Parasound Owners Thread - Page 45

Carson City & Carson Valley have been known to have a power surge or two. The only time I lost any gear, while living there was through the tv antenna. A huge lightning strike close enough that it blew up the AVR and a telephone. The surge protector I was using ('92) did not have an antenna connection.

Signal sensing works more or less... but sometimes on TV shows, where most output is concentrated in the center channel... I just have to crank the volume up pretty high to kick on the amp. And if I turn the knob to be much more sensitive, then it just turns on too easy. I think this is 'working' but not working perfectly and I'm worried that cycling on and off all the time is worse for the amp than just being on all the time.

the 12V trigger, it is just from my receiver to my amp. I don't have the stock wire so was using a microphone 1/8" jack with an adapter on one end to make it a micro plug on that side. When I did this - it didnt' work. My receiver (pioneer elite SC-61) says "12V trigger error" on the display, and the amp does not switch on as it should.

I probably ought to try a new wire custom designed with a micro on one end and a 1/8 on the other.

It is just a bit of a nuisance when watching normal tv to see the amp "off" and I know that there is "some" sound for the main channels... just not enough to kick on the amp. It bugs me.

It sounds as if you might have the wires crossed and the polarity is reversed. Also, check to see whether your mini plug adapter is stereo or mono. If it is indeed stereo, that could also cause problems. Try e-mailing Parasound. They'll probably send you a new trigger wire at a nominal fee. They have a few different trigger wires with different sized plugs. At least this way you'll know you're getting the right stuff.
Edited by Torqdog - 1/26/13 at 9:01pm

confirmed... stereo adapter. I guess I'll contact parasound for the right wire. thanks - great troubleshooting!

So no difference with doing the a31 and a21 then going to straight to a a51

Just can get a a31 cheap at the moment.

I got the mk sound s150 package 5.1.

Later on for the surround might only need the a23 but still might go for a a21

No audible difference. Other than some very slight variations in things like balanced/unbalanced switches, gain control and a ground lift switch(missing on the a-31) these amp all have the same design and should sound identical.

One other thing to consider is the fact that you'll have two amps taking up space rather than one but you already knew that. If the price is right and you've accounted for the space an extra amp is gonna require, go for it.

Parasound = class company!!! A senior executive answered my email, and they're gonna help me out. Wow am I impressed. Hope I get a chance to pay that back (or pay it forward) somehow. I love companies that are flat and accessible like that. And of course the amp A21 speaks for itself I'm sure I have never heard a bad word about it - and it drives my PSB synchrony 2 towers like nobody's business. Nice to know I have a power amp that will handle any speaker I can throw at it.

If the senior executive you're referring to is named Richard Schram, your response came from the owner of Parasound. Super nice guy and I've received return e-mails from him at all hours of the day, holidays included.

yep. way cool dude. I'm a fan for life.

I also received a personal response from Mr. Schram to a question I posed to Parasound concerning my A31 amplifier. What a class act!!!

Same here, Richard is a very friendly guy, and he always tries to help out. This was at least one other reason, why I decided that I will not abandon this company.

I have had the Z-dac about one month. I use it for streaming audio files from my Mac Mini to an Aiport Express that is plugged in to a Denon receiver. I bypassed the Denon's dac and I'm using the Z as my source. As soon as I changed from Denon to Z the volume level was double. The Z has more bass thump and much more detail in the mids and better imaging. My impressions are level matched however I am powering my Kef LS50's with a Denon receiver I will eventually use a Prima Luna integrated amp.

The Parasound Z-dac is a wonderful product at a great price with all the inputs one would need. I sound like a Parasound sales guy.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a winner.

I noticed that Zdac a month ago in my audioadvisor magazine and looked at it and definitely considered getting it. It would match perfect with that series pre-amp that i had planned on getting. I wanted to try the balanced sound as some people say it only helps with keeping the noise low and some people say it's just an all around better sound. Does there need to be a seperate dac for each channel to be fully balanced?
If not, anyone want to trade a peach tree audio Dac*it for a Zdac? lol
couldn't do that to my dac*it but i will just have to get one and compare eventually.

