Post Parasound Pictures Here!

[Chris D]

Taking a cue from our Rotel brethren here on the Guide, I thought it would be great to have a master thread with a whole bunch of pictures of Parasound products. Post pictures of your gear, your equipment rack, your dealer's setup, the last trade show you were at, etc. Official, amateur, it makes no difference. Let's see Parasound stuff!

A picture is worth a thousand words, and people love seeing Parasound pics. Let's compile 'em all here!

[Chris D]

I'll start: These are a few preliminary pictures I've posted before of my rack with my Halo C1, A51 amp, A21 Amp, and matching Parasound Halo rack mount vents. Note that these are pics of my theater in construction progress--stand by for updated pics soon!







A backside picture of my C1 pre/pro. All cables are CAT Cables (links available here on HT Guide)



A picture of my Halo stack in the dark before rack mounting with the TFT screen off and the MX-700 remote control illuminated in the bottom right corner:

[Chris D]

Some pics direct from the Parasound website:

C1 controller and A51 amp:



C1 controller:



C1 controller:



C1 controller backside:



C2 controller:



C2 controller backside:



A51 amp:



A51 amp:



A51 amp backside:



A21 amp:



A21 amp backside:



JC1 monoblock amplifier:



JC1 monoblock amp backside: (man, that's one sweet, beefy amp!)



T3 tuner:



New Classic 7100 controller:



New Classic 7100 controller backside:



New Classic 5250 amplifier:



Z custom half-rack components stacked:



Z components shown in a rack configuration:



An older discontinued, but still famous, HCS-2205:

[Chris D]

And a few pics from the Parasound public relations website:

The Halo "3 Series" stack with a P3 pre-amp, T3 tuner, and A23 amp:



The inner workings of the A23 with cover off:

[Chris D]

And some pics from a Norwegian website of the inner workings of various Halo equipment pieces:

[Chris D]

Reposted from an earlier thread, pics from an overseas gentleman:



















(photos put here with permission of owner)

[will1066]

Great pics, Chris. But, oh.... those fingerprints (I'm obssessive compulsive).

[Chris D]

Ah... for those who are still jones-ing for a Halo DVD player, here are pictures from CES 2002 including Halo DVD player prototypes. Notice that the D1 included a TFT screen identical to the C1, and had stuff like multichannel analog balanced outputs and such. I can't believe these pics are 3 years old now, and these plans got scrapped!

CLICK HERE for the webpage with pictures of Halo DVD player prototypes!

Sorry, I tried my best to figure out how to post them as actual pictures. But they're controlled by javascript, and you have to click on each picture to open it up in its own Cinenow window.

Okay, so you guys have to do a bit of work and click on your own. Sue me.

[Peter Nielsen]

Chris, what racks are those?? They look very much like Finite Elemente Spider racks, yet they are distinctly different to the ones found on Finite Elemente's web site. UPDATE: Never mind. With a little Googling and a strike of good luck, I found out that those are Solidtech's Rack of Silence

BTW, in the pictures, he's running one mono-block in low-bias mode and the other block in high bias mode. You got to wonder what he's up to... User error, I guess :B

Peter

[nicholtl]

Wow, some very very cool pics! Chris, how do you post pics so they show up on the page (like you have), and not simply thumbnails that require an additional click before they reach fullsize?

I will borrow a friend's digicam soon and take pics of my setup. However, I have no clue how to post them pics up???

[Chris D]

Oh, just use the picture icon at the top of the quick reply or advanced reply to insert pictures into your post that exist on an internet webpage already. Textually it will appear in your reply before you post as [ IMG]http://websitename.com[ /IMG] (without spaces between the [ and IMG that I had to put in so it's visible)

If you want to upload pictures to the HTGuide server, like if you don't have a website of your own to host your personal pictures like me, then go to "Post Reply" or "Advanced Reply". (you can't use Quick Reply at the bottom of a thread) Below the window to type your reply text, click on the "Manage Attachments" button, browse your computer for the file, and then upload it. The only restriction with uploading is that it can't be any more than 100KB. So use a compressed file format like .jpg.

Once you've uploaded them, they'll appear as thumbnails. If you click on thumbnails, they'll open up in their own window with the picture alone in actual size. If you copy the webpage location from this new window, you can then use the picture posting icon, as the picture now exists in cyberspace, in the [ IMG]http://websitename.com[ /IMG] format.

[bhuskins]

Our HTGuide host (LEX) would probably prefer we point to files on the web and upload as little as possible to the HTGuide Server because it increases his storage needs and bandwidth requirements...I'm guessing...

