lots of clean power

physical depth of the unit, susceptible to ground loop hum

I started shopping for an integrated amp or amp/pre-amp combo when I could no longer tolerate the intermittent noise problems with my old Carver. I'm driving a pair of Advent Heritage towers which sound nice but are anything *but* efficient, so I needed something fairly muscular.
The amp I *really* wanted was the Musical Fidelity A300 integrated. Even though it's considered a bargain, $1500 is not chump change for me. But the Parasound 1201A seemed like a pretty good bang for the buck, so I paired it up with the Creek OBH-12 passive pre-amp, figuring I owed it to myself to listen to them. I figured if I like them, great, I've saved myself $700. If I don't, just return them and (gulp!) get the MF unit. So far, I like them. They still sound a little bright to my ears, but it's clean and clear, and as they burn in they seem to be filling out in the low end. It's not really a problem, I have an EQ that's really pretty quiet, so I can tailor the sound to my taste with that if necessary.

I was very frustrated by a significant hum whenever I connected any video equipment to the system; I finally figured out that it was a ground loop, and a $1.49 2-prong plug adapter from Radio Shack seems to have fixed the problem. I've also ordered a Tributaries GroundGuard from Audio Advisor, we'll see how that works out, but it may prove unnecessary.

The 1201A is 16" long, so it wouldn't fit in my entertainment center without removing a section of the back panel. Shouldn't be a problem with an open rack setup. I was afraid they would run hot, but so far that hasn't been the case.

I wish the input impedance on the 1201A was a bit closer to 50 ohms, then it would be a little better match with the Creek OBH-12 passive pre-amp. In practical terms, though, I will *never* listen with it turned all the way up. I tried it today, just to see what it was like, and although it was quite loud, I'm certain that the amps and speakers have more to give.

In summary, I think the Parasound 1201A is an excellent value, and would work well in a lot of HT or stereo setups. It's not being made anymore, but with Parasound's 10-year warranty it seems like it would be hard to go too far wrong with this unit.

My setup:
Sony S333 DVD player
Creek OBH-12 pre-amp
Parasound 1201A amps
WireWorld Solstice III interconnects
Audio Quest Type 4 speaker cables
Advent Heritage loudspeakers

Similar Products Used:

Carver, NAD

inexpensive for what you think you will get

cheap build and what are they really advertising!

So, you see this sweet monoblock amp on Audioadvisor's website. Says it has a 1.5 kilowatt transformer, cool
doulble sided circuit boards, etc. What a lie! After my
units arrived, had sloppy solder joints, one unit was
bad on arrival and reading reviews below, this is more
marketing hype to sell a buyout. Be carefull when you
think this a new design, kinda product. I'm selecting
such a poor rating for the simple fact the company is
simply overstating this product.

Price, power

Built quality

Not bad for the price but out of Four one was DOA, another hums a little bit. But they are easy on the wallet and they sound better then mid-fi recievers.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, Classe, Musical Fid. Arcam

Price, Power, Options for Expansion

I have heard some transformer hum.

I like these amplifiers. I am getting a second pair to bi-amp my new speakers. The price is very respectable and eventually I will have them power rear speakers when and if I replace them.

The amps fit my taste pretty well. They don't have built in roll offs to or filters to modify the sound. I replaced a receiver with a pair of 1201a's, I noticed: a broader staging, increased depth, less distortion from overdriving amps. I feel like the amps put my recordings in the drivers seat. A really great buy.

price, great for driving surround channels.

cheap mid-fi sound and feel. Transformer buzz sometimes.

This amp is only ok to drive your surround channels, dont even bother to try to drive your mains, and center channel with it, as I've originally planned.

Similar Products Used:

marantz, rotel, adcom.

Clean Power

none

Well it's about time that a major company has produced some affordable mono blocks.

Well to tell you the truth here Parasound did not
build these amps.

These are from Sound Stream from back in 1997.
Sound Stream had been sold twice since that time.
These where leftovers from a warehouse stock.
Parasound placed a new front and power switch on them.
Sound Stream sold them as the M1 M2 M3 mono amps.
Non the less they are fine amps for the money.

Get your ES-EX extra channels Now, as when the stock is
gone there will be no more.

Similar Products Used:

MA-500,MA-700 and many others

Plenty of power, gold speaker binding post, gold rca connecters, balanced connections

none noted

Well it's about time that a major company has produced some affordable mono blocks. I purchased two HCA-1201A from Audio Advisor and I am very pleased with their perfomance. These amps have plenty of power to drive my Magnaplanar MMG's to ther full potential. I used to drive the Maggies with my trusted Dynaco ST 70, but after a quad capacitor blew out and was replaced by my trusted tech, the sound wasn't the same, so I started shopping around for a new amp. Well the natural choice would have been another tube amp, but prices are outrageous. So solid state was the way to go. The burn in time for these amps is about 50 hours. If you have a bright front end do what you can to tone it down, because these amps reveal the music on the bright side. Of course they do, these amps have bipolor transistors. Now that might turn some people to look at Adcom in this price range but watt per dollar, the Parasound amps beats Adcom hands down. The bass these amps has produced through my Maggies has proven to me that I made the right choice. Just imagine up to 240 watts of clean power. I replaced my Sony CDP-215 with a Denon DCM-65 (same as the DCM-370). The change wasn't dramatic at first but when usally bright sounding cd's mellowed out I knew that it wasn't the amps alone. I think Parasound should be commended for looking out for the little guy in producing a product that will give everyone a little piece of audio heaven.
Equipment used:
B&K Pro 5 Preamp
Denon DCM-65 (DCM-370)
Sansui TU-S77X tuner
Sansui D-390R tape deck
Magnaplanar MMG speakers
Bellogetti equipment rack
Parasound HCA-1201A monoblock amps

Similar Products Used:

none

Cheap, plenty of power.

Questionable build quality

I bought the ad at audioadvisor and got a pair. What's too lose with their 30day return policy?

I use them to drive a pair of magnepan MMG's, i have a NAD c160 preamp and sony 9000ES dvd/SACD player (SACD is sweet).

The magnepans suck power and these amps handled them pretty well, that is until i drove them to the max. One of the amps just died on me after 20 hrs of use.

Opening them up, the fuses in the inside were blown. I replaced them and the new ones blew immediately. The interior build quality is high school electronics shop quality. The soldering job was sloppy and the connectors were not fully seated. After fixing the connectors, the amp continued to blow the fuses.

I called audioadvisor, and they were very pleasant and eager to fix my problem. They sent a UPS pickup order so i don't have to pay anything. They won't cross ship unless you put it on your CC and then get refunded upon return. That is a practice i'm ok with.

I'm not one to give out 5 stars to everything i own. The build quality is not up to rotel or adcom standards. Don't kid yourself, there is a reason why these are only $500.

You may not find a more powerful amp at this price point, but you can get better built ones.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Rotel, Arcam