jolax73

HYere is what Stu said:

Al,
I would favor the Parasound based upon listening at shows in the past, albeit brief. As Scott points out, either is sufficient and more. I have always associated B&K with a more analytical rather than “tube-ish” sound despite the MosFET outputs of the B&K. Parasound do not use MosFETs. Funny that. I would have figured the opposite. I cannot rate their reliability because I do not have a good sense for either.

Stu

Here is what Scott from engineering said:

From: Orth, Scott
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 11:02 AM
Subject: RE: Question from Forum member.

Tough choice. Having not measured or listened to these myself, I can only give advice based on the documentation and specifications available on the internet.

The B&K uses MOSFET power drivers. Parasound does not list theirs, so I will assume BJTs. Given that, the B&K will have the softer clipping characteristics of those output devices, which given our experience with the Conrad Johnson MOSFET amp, sounds good.

The power specs and damping factors are not comparable as they are not rated equivalently. The B&K appears to have more power, while Parasound seems to have the edge in damping factor and slew rate.

They both appear to be fine amplifiers and should play LSi speakers just fine.

Scott

Hello jolax,

Both B&K and Parasound produce what I call mid-level to entry level into true hi-fi gear, both are solid companies, I have used and heard a good deal of each. Since we are talking Lsi speakers here and a 7250 I would go with the B&K, first off you need a great deal of current for your Lsi, the 7250 tops out at 75 ampres pk2pk, this is quite good, beyond that one of the real strengths of Parasound amplifiers is their known ability to reproduce bass, they are no slouch of an amp by any means, however, the Lsi especially the floor standers tend to have a bit of bloom in the bass so in this case I would give the tip to the B&K.

Each amplifier though is known to play well with Polk Speakers, the B&K may be a touch more neutral but all this is system dependant on the other gear, wire and so on.

Hope that helps a bit and enjoy your search.

RT1