Brent Huskins
Media Design
HTGuide Sponsor

[Chris D]

I'll see if he has any problem. This has never come up in the past, as uploaded pictures and files are limited to only 100KB, so unless we hear otherwise, we're good to go.

[jonia]

Here is my dear and only Parsound unit... The A21 power amplifier!

Hopefully there will be more later....


Jon

(From Norway)

[Nextlevel]

More pictures from Norway.









Enjoy.....

[Peter Nielsen]

More pictures from Norway.

Enjoy.....

What are you doing for thermal management there? :E:E:E The amps are supposed to need a MINIMUM of 6" (15cm) clearance on top and 3" (7.5cm) on the sides in low-bias mode (and much more clearance in high-bias mode). Do you have some powerful fans or something going, or how did you work around the problem? (Anything less, and the amps will run very hot. This results in a very shortened lifetime of the amp. Most notably the capacitors will suffer and dry out...)

I'm currently trying to solve the problem of keeping 5 JC1s and an A51 going in the same room. Looks like I will go with a tall 19" EIA rack with fans that went to the outside. The big headache is as always the dreadful fan noise that results from active thermal management :roll:

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

Like them speakers, what are they?

[nicholtl]

Nextlevel, that's A LOT of amps!

[Nextlevel]

Speakers

These are some prototypes from a wellknown norwegian speakermaker named Patos.

They are eqipped with a large heil dipol, 8" midrange and 2 10" Peerless basses. They have not been set in production mainly because of the difficult load of 1,4 ohm. That is also why I use 2 JC1's for each channel.

The sound is magnificent, awsome bass and great open midrange and tweeter.

[Nextlevel]

Heat

What are you doing for thermal management there? :E:E:E The amps are supposed to need a MINIMUM of 6" (15cm) clearance on top and 3" (7.5cm) on the sides in low-bias mode (and much more clearance in high-bias mode). Do you have some powerful fans or something going, or how did you work around the problem? (Anything less, and the amps will run very hot. This results in a very shortened lifetime of the amp. Most notably the capacitors will suffer and dry out...)

I'm currently trying to solve the problem of keeping 5 JC1s and an A51 going in the same room. Looks like I will go with a tall 19" EIA rack with fans that went to the outside. The big headache is as always the dreadful fan noise that results from active thermal management :roll:

Peter

I'm obviously running them on low bias. They get hot but not very hot (the old 3500 got much hotter) and they have never gone into protection. One reason could be that the rack is open on all sides, also in the shelf above the ämps in the back. The air condition system is also feeding cold air towards the amps.

[Kingdaddy]

These are some prototypes from a wellknown norwegian speakermaker named Patos.

They are eqipped with a large heil dipol, 8" midrange and 2 10" Peerless basses. They have not been set in production mainly because of the difficult load of 1,4 ohm. That is also why I use 2 JC1's for each channel.

The sound is magnificent, awsome bass and great open midrange and tweeter.

I thought those were Heil's on top, have never heard those tweet in person but I have read nothing but good about them, love the sound of dipole.

[Chris D]

Hi, Nextlevel, and welcome to Club Parasound and the Guide! :banana: Great pictures there, is that an X-Box in silver? Funny... I looked at your second picture first off, and thought, "why does he have dual television screens on top of the cabinet with funky aspect ratios that split the picture into two?" Then I realized, ahh... those are them new-fangled inventions called WINDOWS. Sheesh... I really am a geek.

[Nextlevel]

X-box

Hi, Nextlevel, and welcome to Club Parasound and the Guide! :banana: Great pictures there, is that an X-Box in silver? Funny... I looked at your second picture first off, and thought, "why does he have dual television screens on top of the cabinet with funky aspect ratios that split the picture into two?" Then I realized, ahh... those are them new-fangled inventions called WINDOWS. Sheesh... I really am a geek.

Yes, its a silver X-box. I dismantled my X-box and took it to my local car dealer. No problem, they gave it an excellent finish.

I include a link to a website in Norway where there are some more pictures (and norwegian text) of my set-up.

http://avforum.no/minhjemmekino/show.php/Nobleman

Nextlevel :T

[bhuskins]

Excellent setup! The Norwegian site really shows off the detail that went into the gear selection. Nice equipment list!.

For those that want the rough English version, here it is:

http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2Favforum.no%2Fminhjemmekino%2Fshow.php%2FNobleman&type=text&text=&from=nor&to=eng

Brent Huskins
Media Design
HTGuide Sponsor

[Peter Nielsen]

Excellent setup! The Norwegian site really shows off the detail that went into the gear selection. Nice equipment list!.

