[satfrat]

I've been running Butlers for the last 6 years....first with my DeVore Super 8s and currently with my Maggie 3.6s. Have no desire to change at all.

Ditto AJ, I've been running 2 Butler 3150's for my 6.1 system and I too have no desire to change.

Cheers,
Robin

[geowak]

BTW.. just a note. One of the many reasons I like the Parasound brand is the transformer. It's encapsulated and quiet. I have had many SS amps. Short list is Odyssey, McCormack, Denon and Marantz. Many of them developed transformer hum. I just got tired of this extraneous sound. I've had 3 Parasound amps with no hum.

I think John Curl designs are very intelligent. There are better amps out there, but I think they cost X2, X3 and above the cost of the Parasound units. The A21 I have is much better built than I expected. The McCormack was a tank too, but it started to hum...

My two cents..

[Early B.]

...I was actually thinking of getting an Emotiva 2 channel for my surround channels if I got a 3 channel for the fronts

For your surround needs, I have an Emotiva 2-channel amp available for sale:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=111716.msg1156388#new

[roscoeiii]

Good to know about that transformer design. As  heads up, if transformers give you such problems, you might have DC on your line. A PS Audio Humbuster can fix that if DC is what causes that problem. A big issue for me in my last place...

BTW.. just a note. One of the many reasons I like the Parasound brand is the transformer. It's encapsulated and quiet. I have had many SS amps. Short list is Odyssey, McCormack, Denon and Marantz. Many of them developed transformer hum. I just got tired of this extraneous sound. I've had 3 Parasound amps with no hum.

I think John Curl designs are very intelligent. There are better amps out there, but I think they cost X2, X3 and above the cost of the Parasound units. The A21 I have is much better built than I expected. The McCormack was a tank too, but it started to hum...

My two cents..

[Doublej]

What about Anthem or Odyssey?

[roscoeiii]

I have heard good things about Odyssey for sure

[geowak]

I had an older McCormack DNA-125 that developed hum in the transformer over time. It was NOT a bad amp, quite good actually. The Odyssey had many problems. Both a Stratos I had and a Candela preamp. Both had hum problems and  a spurious noise coming from the amp at irregular intervals just out of the blue. I tried swapping out components and isolated the problem to the Odyssey equipment. I eliminated the electrical ground problems and all those things quite early on. I did not have any luck with the guys at Odyssey, they kept telling me it was my electrical system. But that's another story.

Getting back to the topic, the A21 outperformed these amps and did NOT have QC problems or noise issues. They still don't and neither does my LM Audio tube amp. I really love the Parasound brand for the money. I like John Curl designs very much.

YMMV, this is just my experience.