This is a review and detailed measurements of the Parasound 2125 V.2 power amplifier. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $899.
The 2125 has an understated look with just a few touches to keep it from looking boring. The only controls in front are for which set of speakers it drives. There is more however in the back:
For those of you wanting to use it with a sub, it has selectable high pass filter of 20 or 40 Hz. Trigger is supported as well as bridging.
Parasound 2125 V.2 Measurements
I had a heck of a time getting stable ratings in the dashboard with channel 1 mostly going nuts on its own. I thought this was a grounding problem so tried many things. There was hardly a difference. It was not until the power measurements that I realized something is going on the amp in the 5 to 20 watt range. Anyway, here is our dashboard when both channels were behaving:
Measured noise+distortion lands the 2125 above average ranking:
Noise performance is not great at 5 watts but naturally improves at full power:
Multitone reflect the average distortion rating:
Frequency response is very good:
I was however surprised that gain dropped when I activated the high-pass filters.
As noted, my first power sweep had instability in mid power. I thought this was instrumentation error so I filtered the heck out of it and got these:
On reflection though this was amplifier instability as we can see when I sweep the frequency:
There is a frequency dependent hump in distortion which is very strange. It is likely due to some kind of voltage rail switching.
There is a lot of power available though in a cool running case:
Conclusions
This kind of performance would usually garner my recommendation for the 2125. On reflection though, I am worried about increased distortion in the "sweet" area of power band -- 5 to 20 watts. Company needs to work on mitigating this issue. So for now, I won't be recommending the Parasound 2125 even though it checks many boxes from value to functionaltiy.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The 2125 has an understated look with just a few touches to keep it from looking boring. The only controls in front are for which set of speakers it drives. There is more however in the back:
For those of you wanting to use it with a sub, it has selectable high pass filter of 20 or 40 Hz. Trigger is supported as well as bridging.
Parasound 2125 V.2 Measurements
I had a heck of a time getting stable ratings in the dashboard with channel 1 mostly going nuts on its own. I thought this was a grounding problem so tried many things. There was hardly a difference. It was not until the power measurements that I realized something is going on the amp in the 5 to 20 watt range. Anyway, here is our dashboard when both channels were behaving:
Measured noise+distortion lands the 2125 above average ranking:
Noise performance is not great at 5 watts but naturally improves at full power:
Multitone reflect the average distortion rating:
Frequency response is very good:
I was however surprised that gain dropped when I activated the high-pass filters.
As noted, my first power sweep had instability in mid power. I thought this was instrumentation error so I filtered the heck out of it and got these:
On reflection though this was amplifier instability as we can see when I sweep the frequency:
There is a frequency dependent hump in distortion which is very strange. It is likely due to some kind of voltage rail switching.
There is a lot of power available though in a cool running case:
Conclusions
This kind of performance would usually garner my recommendation for the 2125. On reflection though, I am worried about increased distortion in the "sweet" area of power band -- 5 to 20 watts. Company needs to work on mitigating this issue. So for now, I won't be recommending the Parasound 2125 even though it checks many boxes from value to functionaltiy.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/