Yes, very nice. With the exception of the C1, it is the exact same Parasound setup that I'm using :B

However, I'm VERY surprised about the use of the Behringer crossover for the main speakers. Why would anybody want to spend $2400 for a Bryston 10B-PRO if a $90 Behringer CX2310 works just as fine? Is the Behringer good enough for the C1/JC1 combo? Is a Bryston crossover overkill? Comments, please, before I waste (?) my money on this Canadian piece of gear :W

Peter

[Nextlevel]

Crossover

Yes, very nice. With the exception of the C1, it is the exact same Parasound setup that I'm using :B

However, I'm VERY surprised about the use of the Behringer crossover for the main speakers. Why would anybody want to spend $2400 for a Bryston 10B-PRO if a $90 Behringer CX2310 works just as fine? Is the Behringer good enough for the C1/JC1 combo? Is a Bryston crossover overkill? Comments, please, before I waste (?) my money on this Canadian piece of gear :W

FWIW, for those like me that understand Norwegian, here's the direct link http://avforum.no/minhjemmekino/show.php/Nobleman

Peter

When I got hold of the Patos Symphonic 5 prototypes I knew that I had to use some very good amps with a lot of power.
Obviously I choose the JC1. These Speakers have some very good bass elements but they are are hard to accomodate. When 2 of the 4ohm elements are wired in parallell the load can drop under 2 ohm, more likely to 1,4 ohm according to the manufacturer.
This means maximum more than 1200W for the amp feeding the bass and maximum 800W for the amp feeding the midrange and tweeter (4 ohm)

The JC1's functions extremly well under these conditions. As stated earlier the bass is hammer hard, midrange and tweeter reproduces an enormous headroom.

I knew a had to get hold of an active crossover. I looked at Pass Labs which had one at 8.000$ :M :M . Too expencive, however one of the employees of Parasound Norway said that I should check out this Behringer crossover which he was using.
The price for this was redicously low :W :W , about 400$ in Norway. However it have balanced in/outputs. Behringer products are normally used in the PA industry where the pricing level is quite different. I'm using this crossover as a 2way crossover where the bass is crossed over at 60Hz.

My experice is that it functions very well, good S/N ratio.
My advice, try it!!
It's so cheap that you have nothing to loose!!!

NextLevel :T

[Peter Nielsen]

FWIW, the reason audiophiles rate the Bryston 10B so highly is because it does not incorporate ICs... Also, the unit is very versatile allowing for selection between 6/12/18dB per octave (or 24dB/octave in the LR version).

As always, the FUD bites. I can't justify using PA equipment in my "HiFi" setup... :cry: :roll: :M :rofl:

Peter

[Nextlevel]

FWIW, the reason audiophiles rate the Bryston 10B so highly is because it does not incorporate ICs... Also, the unit is very versatile allowing for selection between 6/12/18dB per octave (or 24dB/octave in the LR version).

As always, the FUD bites. I can't justify using PA equipment in my "HiFi" setup... :cry: :roll: :M :rofl:

Peter

This is probably a very good product .
When looking at the specs, be aware that it does not have that many crossover frequencies to choose from: 70, 100, and 140 (for bass).
Have you checked out PassLabs XVR1?. This has all the features you would need.

Just a small clarification, The Behringer is not a PA equipment.

Nextlevel :T

[Peter Nielsen]

When looking at the specs, be aware that it does not have that many crossover frequencies to choose from: 70, 100, and 140 (for bass).

The 10B standard has 12 frequencies: 70 Hz, 100 Hz, 140 Hz, 200 Hz, 300 Hz, 450 Hz, 700 Hz, 1 kHz, 1.4 kHz, 2kHz, 3 kHz, 4.5 kHz

There is also the 10B-SUB version with different frequencies more suited for subwoofers: 40 Hz, 50 Hz, 60 Hz, 70 Hz, 80 Hz, 90 Hz, 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 250 Hz, 300 Hz, 400 Hz, 500 Hz

Bryston can customize the 10B for any frequencies you want, and what's even better: I found the 10B-STD, 10B-SUB and 10B-LR Crossovers Frequency/Resistor Tables PDF document on Bryston's website that lists the exact resistor values to replace in order to customize any or all of the 12 frequencies of the 10B crossover by replacing internal resistors (1% metal film). Very nice for DIY:ers! Kudos to Bryston for providing this valuable info! :T

FWIW, the "PRO" version is XLR. Non-pro means RCA. Also, I did some research that might interest prospective customers: The PRO (XLR) version is available in black color only. The RCA version is available in either black or silver.

