Introduction

Now is a very good time to be an audiophile. The market is awash in high quality, high value audio components from many, many manufacturers. While even just a few years ago, you could easily spend lots of money for marginal performance, today there’s a great selection of moderately priced equipment that really deliver the sonic goods. I recently replaced my stalwart Plinius 8150 integrated amp with a preamp and amplifier combination from Emotiva, the RSP-1 and RPA-1. These US designed and Asian manufactured components were clearly superior to the $3000 Plinius, but at roughly half the price.

Parasound is a well-respected manufacturer of high quality electronics dating back almost 30 years, and they have always had a foot in the “value high end” arena of affordable but high quality electronics. Their “New Classic” line of amplifiers, preamplifiers, processors, and source components are in many cases based on previously successful Parasound designs, and offer high quality at reasonable prices.

The components reviewed here, the Model 2100 preamplifier and 2250 power amplifier, are virtually identical in specification and features to my new Emotiva components, and are also comparatively priced. I was excited to be able to try some value separates that many audiophiles would be able to find in local brick and mortar stores. While the Emotiva pair is fantastic, I know many people are just not interested in buying components over the Internet without being able to listen to them first. The Parasound 2100 and 2250 are much more widely available.