The Parasound sounds very nice. Two worth researching because of their overwhelming ratings as giant killers are the Wyred 4 Sound products and the new Goldmund Job Integrated.
Goldmund is an ultra high end brand out of Switzerland. They make this second brand at similar quality with no advertising, distribution network, dealerships, etc. Instead selling only directly from the company. Very industrial looking (as opposed to the Goldmund brand which is ultra modern ultra exclusive clientele) but sharing parts and same technicians, assembly, etc. The real difference is that Goldmund sells their Job products at about 1/10th the price of similar Goldmund branded equipment. Worth researching....
Wyred 4 Sound is a newer company. They were started by a primary engineer from Cullen Electronics who were the OEM producer for PS Audio among others. When these companies moved their OEM production to China the main engineer started his own company. They are hand made in the United State (Atascadero California). Very highly rated as a true giant killer. They have won awards from all over the industry including The Absolute Sound awards for 5-6 years in a row now. Again worthy of considering if sound and build quality is your main concern.
Just a couple that you might want to look in to. Both offer amps, pre-amps and highly rated integrated amps.
If you can't tell, I am very into giant killer brands; companies that give the sound and quality without paying top dollar for the privilege of owning certain brands...
Example:
The LS50s are one of three models that KEF list as their flagships. The other models are $225k and $35k price range while the LS50 are the model they released to celebrate their 50th anniversary and are generally rated as comparing against other speakers at 5+ times their price....
The Goldmund Job and W4S are detailed above....
Teac is the owner of the extreme high end brand Esoteric. They do "trickle down" some of the technology from Esoteric into the Teac models. As one reviewer stated, you could slap the Esoteric brand on the Teac DAC and sell it for 5 times the price....
Last edited by Randy Myers; 01-15-2016 at 12:17 PM.
|