Parasound HCA-855A

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JBrown

JBrown

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Looking for advice here. It would be awesome to hear from someone who owns one of these...

So im still waiting for my martin logan vantages to arrive, and in the meantime im trying to find a good priced 5 channel amplifier to power Vantage Fronts, Stage, and Motion 4 rears.

I came across a used Parasound HCA-855A amplifier: http://www.parasound.com/vintage/hca855a.php

I can get this for about $500 canadian. Any thoughts on whether or not this will work well for me? I figure if it doesnt, i can resell it and take a minor loss. The alternative is an emotiva, but by the time shipping and duties hit me i'll be at about $900.

What really attracts me to this is its high current design @30 amps per channel... though the power is low, im sure it will kick the crap out of my yamaha 6190.

Any thoughts?
 
Are you also trying to save space? The 855A is probably on the minimal side if you like to play loudly. But on the other hand if you're not using the other three channels (when playing in stereo), the two main channels will have the advantage of tapping into a bigger power supply for a, um, 'bigger sound.'

Parasound makes decent stuff, and I feel better buying American if possible and certainly avoiding Chinese! If you keep your eye on Audiogon and craigslist for a few weeks, there are good deals on Parasound, Acurus, and Adcom amps.
 
Just picked it up today! Sounds great on my Klipsch RF-83's. Has really warmed up my "Bright" speaker. Paid 500 cdn taxes in at a dealer. It is a little dinged up, but sounds great. I will post a detailed review when I pair it up with my Vantages when they arrive. In store i heard it with a set of reference 3a's and it was quite good there too. The 85 watts a channel is extremely modest given the performance of this amp.
 
Congrats on the amp. I've been very happy with using the Parasound amp I have - glad to see others are having the same feelings. Thats a nice upgrade from a standard receiver.
 
So as a further update, recieved my Vantages yesterday and they sound beautiful with the 855A. Anyone looking for a budget amplifier will do very well with this one. Though my speakers haven't broken in yet, I can say im very happy not to be running them off of my Yammy.
 
Jbrown, have you compared the sound b/w the Parasound and your Yamaha amp? Have you tried connecting your speakers directly to your Yamaha receiver and see how that sounds? I am not sure if the Parasound really adds that much better sound compared to the Yamaha.
 
Thai said:
Jbrown, have you compared the sound b/w the Parasound and your Yamaha amp? Have you tried connecting your speakers directly to your Yamaha receiver and see how that sounds? I am not sure if the Parasound really adds that much better sound compared to the Yamaha.
Click to expand...

I had listened to my Klipsch speakers on the parasound, and on the yamaha, havent done that with the vantages. The yamaha though rated higher power wise, like all recievers, the power comes from a one channel driven power rating, where the Parasound is rated as all channels driven. When I added the parasound to my klipsch speakers I noticed that they had warmed up quite a bit. The yammy is just overly bright. Also, the yamaha would struggle with the low impedance of the ML setup. I have heard the flagship yamaha model driving Vista's and they sounded quite harsh in comparison.
 
JBrown said:
I had listened to my Klipsch speakers on the parasound, and on the yamaha, havent done that with the vantages. The yamaha though rated higher power wise, like all recievers, the power comes from a one channel driven power rating, where the Parasound is rated as all channels driven. When I added the parasound to my klipsch speakers I noticed that they had warmed up quite a bit. The yammy is just overly bright. Also, the yamaha would struggle with the low impedance of the ML setup. I have heard the flagship yamaha model driving Vista's and they sounded quite harsh in comparison.
Click to expand...

I think that Yamaha receivers are a bit on the bright side...that is "their sound" from what i have read on multiple reviews. Denon receivers tend to be "warmer". Not sure about Yamaha, but, my Denon is rated (in the Owner's Manual) to go to 4-ohms (dynamic power rating). My Denon never broke a sweat driving the Vantages (and Stage). I recently got the Sunfire amp...just for completeness. The sound has improve a little bit from my "lowly" Denon...but it is not night-n-day difference that i expected from reading this forum. Remember, you hardly ever need all channels driven to the max at one time. Therefore, most audio tests do not do this because it is a wasted exercise.

But, regardless, i am glad that you like your setup. I was just wondering the difference b/w the Yamaha and Parasound. Thanks for the post.
 
If I had my time back I would have gone denon. Again, a warmer reciever. For either of us to start noticing a Night and day difference we need to look at a dedicated pre/pro. As always, we must contend with the law of diminishing returns.
 
JBrown said:
If I had my time back I would have gone denon. Again, a warmer reciever. For either of us to start noticing a Night and day difference we need to look at a dedicated pre/pro. As always, we must contend with the law of diminishing returns.
Click to expand...

