Parasound Owners Thread - Page 55

I've do similar.

 

BTW, I bought the 8801, too.

I have te A51 and A23 for Monitor Audio Golds. I had the A51 first and added the other 2 channels at a later date. If I could do it again from scratch I would have only bought the more powerful amp (250w) for front 2 or 3 speakers and the lower power for the rest (125w). It would have been cheaper, take up less room as I find I don't need the extra power for surrounds (125w is more than enough for me). I have them matched with Marantz AV 7005 (after my C2 died).

Thanks for the input thus far.

Kal...check your email.

I'd probably go A31 for front-surround, A23's rear-surround's. I'm using a single A51 currently to drive a Monitor Audio Gold GS-Series 5.1 configuration (GS60 fronts, GSLCR center, GSFX rears). I like the idea having a single power-supply dedicated to my front surround, separate power-supplies dedicated to surrounds, distributed load management. Using an AV8801 as well.

I own an A51. If I had it to do all over again I would get an A21 for the fronts since most of my music collection is stereo. However, I often listen to two channel music through my surrounds. It's a bit like a naked headphone effect. So, I still want the same quality of amplification on my surrounds, just not all the time. And of course there is some surround music that really has surround and center channel content and not just ambiance. So the A31 would be a nice fit for the surrounds and center.

I own an A-31 and A-51. The A-31 is a wonderful amp that is the most versatile as far as ways to hook it up of any amps in the Halo stable. It has seperate gain controls as well as separate balanced/unbalanced switches for each channel. The only thing missing on the A-31 is the ground lift switch but my experience has been that it is the quietest amp of the bunch and doesn't need it.

I agree with davee70, many blu-ray/DVD concerts and audio sacds have dedicated surround and center content and having that matching A-51 for the surrounds means that all channels are being fed equally.

How about a a A31 and a A52?

My thoughts on having matching power to all channels is more to the advantage if all the speakers are identical. If one has towers for the mains and models for the surrounds/center that are smaller, with less drivers then there is no real point to having matching power to those channels.

Hello,
If considering an A51, provided XLR is not of major importance, I would consider looking for an HCA-2205AT or 2205a for that matter. The A51 is heavily based off the 2205 and the specs are quite similar. The 2205 uses a 2.0 kVA Toroidal Transformer compared to the A51's 2.2 kVA TT. In terms of capacitance, the 2205 offers 150,000uf of filter capacitance to the A51's 164,000.
I purchased my 2205AT and 3500 brand new and both have been flawless a decade on.

With the A51 retailing for over $5000 and the 2205AT available used for around $1400 (often even less), it really is worth considering. Even more so if considering purchasing a new A52 as the 2205 offers a good bit more power. Moreover, the HCA-3500 is the basis for the JC-1 Monoblocks. Granted the JC-1's do offer some superior parts here or there, but the savings are tremendous. If wanting to purchase a new amplifier, I would find it hard not to consider the Outlaw Audio Model 7500 as it sells for $1599 and offers dual 1.6 kVA TT's and 150,000uf of capacitance.
Cheers,
AD

Agreed. However, someday I may indeed want to upgrade to matching towers all the way around. Just one less step I'll need to contend with. Also, when I replaced the HCA1205 (comparable to the A-52) with the A-51, the improvement was immediate and quite noticable. But yeah.........for now it's total overkill and I'm lovin it.

AA has them listed at 4499.00 shipped to your door, brand new in the box. Occasionally they will advertise factory referbs for 12% less that still come with a full on warranty from Parasound. I recently picked up a used A-51 on AudioGon for 2500.00 shipped to my door.
Edited by Torqdog - 3/14/13 at 7:10pm

I am about to become a member of the Parasound family. LOL I ordered an A52 from Audio Advisor today. I bought a demo in mint condition with full warranty for $1400 including shipping. I could have got another $80 off, had I not lived in Michigan. Audo Advisor is in Grand Rapids Mi. so I had to pay sales tax. The A52 is replacing a Marantz MM9000 5x150 watt that is still fully functional. I just got tired of fantasizing abot owning a Parasound . My room is only 1500 cu. ft. and partially open to a kitchen . The salesman told me the A51 would probably be overkill. He said the Parasound had more current than my Marantz. That's great news, because the Marantz had ample power. It is scheduled for a Saturday delivery. I can't wait !!

Congrats, looks like you got a great price and you'll love the SQ.

Does anyone have experience of the new Paraound CD player. I'm unlikely to adopt having gone down the Esoteric route, but would be interested in others' experience. I am a keen Paraound user.

I have not listened to it yet,but the specs on it and build quality look amazing.. Definitely would fit right in with that extremely awesome set up you have!

What kind are the silver and black speakers?

The front and side speakers are Mission Pilastro; centre, rear and effects speakers are also Mission. This has the advantage that music can be played at high quality (either stereo or 4-channel) and for movies the general crashing and banging can be taken up by the secondary speakers. At 160kg apiece the large ones are unweildy to say the least. Of course, there's no getting around a lot of unwanted cones ringing much of the time.

I'll be picking up an A31 and two A23s tomorrow. It took me a week to convince the CFO that we NEEDED them in a bad way

yes, quite an array of Parasound amp's there.
ringing cones?

Good job convincing the CFO. I know exactly what you're talkin about...... been there, done that!

One thing I find that really seems to help is putting some of my wife's favorite music on and giving her the prime listening seat. It doesn't take long before she's forgotten about why we couldn't spend that kind of money on audio gear.

You are gonna love the improvement. Be sure to report back once you are able to pry yourself away.

I was a little slow on the uptake there, I thought your office had good taste in gear!

'Ringing cones' - apologies, my shorthand for the effect of the many unutilised speaker cones being activated by soundwaves, which has a slight muddying effect. If I'm listening to stereo there are over 60 unused mid and bass units reacting to the music. Which is why a separate music room would have been better; easily achieved if there was anything left after the divorce.

Don't forget all the textile surfaces, tapestry, the cavities in the human body which "resonate", your furniture which vibrates in sympathy with the sound, your walls, floor, ceiling which participate in the sound, the enclosed volumes in bottles and porcelain ... just add your own.
You aren't serious, aren't you ?

LOL...By the way...I love your Avatar!

I admit that short of having an anechoic chamber and not actually having anyone in there, it's all compromise. However, the room is carefully treated acoustically, and there's nothing other than me and the speaker cones actually going to resonate to any discernable extent.

Actually not true. It is carefully balanced acoustically, using extensive absorptive panels, bass traps, and fairly complex paragraphic equalisation, all adjusted to a nice smile curve response. And then I dug the floor out to put in shakers under the main seating area, which floats on rubber. Much good work literally undermined. But the explosions are good.

Does any one know can make a recommendation as to how much I can sell a Parasound HCA-2205. I have no idea what the used price should be

 

http://www.parasound.com/vintage/hca2205a.php

Members of Audiogon can look at their Blue Book to see what old equipment is worth.

What is the cost to join Audiogon!

Audiogon is free. It's great to buy/sell high-end audio equipment (the fees for selling is reasonable). Audiogon Blue Book is not free, but also worth it. I highly recommend audiogon and videogon!

Any one tried this?

 

http://www.soundoffers.com/ 

 

NO fees :) Audiogon charges 3%!