I was reading about the Zdac, as I could use one between my macbook and P7. I'm certain I am not getting all I can from my 96/24 downloads, using a cable I have no idea where it came from. A 3.5mm on one end and L/R/V on the other connected to the mac phone jack.
I also would not mind springing for a JC3 for my Marantz TT.
Both of those units would easily fit into my bags the next time I make a round trip to the US, which I have not done in over 2 years.
Edited by 4DHD - 1/29/13 at 3:50am

what are you using for a Dac right now or are you just running analog out via 3.5 to your your p7?
As for not getting all you can out of your 96/24, do you mean that you don't think the mac is putting out the full 24bits? That's probably the case as the volume is done through the digital domain and the lower the volume, the more bits of information are dropped. Youmust have the volume all the way up. Could also be a setting in the playback properties. Make sure you have 24 bit 96000 option check marked.
If you want even better sound than that, then this might help aid in your purchase of the zdac as it upsamples.

"Upsampling DOES introduce distortion on making the music a bit warmer. Recording studios are using upsabling for remastering in daily basis. And it is very common to up-sample in very high rate (such as up to 384khz) and then because some times music becomes a bit too warm they use cold digital gear to compensate.

There is no way to get the original sound of a 96000 file by upsampling, I agree. Oversampling and upsampling are signal processing steps that convert the signal to higher sampling rates for easier filtering. Properly done they are not affecting the original content of the signal. However, they make the process of postfiltering much easier. And also asynchronus upsampling helps reduce jitter (which tends to harden the high frequencies). the difference is definitely audible as a smoother, more natural, less harsh sound (what I described with the word "organic" in my previous post). And it is as closer you can get to the sound you will get from a high rez master."

Well, I'm assuming that the Zdac is of a higher quality than the dac in the mac.
As I said, I use the audio out port (headphone jack) for 96/24.
For iTunes (where I have both CDs loaded and iTunes downloads) I can use the USB port, or the 3.5 audio out.
But with what I have for adapters right now, I can not use the USB port for 96/24. No bueno todo!! As in unlistenable.
I will assume again, that if I had the Zdac between the USB out and P7 that connection will work for 96/24, which is also a much stronger connection (physically) than the 3.5 mini.
For the two ports I am using adapters: the 3.5 mm ~ RCA L/R/V cable or the combo of USB~3.5 cable to 3.5~RCA adapter.

The Z-dac would be a great addition to your system. It will play at 24/96 over USB asynchronous. It is compacted too so shipping won't be as expensive.

In the process of hooking up a parasound 5250, wanted to power it through a monster hdp 1800. It would be the only component on that power conditioner. I would like to have protection for the amp wrather than having it pluged directly in wall.

Anyone have any advice on whether this would be ok?

Thanks in advance.

What does the manual say?, I do have a small 100w amp connected, but I have my HCA2205A connected to the outlet, always have. I know some amp companies say not to connect to power conditioners.

Hi! prior to owning my A21 I had an HCA 2003a and I had a monster 2600mk2 conditioner and it does limit the full gestalt of the high current Parasound amp so I went directly to the wall with it , having said that it did sweeten the highs which lead me to explore conditioners more. for the A21 I use a PS audio Soloist Premier in wall conditioner, its on it alone! and after a phone call to Parasound and speaking with Richard S. he said it was not a problem since I wouldn't have nothing else was on the line with it, the unit handles 1800w and is capable of being used before a second conditioner. I would look at Furman or Ps audio or others for Amps, but since your running it solo give it a listen against straight to the wall and see what you think;)

That's interesting because the Parasound manual for my A51 states "We recommend that you plug your A 51 into the same AC wall outlet or power strip that powers your other audio components, especially the preamplifier or system controller. Having all the audio components on the same power circuit helps prevent hum caused by possible ground loops." And that's how my system is set up. I certainly don't find it wanting. But if you can get away with it without any hum, then why not? As for running two power conditioners in series, if I understood the post, I am doubtful. Certainly one should not connect surge protectors in series and most power conditioners include surge protection, or what would be the point? But you're saying the PS Audio can be run back to back? How is that?

The 5250 manual states same as davee70 above, "same outlet or power strip ".

The monster 1800 says it can supply 1800 watts total. That total number from the conditioner is referring to all outlets combined, I would be plugged into the amplifier outlet only on the conditioner. I was hoping the single conditioner supplying the amp wouldn't cause any problems trying to supply the amp with full power.

I too have seen references to not using any sort of conditioner on larger amps, but wrather to go directly in wall.

So I guess the question is what happens when you try to pull 1800 watts for an amp from one outlet on an 1800 watt monster hdp 1800?

Cheers

A1

One thing to keep in mind is that the amp being rated at 1800 watts is what it will draw at full power........ a situation that is rarely if ever achieved.