Regarding the PassLabs XVR1 -- is it available with balanced XLRs? I did have a look at their webpage in the past, but it only shows and mentions RCA interconnects, which is why I disregarded it in 5 seconds... :roll:

For my Maggies (MG20.1) I need to be able to set 90-150Hz@6dB/octave for the low range and 200-300Hz@6dB/octave for the high range as per Magnepan's specifications.

Peter

[Nextlevel]

Crossovers

The 10B standard has 12 frequencies: 70 Hz, 100 Hz, 140 Hz, 200 Hz, 300 Hz, 450 Hz, 700 Hz, 1 kHz, 1.4 kHz, 2kHz, 3 kHz, 4.5 kHz

There is also the 10B-SUB version with different frequencies more suited for subwoofers: 40 Hz, 50 Hz, 60 Hz, 70 Hz, 80 Hz, 90 Hz, 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 250 Hz, 300 Hz, 400 Hz, 500 Hz

Bryston can customize the 10B for any frequencies you want, and what's even better: I found the 10B-STD, 10B-SUB and 10B-LR Crossovers Frequency/Resistor Tables PDF document on Bryston's website that lists the exact resistor values to replace in order to customize any or all of the 12 frequencies of the 10B crossover by replacing internal resistors (1% metal film). Very nice for DIY:ers! Kudos to Bryston for providing this valuable info! :T

FWIW, the "PRO" version is XLR. Non-pro means RCA. Also, I did some research that might interest prospective customers: The PRO (XLR) version is available in black color only. The RCA version is available in either black or silver.

Regarding the PassLabs XVR1 -- is it available with balanced XLRs? I did have a look at their webpage in the past, but it only shows and mentions RCA interconnects, which is why I disregarded it in 5 seconds... :roll:

For my Maggies (MG20.1) I need to be able to set 90-150Hz@6dB/octave for the low range and 200-300Hz@6dB/octave for the high range as per Magnepan's specifications.

Peter

Peter,

When you are tweaking a system it is important to have many options available unless you know the caracteristics of the speakers in the room you are going to use them. Do you know which crossover frequencies you are going to use?
The Standard Bryston Crossover has only 3 frequencies which can be used to crossover the bass: 70, 100 and 140. You should maybe choose the sub version if this has more options.
Looking at the specs it seems that both the Bryston and the Behringer uses a 24 dB/octave, state-variable Linkwitz-Riley filters for precise frequency separation.
So why the silly price change?
The Passlabs can take both XLR's and RCA's and is a High-end product with a separate power supply. Looks very good http://www.passlabs.com/preamps/xvr1.htm :

NextLevel :T

[Peter Nielsen]

Looking at the specs it seems that both the Bryston and the Behringer uses a 24 dB/octave, state-variable Linkwitz-Riley filters for precise frequency separation.
So why the silly price change?

Audiophiles say that the Bryston is so much better because it does not use integrated circuits... I think another reason is because the Bryston is hand built. (BTW, the 10B model has been around since the early 1990's, so it is a very well proven and popular design, to say the least).

Note that the Bryston requires a separate type model if you want the 24dB/octavel Linkwitz-Riley. The 10B-LR model uses Linkwitz-Riley filters with plugin modules only. The 10B-STD and 10B-SUB models, on the other hand, let you select between 6, 12, or 18dB/octave and lets you choose between 12 preset frequencies (which can be modified by replacing internal resistors).

Another less expensive audiophile crossover alternative is the one made by Marchand Electronics. It sells for around $500 as a kit. They also have a vaccuum-tube model that sells for $1400. These are probably great crossovers, and I don't think you can't beat the price/quality ratio.

My Magnepan dealer recommends using the stock frequencies of 140Hz for the low pass and 300Hz for the high pass (6dB/octave). This is probably what I will start out using and when I find time to do so, I will eventually use a spectrum analyzer and modify the 10B to acomodate for the exact frequency that fits my room. (I realize that the Behringer would not even work for me, since I need 6dB/octave filters).

Peter

[Peter Nielsen]

I just came to think about the "zero-formers" and that they might be beneficial to your 1.4 ohm low impedance system:

http://www.zeroimpedance.com

Peter

[Nextlevel]

I just came to think about the "zero-formers" and that they might be beneficial to your 1.4 ohm low impedance system:

http://www.zeroimpedance.com

Peter

Thanks Peter, but I think I will use as is. The JC1's functions very well.

