General question about Parasound

[CPALIU]

Sorry for my idiotic question, but I'm fairly new to home theater and have never heard of several of the brands that are being discussed on the many Home Theater forums yet. My question is about the brand Parasound itself. Would they be considered a high, mid or low end manufacture? if you were to rank them with the likes of Rotel, Mcintosh, Levinson where would it fall? Also how well do the Parasound amps work with B&W speakers?

[Chris D]

hiya, Cpaliu, thanks for stopping by Club Parasound! Parasound would be considered a cost-effective, high-end manufacturer, of the same general "class" as the other models you mentioned, although I have opinions of each of those, with strengths and weaknesses. As far as B&W, several of our Club members and owners do use B&W speakers, and enjoy the combination. Feel free to poke around here, explore, and ask any questions you have. You'll find lots of discussions here about various speaker combos and how Parasound is regarded.

[Peter Nielsen]

if you were to rank them with the likes of Rotel, Mcintosh, Levinson where would it fall? Also how well do the Parasound amps work with B&W speakers?

I would rank them with Rotel, because like rotel they outsource the manufacturing process. (For instance the Parasound Halo amps are manufactured in Taiwan).
McIntosh and Levinson are in a different rank since they do not outsource the manufacturing process. The inevitable result is that they cost more to produce. You can debate whether the American assembly line is better than the Taiwanese line... There are certainly pros and cons. Cosmetic issues seem to be more of a problem with electronics produced in the USA. Stuff from Japan/Taiwan/Korea usually looks flawless without any cosmetic issues, but somtimes it's sloppily put together on the inside. Caveat emptor.

Peter

[J.H.]

B&K and ATI are designed and built in the USA are not overly expensive. I have a B&K processor and its amazing and its disigned and built right in Buffalo NY.

[kfr01]

CPALIU:

I think the answer to this questions depends on who you ask. :-)

Some of my friends (HTIAB folks) think Parasound is too boutiquey to make sense.
Others, who have been in the audio game for longer, respect Parasound, but wouldn't classify it as "true" high-end.

My response. Does it matter? Parasound, in my opinion, provides objective performance indistinguishable from higher priced options (for all practical purposes). On the other hand, Parasound is "high end" enough to provide a level of refinement and flexibilty of separates beyond what one can purchase at Best Buy. In short, I think the Parasound price point makes sense. The one-liner I most associate with Parasound: "Spending more will yield little performance increase."

This might just be what I tell myself to hold off upgraditis, but nevertheless... :-)