Edit, I just went and checked what the total wattage draw is for the 5250 and it comes in at 2500 watts @ full power. 1800 watts would still be more than what the amp would normally run at but caution might be a better idea.
Edited by Torqdog - 2/2/13 at 3:27pm

Good point, probably play at full throttle one percent of the time.

Wondering though if any problems would arise plugging through a conditioner instead of in wall. Why do some manufacturers want the amp plugged direct to wall? Do power conditioners have some sort of inherent problem passing through high currents?

As I said if it is beneficial I can go direct to wall power. Good to have info before the hook-up, so as not to have to go through a second time.

Regards

A1

I would think that is exactly it. A small amp, say 100w is one thing. But 220, 250, 400w is something entirely different.

For all of the rest of my gear, I only use a surge protector. Years ago, just for curiosity, I picked up a middle range Monster conditioner from BB. And only b/c of the 30 day return policy. So for those 30 days I had that conditioner in/out of the circuit. And at NO time could I see/hear an improvement with the conditioner in the circuit.

I took it back after 30 days and got my money back. The guy asked why I was returning it, I told him it did not improve the audio or the video. He tells me, well it will still protect your gear from spikes. I told him I could do that with a $40 surge protector, so why would I want to spend $500.

A few days ago some of us were discussing the benefits(?) of XLR vs RCA cables. I believe it was 4DHD that mentioned that in some instances they could actually cause a slight degradation in sound quality. With my recent addition of the Halo A-31 amp that allows XLR inputs from the C-2 controller and the fact that the Oppo BDP95 I have also has XLR outs, my curiosity got the best of me and I ordered up some cables from Blue Jeans just to see for myself. After hooking up the new cables and re-balancing speaker levels, my observations were as follows. But before that I first have to mention that the Oppo has both RCA and XLR outputs that both run off the improved audio circuitry utilizing 4 stacked SABRE32 Reference ES9018 from ESS Technology DACs for the dedicated stereo outs. With this configuration and the fact that I have the RCAs plugged into the 7.1 channel inputs on the C-2 as well as the XLRs plugged into the balnced inputs, it allowed me to do an A/B listening test as both the 7.1 RCA and XLR inputs are analog bypass on the C-2.

Listening to a whole host of what I consider to be excellent, clear and articulate recordings, I found that the XLRs slightly more edgy on my system. The low end seemed to be just a hair more defined but high frequency sounds like bells and cymbals were just a miniscule tad more edgy and ever so slightly less pronounced. The C-2 manual states that the s/n ratio is a full 9db higher(>107db) on the 7.1 inputs than the(>98db) analog(XLR) inputs so that could be a bit of what I'm hearing. Neither the XLRs or RCAs present any noise what-so-ever so any noise reduction gain realized by XLRs in my case is not an issue.

I had really hoped that these cables would give me another shot of audio improvement but to the contrary, with my setup I actually prefer the Blue-Jeans RCAs to the XLRs.

I have subsequently packaged them up and will be returning them on Monday.

^^^^ I read similar thoughts from others. Which is why I mentioned it. I have never used XLR, so I have no personal experience.

^^^^^ seems I've reead similiar comments about 2ch XLR OUT's vs. 2ch RCA OUT's in regards to Oppo BDP-95- a few thought the 2ch RCA OUT's yielded nicer/cleaner sound?

Hi,

I just want to let everybody know, that after heaving problems with my Parasound C2 in and out for a year, thanks to Richard, and people from here, the Parasound service here replaced the plastic housing with the crimped connectors, and soldered the cables directly to the PSU, and everything is working fine now for the past few days. So remember, if anyone has problems with P7/C1/C2/etc. ( they all use the same PSU as far as I know, if it acts crazy, check the wires on the PSU connected with the plastic housing!!!!!

I've got another problem, maybe someone can help us out again.
With the Halo D3 or D200 DVD/SACD player, we are heaving problems playing newer made (produced ) discs, no matter if its original, or CD-R, if it was manufactured after around 2009, it wont play, or if it starts to play, it sometimes skips 30 seconds and has problems. If we put old discs into the unit, it just plays fine... :S we were able to check this with 2 units, and another original new one , right out of the box, and they all behave the same.

Were there any firmware updates available for these units? Or was there any major changes from disc (raw disc material) manufacturing standpoint? I would really appreciate if other owners could share their experience.

Thanks in advance,
Gustav