Have you ordered the Bryston cross over yet? If so, what priced did you have to pay?
I'm also checking what other alternatives I have for a crossover. The problem is that it's hard to find someone who is willing to lend you a balanced crossover.

Nextlevel :T

[Peter Nielsen]

Have you ordered the Bryston cross over yet? If so, what priced did you have to pay?

I haven't ordered it yet. The best price I have found is $2,250+tax. If somebody knows a better deal, please let me know!

FYI: If you don't care about scratches, you can get them off eBay for around $1,000. There is currently an 10B PRO (XLR) for sale on eBay. (Note that Bryston has a 20 year warranty that is transferrable to the new owner).

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

Peter you should check out the Marchand XM-44, way more versatile then the Bryston. It will do BSC, Time Delay, Asymmetric Filters and any order you want up to 48db. I bought the kit fro around $400 and could not be pleased more with the sound.

[Peter Nielsen]

Peter you should check out the Marchand XM-44, way more versatile then the Bryston. It will do BSC, Time Delay, Asymmetric Filters and any order you want up to 48db. I bought the kit fro around $400 and could not be pleased more with the sound.

I have checked it out. At $400, the Marchand offers great value for the money. However, there are some things that I like better about the Bryston:

• 12 crossover frequencies @ 6/12/18dB that can be selected on-the fly on the front panel. Great for fine tuning and tweaking! (Marchand requires that you change a plugin module)
• A minimum of wires inside the box. All audio circuits are on the printed ciruit board (see the attached pictures)
• Fully discrete unit (no integrated circuits)
• Professional looking box, only 1U high

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

I'm sure the Bryston is a fine unit, I guess it really depends on how much versatility you need, I'm a big fan of 24db LR circuits and the IC that the Marchand uses are the top of the line BB op amps, discrete or not I believe both are op-amp based circuits so I don’t see much benefit. I couldn’t tell if the Bryston has separate gain controls for each driver, if not that would be a big problem. The Marchand unit is more of a DIY kind of thing I guess, it's easily modified and upgraded to that latest op-amp technology.

For the high price of the Bryston I would consider dropping a little more money and going all the way to the top and getting a DEQX with room correction and stay in the digital domain where this kind of processing can really do it’s magic.

Good luck with your choice; I personally would never use a passive network again and think any decent active network will do a far better job then the passive version.

[Peter Nielsen]

For the high price of the Bryston I would consider dropping a little more money and going all the way to the top and getting a DEQX with room correction and stay in the digital domain where this kind of processing can really do it’s magic.

Hmm... very interesting. That looks like a wonderful product!!! I will have a closer look at that unit! Are the DEQX D/A converters a par (or better) than the ones in the C2?

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

I think there all top of the line 24/192 A/D's, I'll have to look on the web site to be sure. Have you checked out the web page? These are supposed to be the bees knees as far as Digital Active crossovers are concerned, NHT uses a stripped down version on their new speakers and some other manufacturers are starting to use them as well. From what I understand, it's on par with the Tact RCS in the room correction area and much cleaner and more HT friendly in the digital crossover area then the Behringer DCX2496.

They aren’t cheep though, about $3500 with some necessary options.

DEQX

http://www.deqx.com/dsp-product/pdc26.html

[Peter Nielsen]

They aren’t cheep though, about $3500 with some necessary options.

Yeah, close to $4000 with the Reference mic, XLR outputs, and rack kit.

However, I'm questioning how well the DEQX will integrate with the C2 when interconnected digitally only. Does the digital output of the C2 relay "volume information" etc? (I'm not familiar with the digital audio standards so I don't have a clue...)

Personally I would totally love the calibration features that the DEQX offers! Getting all that information into a computer for processing would be awesome!

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

Digital volume control allows digital sources to be input directly according to the web site. Should be a simple straight forward install

[Peter Nielsen]

Digital volume control allows digital sources to be input directly according to the web site. Should be a simple straight forward install

But I don't want that. I would still want to use my C2 as volume control, etc...

Peter

[Kingdaddy]

AFAIK you would still use the C2 as master volume, but you would have to ask Andre over at e-speakers to be sure, he should know.

http://www.e-speakers.com/

[ralniv]

Time to get this thread back on topic...

The gear: Halo C2/A51, Exactpower EP15A (Brick Wall PW2RAUD behind cabinet) and HD DVR cable box. Added an Oppo OPDV971H DVD player since picture was taken.


The cabinet: Studiotech U-22 (black with metal mesh door inserts)

[Chris D]

Nice, ralniv! I'm in Newport Beach right now, headed to San Diego tomorrow.