Parasound Owners Thread - Page 23

Originally Posted by Blainthemono

There is alot of praise, and following, for the Oppo 83se and alot of beta reviews on the upcoming 95. I sold a Denon 3930ci for the 83SE and have been very happy with the move. Great info in the Oppo threads.

Originally Posted by steinram

According to Parasound both the A21 and the A51 is rated at 25W in standby.

Originally Posted by nnck

That's odd. Do you have a link or could you explain how you got that info? I have the A21 amp and have had a Kill-o-Watt meter hooked up to it for a few weeks now to monitor this for my wife. I'm finding that the A21 draws 150w when it is turned on (but not playing any music)! I'm not sure if this is what nvision was referring to when he mentioned the amp is 'idle'? And if you switch it off (but you still see the red logo glowing faintly) I dont even get a reading with the Kill-o-watt - 0w. When it's playing music at a fairly loud (but not ear-crushing) level it can go to 160-170w.

FWIW, the JC2 pre runs at about 30w when turned on whether it is playing music or not.

Originally Posted by steinram

It's from the user manuals. You will find the rated consumption at the
data page (second to last). If you don't have your at hand they can be found at:

http://parasound.com/pdfs/A51Manual.pdf

http://parasound.com/pdfs/A21Manual.pdf

I don't believe turned on, but not playing any music qualifies at standby (I would call it idle). In that mode you have turned on all the output transistors, and thus increasing the current drawn by the amp. I assumed standby mode is when the amp is connected to the power socket and turned off using the 12v remote trigger.

Originally Posted by vulcan00

If I understand the kilowatt meter correctly. It seems to me you should be showing
0.025 of 1 kilowatt on your meter's display. How many digits to the right of a decimal point does the meter display

Originally Posted by Chicagorep

salmon, call Parasound tech suppport and they can talk you through it.

Originally Posted by salmonsc

Has anyone here tried using the surround by-pass on the Parasound P7? I'm trying to integrate the P7 with the Marantz AV8003. According to my reading of the P7 manual I connect the AV8003 to the P7 (from the pre-outs to one of the p7's 2 surround inputs) & from there to the power amps. Except that I can't get any sound through this configuration. Is there something I am missing?

Originally Posted by nnck

It's called a Kill-A-Watt meter, but when it is reading wattage it reads in just the Watts - I believe it only reads in single digits (no numbers beyond the decimal). See the second picture in this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_A_Watt

There are other buttons to press on it that allow you to monitor voltage, current or keep track of Killowatt-hours.

The Wattage reading is definitely 0 Watts when the unit is turned off.

Originally Posted by tt_toe

I'm also interested in learning what is meant by standby power.

I'm thinking of adding the A23 to my 2-channel system that is currently using a stereo receiver only. The receiver has pre-outs, but no trigger. I'm thinking of adding the amp first and then as the budget allows, adding a new preamp down the road.

For my situation, the amp will have to sit at the bottom of a cabinet (with an open back) behind closed doors when not in use. I'm concerned about the A23's spec of 25W standby. I was hoping this was for idle power.

I was looking at the 2125 for comparison and it spec's 3W for standby and could be more attractive for this reason.

On the other hand, if the Kill-a-watt readings are correct, I may have nothing to worry about...

Would Parasound customer service be where I can go to get the definitive answer to this?

Thanks in advance!

Originally Posted by Saturn94

Well, after finally locating an authorized dealer with a good return policy (about 1.5 hour drive from home), I ordered a Parasound Classic 5250 and have been using it for about a week now. I was not able to audition this amp prior to purchase, so I was relying on feedback from Parasound owners, many e-mail exchanges with Richard at Parasound, and a dealer willing to work with me (one much closer to home could not offer a return option, so they were out).

Long story short, I am thrilled with the performance of this amp and am surprised how much improvement I noticed over my old Hafler amps, so much so that I am seriously reconsidering my decision to look for speakers to replace my ADS L1290s. Parasound may have just saved me a couple grand!

I want to thank the owners here who provided great feedback that helped me make a decision.

Originally Posted by Saturn94

Bad news, my 1 year old Parasound 5250 is having issues. It's periodically making clicking noises (relays?) with the sound cutting off and on. I spoke with a tech at Parasound earlier this week and he had me turn off the 12v trigger to see if that was the issue. Well, even in manual mode tonight it was doing the same thing. Looks like it will need servicing.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Originally Posted by Saturn94

Anyone?

Originally Posted by UTHT

My 5250 is one year old as well and I have not experienced this issue.

Originally Posted by Saturn94

Thanks for the reply.

I took my 5250 to the Parasound/Halo dealer today (they are 90 miles away ) and they will send it to Parasound for repairs. Since they do mostly custom installs, they don't keep much equipment on hand. As such, they did not have a 5 channel amp on hand to loan to me, but they did have a 2125 which I'll use until I get my 5250 back. This shop, Sound & Image Design in Richmond VA, has been very good to me in the past, so I'm confident I'm in good hands.

Out of curiosity I did a web search to see if others have reported the same problem. I found next to nothing which I'll take to mean that Parasound amps tend to be very reliable (I use to have a 750A that never gave me any problems).

Originally Posted by Osamede

Anybody know much about the HCA-1500A? I have a chance to pick one up used. I already have an HCA-750 - wondering if there will be any discernible difference and in particular, more headroom.

Originally Posted by WillyJ

I have four Parasound amps in my home theater rig and the 1500A is one of them. I bought it off eBay about 4 years ago. I use it to drive a pair of Infinity Prelude MTS front l/r towers. Seem to have plenty of power and sound fine. I was using a 1000A to drive the towers and noticed a big difference moving up to the 1500A. The peak current is what is the primary difference between these models. The 1500 has 60 amps compared to 45 amps for the 1000A and 20 amps for the 750A. So, moving from the 750A to the 1500A is a big jump in power, should you need it. I can attest personally to the importance of high current speakers having a dramatic effect on even fairly small speakers. I had a Denon 3806 AVR and was only using the internal amps on the AVR to drive the surround speakers in my home theater ( I was using the parasounds for the fronts and center). I moved up to a dedicated pre/pro that didn't have amps and purchased the little 275 Parasound (30 amps peak current) to drive the surrounds. It made a HUGE difference in the sound quality coming from these speakers. The speakers are fairly large for surround speakers but they do not have any drivers bigger than 5-1/4". Now, Blu-Rays with Dolby HD and DTS-HD MA that have a good surround track sound much, much better.

BTW, the 1500A is fairly similar to the A21/A23 Halo models and they sell for a pretty penny.

Originally Posted by 4DHD

You indeed have a fine setup. I've always thought that Parasound amps/Harman brand speakers make for a very good system.
I use a Parasound P7 pre-amp & HCA 2205 power amp to drive my JBL Performance Series speakers, which are also quite large (8" mid-bass drivers). And the sound is super.

Originally Posted by WillyJ

Yes - it does sound great and I wonder why I continue to seek out BETTER sound.