Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Emotiva MPS-1 or Parasound 2250

I have a Denon AVR-3801. My Denon can easily handle all channels. I'm looking to purchase an amplifier for my front channels. I know that the Emotiva is a multichannel amplifier and the Parasound is a two channel amplifier. That considered, for my bang for my buck, which would my fellow Axiom members suggest out of the two aforementioned models.

Thanks, you're the best!

Forgive my ignorance but if the Denon "...can easily handle all channels" why do you need an amplifier?

It's called being wealthy. Try it!

I want more amplification for two channel music :-).

I'd use the Parasound, mainly because I like their look better, and I know they have tons of headroom.

Granted, I've only heard (and seen) the Parasound Halo line, so...

If you believe that some amplifiers are better than others ... and by 'better' I mean amplifiers which have better sound quality, then I would consider upgrading 3 channels - front 2 and center. I have never put a meter on it, but I would bet side and rear surround speakers make little in the way of power demands on the amplifier, and a listener would be hard pressed to hear the difference between amps when it comes to reproducing the kinds of effects which surrounds are called on to reproduce.

The center channel on the other hand IMO is the most important speaker for Home Theater. The Front R/L are the most important for music, whether 2 channel or multichannel.

So, I think if you are going to outboard amplification (and I approve) I'd go with a minimum of 3 channels of high quality outboard amplification.

I have 2 multichannel systems, one uses 4 two channel amps (3 Yamaha M80s and 1 Onkyo Integra M504, one of the M80s uses only 1 of its 2 channels to drive the center.)
Now, that amounts to over 200 pounds of amplification!

My other HT system I went the more compact way, a single 5 channel Anthem PVA 5 amp.

Your Denon's processing front end should be more than adequate. Your Denon's internal amplification should be more than adequate for your side and back surround channels.

I owned an MPS-1 for about 3 months. It kept shutting down when driving my m80v2's at what I would call "not insane" volumes. Of course Emotiva will tell you the amp is operating as designed.

Anyway, I was looking at Parasound but ended up with Odyssey Khartago Extreme Mono's and could not be more happy. These babies don't even break a sweat at the levels the Emotiva would say "nighty night".

Have you considered this http://www.emotiva.com/rpa1.html?

For my situation, both Lonnie and Don from Emotiva said there would be no benefit for me to go with the RPA-1 over the MPS-1 in regards to power. The only difference is the RPA-1 did not have the soft clipping limiter to protect the amp from clipping prematurely.

I have a friend with 2 multi channel systems, one driven by a Parasound Halo A51 in his main system, and an ATI AT3000 5 channel. They both sound beautiful. The Parasound runs a bit warm, and the ATI runs cool and is rock solid. Both handle a 4 ohm load without distress (except possibly for the Halo's heat.)

I like the ATI. It is big, heavy, quiet, and handles difficult loads effortlessly.

I don't have an ATI, but if I were going to replace my gaggle of Yamaha M80 brutes I think I'd get an ATI AT3000.