakers. After much listening decided to buy their demo. Had to wait for another customer to finish listening.

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Bryston 3B 80''s version.

Decent power output, smooth, accurate-detailed sound. Very liveable--especially for the price. THX certification and compact design.

A bit ugly in the presentation--small cheap looking stands on bottom

I first purchased this unit as a secondary amp to be used in a home theatre application, or second room usage. I was a bit nervous with the purchase as it appeared quite different from what I was accustomed to--my other amp is a BRYSTON 4B. Well, it sat in the box for the last 3 months-it was through a break-in of approx 40 hours before I purchased it--I had finally hooked it up to test a ARCAM Alpha MCD that I just purchased...wow! Impressive sound for a little amp! Quite smooth, detailed, and accurate. I listened to it for about 6 hours that night--I attributed some of that to the new-found CD Player, but for a quick set-up-no preamp, just the usage of the knobs at rear-at moderate level and a few decent interconnects--wow again! I am looking forward to putting it side-by-side the 4B for a bench session. Who knows, it might even make it''s way to the main listening room

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BRYSTON 4B Oynko Integra 8500A