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RE: Parasound A21 VS SST Son of Ampzilla ll

Posted by AbeCollins (A) on August 9, 2017 at 11:55:27

In Reply to: Parasound A21 VS SST Son of Ampzilla ll posted by stereo5 on August 8, 2017 at 17:42:15:

Wow, that's a tough question that opens up several possibilities as you can tell by the responses so far.

Having owned two Odyssey Stratos (Plus & Extreme) I can tell you that these amps are pleasantly on the warm side so if you're looking for more warmth you might be better served taking another path.

I have very little experience with Parasound amps but I've heard a couple in a dealer showroom. They are truly outstanding and sanely priced but I never thought of them as being warm. They're just great sounding amps and I would have to say they are LESS warm than your existing Stratos Extreme.

That leaves the Son of Ampzilla. I owned a pair of Ampzilla 2000 2nd Edition mono blocks. They were very refined as solid-state goes with a slight bit of warmth but not as warm as your Odyssey amp. Definitely more transparent, dynamic, and overall better sounding though. Same for the Pass Labs X150 & X150.5. Better sounding overall but not quite as warm as the Odyssey. I also recall having to leave my Odyssey amp ON 24/7 for best results. No big deal because being biased AB they draw only about 75w at idle.

I think JoshT also mentioned a couple CJ SS amps. I had the MF-2250se (oops, I actually had the MF-2250A. I don't think they made an SE version back then). In any case, the CJ was wonderfully warm and smooth but it was also a little more on the polite side when it came to leading edge 'punch' with some percussive instruments. They no longer make it but there are comparable newer designs available. See the post by JoshT.

My thoughts on the Ampzilla 2000 2nd Edition posted in 2014

What are you using for your source? CDP? DAC? Perhaps there's room for improvement there with a bit more warmth. In my experience some DACs are warmer than others. While others go overboard and lose detail and lose top and bottom end extension giving the false sense of midrange warmth when in fact they're just rolled off at the frequency extremes.

I have to say, there are some tube amps that are warm and for that I especially like EL34 power tubes. It's hard to get a lot of power out of the EL34 unless the amp uses several of them. I had the AES/Cary SixPack EL34 monoblocks (about 50 - 60 wpc) and the Manley Neo-Classic 250 monoblocks at 250wpc. A friend had the slightly lower power Manley Snapper monoblocks. Now these amps are truly 'warm' sounding, and very warm to the touch! No question about it! But I digress.

• More on the Ampzilla 2000 2nd Edition   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 08/09/17 08/09/17 08/09/17 08/09/17

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