The 2200II is quite impressive. I used it for several months with a pair of ML arius.It has all the power anyone could ever have a need for. Its great for rock, rap, r&b,
and general popular music but lacks a certain refinement which audiophiles desire.
I now use tubes to drive the Arius which are a little more laid back. I use the HCA 2200 II
to drive my sub. I consider it the ultimate in subwoofer amplification.

I have one complaint about the 2200II. There is a 60Hz hum which I have gone to great lengths to eliminate. I have not succeded in this task. Lifting the ground helps slightly,
but noise continues to eminate from the chassis.

If your one of those people who say they don't hear a difference in the sound of amplifiers
you should A/B your present amp against the HCA 2200II. I guarantee the differences
you hear will be very significant. I get the impression that I'm hearing more of the music when I listen to the 2200II than when I listen through my pair of GT SE-40s but I always go back to the more "musical" SE-40s.

power, dynamics, impact, bottom end control, flexibility

maybe the binding posts

I had taken the ultimate application of a product to the extreme, by using three amps for my main speakers. A Parasound HCA 600, maybe their sweetest sounding amp ever, was used to drive the tweeters of my Mirage M5's. Two Parasound HCA 1000 A's were configured in what Parasound calls dual-half stereo, driving the woofers. That means that you would only use one channel of each amp, with the other channel idling empty. Because so much is shared through the power supply, you have now eliminated interchannel crosstalk at the amplification stage. The results are better imaging, focus, detail soundstaging, dynamics and impact. Needless to say, this setup blew my socks off. I know, I got carried away! Anyway, to get to the point, the 2200 II does all of that for me at a lower cost, with a lot less cabling, cones, and shelf space. This amp exerts control over the bass that is out of this world. Sound staging is good to jolly good, detail is plentiful without being harsh. Dynamics and impact are beter than I've ever heard. It may lack the refined midrange of my Pass amp, and it might be slightly congested on the top end, but these differences are truly subtle. When things get rough though, it'll tear your head off and leave you giggling. Now that's priceless. Grab a pair and have fun!!!

Similar Products Used:

Parasound HCA 1000 A's, Anthem MCA 5, Pass Labs Aleph 3

Very powerful, deep,tight bass, will drive difficult loads

Perhaps a little bright on some systems

I owned 2 of these amplifiers for over 2 years and must say that at the used price of around $800, this amp is a steal. I compared it directly to the amps listed above, and outside of the Bryston, it was the clear winner. Compared to the Aragon, the Parasound had deeper, tighter bass, and sounded much airier on the high end. The Aragon did have a little smoother midrange, but overall, I preferred the Parasound. Bass with the 2200II is deep and tight, and if one is looking for a subwoofer amp, you would be hard pressed to do better. I used one with a larger VMPS subwoofer and it sounded excellent. I currently use a Bryston 4BST, and only kept that over the Parasound because of the 20 year warranty, and a slightly smoother sound in the midrange (the Bryston was also a little more detailed at the top end, but some may actually say the Bryston is a little too bright). Many people have found other Parasound amps to be bright, but that is not the case with this amp.

Associated equipment:
Legacy Focus speakers
JPS Labs Superconductor speaker cable
Classe SSP25 preamp
Nordost Red Dawn interconnects
Classe CDT-1 transport

Similar Products Used:

Aragon 4004II, Bryston 4BST, B&K M200

To drive my Maggies I wanted a good 400wpc at 4 ohm, and since I spent 2k on them, I wanted to spent <$2000 on the amp. I looked in Stereophile and Audio for some really good cheap amps. The Parasound 2200ii fit the bill nicely. It's listed as class B by Stereophile and both magazines gave it great reviews. I got it mail order for $1500 from Reference A/V. To tell you the truth, I can't tell the difference between amps, so I was just paying for shear POWER. When it came in 2 days later I was very impressed, it look so big and powerful that I was afraid to make direct eye contact with it! After overcoming my fear I hooked it up to my Maggies and hoped it would make them sound as big as they look. Needless to say it did, I was very impressed with what 300 more watts could do. The dynamics are awesome and now I feel I have a real theater/music system. My next upgrade will be to get a good crossover and get the sunfire true sub.

My 2200 Mk II is the best 2 channel music amplhlifier I have heard, bar none!!! I intend on buying their 3 channel AMP and filling out the system I have for music and video. I am currently using this amp with Mirage M3SIs.