For me, i am very happy with my Denon. From Audioholics review, it acts really good as a pre-amp. The processing part of it is also pretty good. And the Audyssey room eq is just awesome...and in fact, does the high frequency rolloff (to help with room correction) that is so well-liked by ML owners (me included)...and may explain the "warm" sound that comes out of it. Only recently has the dedicated pre-amp/pros have room eq as part of their feature list...and for a neophyte like myself, room eq is probably the most important aspect. YPAO in your Yamaha does a similar thing i believe...but i am not sure if it does the high frequency rolloff. I assume that you have done the YPAO adjustment? If not, then that may help...but i am not familiar with YPAO.
 
The Denon does have superior processing, and with the audissey eq, would smoke a yammy. Warmer as well yes. I also like that you can set the croosover for all channels in the system. My yammy only allows for 1 setting for everything, and I only have 60, 80, 100, and 120. I would like to set it at 70 for my Stage, and 80 for the motion4's as the cutoff... but I can't :confused:

I might jump on an emotiva XMC1 when it is available, and perhaps the XPA-5 later on If I decide I want more power than what the parasound is giving me.
 
JBrown said:
The Denon does have superior processing, and with the audissey eq, would smoke a yammy. Warmer as well yes. I also like that you can set the croosover for all channels in the system. My yammy only allows for 1 setting for everything, and I only have 60, 80, 100, and 120. I would like to set it at 70 for my Stage, and 80 for the motion4's as the cutoff... but I can't :confused:

I might jump on an emotiva XMC1 when it is available, and perhaps the XPA-5 later on If I decide I want more power than what the parasound is giving me.
Click to expand...

Be careful with the crossovers. Recently, after reading an excellent Audyssey article, i found out that if you change the crossover LOWER than what Audyssey adjustment recommends, then the correction does not apply to the lower crossover point. That is, if the system crosses at 100Hz and you change it to 60 hz, then from 60-100 hz, there is no room correction applied. So, the recommendation is that you do not change the crossover after the adjustments. And IF you want to change, then you should only change it by going UP (if needed). Never go lower than recommended setting.

The above is news to me. And after doing what the article says, i can tell you that it sounds really really good, much better than what i had before. This could be due to my new Sunfire amp too...so, i don't want to take credit away from Sunfire, but i feel that i had finally did the Audyssey correctly this time (after 4 years of owning it!). So, at this time, i don't bother with adjusting the crossovers at all. My Stage is crossed high too...around 110 Hz or something, as are my surrounds. My Vantages are LARGE, per audyssey programming. In the past, i would re-adjust my crossovers...but, after reading the article, i don't touch it now...it is all in Audyssey's hands! :bowdown:

I am sure that the above applies to most (if not all) room eq programs, including YPAO.

BTW, does your Yamaha allow for multiple sitting position measurements or is it just one position measurement? My Denon AVR does room eq from 6 sitting position measurements.
 
Thai said:
Be careful with the crossovers. Recently, after reading an excellent Audyssey article, i found out that if you change the crossover LOWER than what Audyssey adjustment recommends, then the correction does not apply to the lower crossover point. That is, if the system crosses at 100Hz and you change it to 60 hz, then from 60-100 hz, there is no room correction applied. So, the recommendation is that you do not change the crossover after the adjustments. And IF you want to change, then you should only change it by going UP (if needed). Never go lower than recommended setting.

The above is news to me. And after doing what the article says, i can tell you that it sounds really really good, much better than what i had before. This could be due to my new Sunfire amp too...so, i don't want to take credit away from Sunfire, but i feel that i had finally did the Audyssey correctly this time (after 4 years of owning it!). So, at this time, i don't bother with adjusting the crossovers at all. My Stage is crossed high too...around 110 Hz or something, as are my surrounds. My Vantages are LARGE, per audyssey programming. In the past, i would re-adjust my crossovers...but, after reading the article, i don't touch it now...it is all in Audyssey's hands! :bowdown:

I am sure that the above applies to most (if not all) room eq programs, including YPAO.

BTW, does your Yamaha allow for multiple sitting position measurements or is it just one position measurement? My Denon AVR does room eq from 6 sitting position measurements.
Click to expand...

Nope, yammy doesnt do this.... another reason why I want a denon. just the cheapest one with preouts will do. I think thats a 991 right now.
 
JBrown said:
Nope, yammy doesnt do this.... another reason why I want a denon. just the cheapest one with preouts will do. I think thats a 991 right now.
Click to expand...

Yup, make sure that it is Audyssey MultEQ XT. Here are a few references if you do choose Denon route:

http://www.usa.denon.com/Denon_Audyssey_FAQs.pdf

http://idisk.mac.com/mschuetze-Public/AudysseyTipsTricks.pdf

The second link is a MUST-HAVE for Audyssey users...and was a BIG factor in optimizing Audyssey in my HT setup!

How much discounts can you get for the 991 at your store? It is $1000 MSRP...so, i hope that you can get cheaper than that.
 
BTW, my Denon AVR-4306 is dirt cheap on ebay...used though. Otherwise, your 991 is like $840 on ebay (free shipping). Or you can get the AVR-4310ci for $1300 on ebay.
 
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