It's Official....

[mitch57]

Okay all you Parasoundites... It's official! I am now the proud owner of a brand spanking new Halo A51. After almost a week of audtitioning this phenominal amp I have decided to keep it.

My Rotel RMB-1095 is up for sale and I am now a new Parasound Halo owner. I will post pictures in the next few days or so.

I'm looking forward to all the great info on Parasound gear all of you will be sharing on this great forum.

Let's here it for Parasound!!!

[mitch57]

I'm disappointed! :cry: Not one person has welcomed me to the Halo/Parasound forum.

I was expecting a warm welcome. Are you all disappointed that I have made the switch from Rotel to Halo?

[mariachi]

NO. Congratulations. I made the switch from the Rotel 1075 to the Halo A52 and I'm happy with my decision. Welcome!

-Vic

[nicholtl]

Welcome, welcome! Sorry about the delayed welcome. Sometimes this forum is DEAD.

[Peter Nielsen]

I'm disappointed! :cry: Not one person has welcomed me to the Halo/Parasound forum.

Mitch, you should probably have re-registered under a new name or something. :B

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the post counter that tells us all if you're a newbie or not. People get their welcome right after making their FIRST post. Since nobody can follow all posts of every user, it will naturally be the post counter that decides if you're new or not... (You SHOULD have gotten your forum welcome by the Club Rotel people in November 2004 when you made your first post. Maybe the Club Rotel people didn't treat you right back then?)

[mitch57]

They probably did welcome me. I just don't remember. I'm just tooting my horn about my new toy.

Peter,

Did you get your JC1s yet? How do you like them? Will you post a review and comparrison of them compared to your A51? It would be interesting to know how the two compare.

[Chris D]

Congrats, Mitch! (sometimes I'm flying and can't check the forum for a day or two) Good for you! :banana:

[Chris D]

With your title, at first I thought you were going to announce a new Parasound product release or something! But hey, personal toys are good stuff too.

[mitch57]

Chris,

Are you in the Navy? Do you fly out of Whidbey Island? Are you a pilot or part of a flight crew? I'm a retired Chief. I retired in 1997 out of Pearl Harbor, HI.

[Chris D]

Hi, Mitch, or should I say, CHIEF!!! I'm a C-17 pilot in the AF--McChord AFB near Tacoma.

[mitch57]

How do you like the Air Force? How long have you been in?

[Chris D]

Like it just fine, for now. Been in 8 years, so I'm coming up to the point where I need to make some big decisions about the career. Not quite sure what I'll be doing yet, but we'll see.

[mitch57]

Yah. I remember going through the same situation. I have no regrets. Your almost half way there already. If you choose to stay the time will just "Fly" right on by. Just bat your eyes three or four times and you'll be retiring from the Air Force.

[NMyTree]

Congratulations Mitch!

Welcome to the Parasound Owners Fraternity! :B

All I have at this time, is the Halo A21; so I'm not really a full-fledged Parasound guy yet. But I do love the A21 8)

[Chris D]

Tony, what do you mean, you're not "full-fledged" yet? Wow, it doesn't take any more than just owning one Parasound piece of equipment, much less something as nice and high-end as the A21!!!

[Peter Nielsen]

Tony, what do you mean, you're not "full-fledged" yet? Wow, it doesn't take any more than just owning one Parasound piece of equipment, much less something as nice and high-end as the A21!!!

:yesnod: The A21 is "more" high-end than the A51, although I would like to delete the input attenuator pots on the A21. The A51 is more "clean" in that sense. However, I like the interior of the A21 a lot better. They should have made the A51 a one-circuit board design :roll: Oh well, I guess that's why they made the JC1... :B

Peter

[nba]

Hello

I am a new member of the forum, this being my first post, that after following for some time the forum I felt I should introduce myself.
I do not own any Parasound equipment yet, seems nobody from audiogon wants to sell me his C2, but I hope I get to own one soon.
I have start putting together my HT for some time now and it is only missing a decent pre/pro before it reaches stage 1. For that job I have the C2 at the top of my list with the Rotels next while waiting to see how the new Arcam avp700 might perform.

Anyhow I just wanted to say hi to this great forum.
Niko

[Peter Nielsen]

Tervetuloa, Niko! Is there a Finnish retailer of Parasound, or would you need to import your C2?

[NMyTree]

Tony, what do you mean, you're not "full-fledged" yet? Wow, it doesn't take any more than just owning one Parasound piece of equipment, much less something as nice and high-end as the A21!!!

I just meant that I don't have a full compliment of Parasound gear, or complete Parasound lineup.

Of course when I get the Halo C2, P2 and the ever elusive Halo Universal Disc Player, then I'll have the full Parasound lineup I desire.

[NMyTree]

:yesnod: The A21 is "more" high-end than the A51, although I would like to delete the input attenuator pots on the A21.
Peter

Peter,

May I ask what the "input attenuator pots" are? Are they the "Gain" knobs on the back of the Halo A21? Are they a bad thing?

[Peter Nielsen]

May I ask what the "input attenuator pots" are? Are they the "Gain" knobs on the back of the Halo A21? Are they a bad thing?

Yes, they are gain controls. IMHO anything in the way of the signal path is a bad thing :W

Peter

[nicholtl]

You guys DO turn the gain knobs all the way, right? That's what we're supposed to do.

[NMyTree]

You guys DO turn the gain knobs all the way, right? That's what we're supposed to do.

Yeah, that's what I do.

I was just wondering if Peter was refering to those Gain knobs and why he doesn't like them.

[Peter Nielsen]

I was just wondering if Peter was refering to those Gain knobs and why he doesn't like them.

Even if the gain control is turned all the way, the pot will always present a risk of poor contact. A potentiometer is an electro-mechanical device. With a brand new unit, this is rarely a problem but after 10 years I'm sure some owners will remove the pots because they caused problems. Some users may replace the pots, others might use contact spray to fix the problem. Some will never experience problems since it is dependent on factors of the ambient environment. Savvy audio enthusiasts know about the all too common "scratching volume control" problem. Personally, I opt to have no pots in the signal path.

Some people may also correctly claim that the pots make the units more fragile. They just present one more component that may break (easily, if hit by force) and cause the corresponding channel to go dead. Of course the "hitting" part only applies to people that handle their equipment in a rough manner, or clumsy people :B , so I would hope this excludes most of us :W. Nevertheless, it is something worth considering, especially when it comes to equipment for professional use, which IMHO the Halo easily could qualify for thanks to the solid build quality.

Anyway, to make things clear: I don't like the pot because it's a totally unnecessary component -- at least to us C1/C2 owners. (Parasound added the pots to make the A21 more versatile and compatible with preamps that require an amp with gain controls).

Peter

[Chris D]

Hi, Niko, welcome to Club Parasound and the Guide! :banana:

Peter, you're right, I personally don't know of anybody that does utilize the gain controls.

[nba]

Hi

thank you for your welcomes.

Peter, I will need to import it myself, thats the reason I try to get hold of a used unit from audiogon. Unfortunately and surprisingly there is no Parasound in this country. Also prices in europe are ridicoulusly expensive.

Niko

[Peter Nielsen]

Peter, I will need to import it myself, thats the reason I try to get hold of a used unit from audiogon. Unfortunately and surprisingly there is no Parasound in this country.

Yes, that IS very surprising, especially considering that the C2 is made by Flextronics in Finland...

Peter