C3, HDP-70, and HDR-77 Scrapped!

[Blindamood]

Wow...just saw this notice posted on another forum....

http://www.parasound.com/new.php

Sad, indeed.

[jnwarner]

Just saw that myself, as I occasionally to go Parasound.com and snoop around. One can only hope that perhaps when the economy gets back on track Parasound can jump back in. Personally for me, I don't need a processor with 7.1, but I was looking forward to HDMI switching.

Bummer.

Jim

[Chris D]

Re-posted direct from Parasound's website:

[brodricj]

Hardly comes as a surprise, and justifies giving up my long wait for the C3 and buying the Halcro SSP. Too bad Parasound didn't take the C1/C2 to the limits of what it could do before they discontinued it. Much of what's in the current Halcro is also in the C1/C2, and the Halcro is still selling but the C1/C2 are not. Parasound need a theater processor in their product line up. I would have thought it a lot less technically difficult to put a HDMI 1.3 card in C1/C2 and at least have it do LPCM and video pass-through, compared to developing a whole new platform. And let's face it if C3 did come out tomorrow it would already be out-of-date with the emergence of HDMI 1.4 and 3D. But stepping back and looking at things pragmatically Parasound have done the right thing here.

[Chris D]

I received a really nice personal letter from Richard about all this right before the announcement came out. Sounds like Parasound is in a good financial place, so I don't think we need to worry about that.

Disappointing announcement, to be sure. I was one of those that was planning on the C3 for my own system. I've been thinking about it, and in the end I think it's the right decision for Richard and Parasound to make, if one or more factors might have applied, (and this is me just speculating here) if (1) development costs might have started to exceed recoupment funds from anticipated sales, (2) the end product may not have been meeting Parasound quality control standards, and/or (3) by the time these products hit the market, they may not have been cutting-edge technology anymore, with HDMI 1.4 and other techs coming along.

Unfortunately, this does leave Parasound without any multichannel processor/receivers at all in this market, which I know is where they do NOT want to be! Knowing the Parasound guys, they have got to be just devastated by making this decision, but I think it was the wise and upstanding thing to do, so I'm looking forward to what they might come out with next. Hopefully, we will end up getting another multichannel pre/pro from Parasound sometime in the near future! I still want one.

[JustinGN]

I know I was looking forward to the C3 myself, actually. I really wanted to jump into Parasound gear for my 68x B&W speakers, and was even willing to buy a DVDO or Lumagen Proc to get around the 3D issue if the need arised.

Oh well. Guess it's back to drooling over Onkyo's upcoming Processor offerings.

[r100gs]

I like their honesty and apology. They did not want to put a POS out on the market that would tarnish their name.

[cameronl]

dam!

[sikoniko]

better to pull the products and try again another day than sink with the ship!

[audioqueso]

You know, I'm curious... the C3 back panel looked A LOT liked Emotiva's UMC-1. Emotiva is an OEM supplier. Could it be that because the UMC-1 couldn't get straighted out, Parasound pulled the plug? I may be completely off, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was something related. Maybe?

That sucks though. The C3 was my only other choice since the UMC-1 didn't deliver.

[JustinGN]

You know, I'm curious... the C3 back panel looked A LOT liked Emotiva's UMC-1. Emotiva is an OEM supplier. Could it be that because the UMC-1 couldn't get straighted out, Parasound pulled the plug? I may be completely off, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was something related. Maybe?

That sucks though. The C3 was my only other choice since the UMC-1 didn't deliver.

Going off topic a bit, that is a constant remark I keep hearing about the UMC-1. Even after all the delays and two firmware updates since, the UMC-1 still isn't up to snuff? How so?

[audioqueso]

Imagine playing a CD, pressing "Next Track", and that half a second of silence causes the unit to lose the analog or digital signal. Play a DVD, press Audio to change from DD to DTS, same thing. Apply the same when switching source. You get the picture. There are other problems, but that is the biggest one for me. It was a PITA to live with.
IF Parasound was really using the UMC-1 as a base platform, I would imagine they would not want that kind of instability for their customers, and maybe considered it a lost cause. Maybe...

[blownrx7]

Good Decision!

While certainly disheartening, I would rather have nothing at all than an unfulfilling piece of equipment. There are plenty of other very capable processors that can fill the bill - Denon or Anthem to name just two.
Yes, not Parasound but let's face it, who wants a buggy product that would eventually have to be abandoned because it singlehandedly brought the company down...

It sounds like the circumstances that led up to the C3 cancellation are the same circumstances that brought the demise of the C1/C2. Hmmm.

[JustinGN]

Imagine playing a CD, pressing "Next Track", and that half a second of silence causes the unit to lose the analog or digital signal. Play a DVD, press Audio to change from DD to DTS, same thing. Apply the same when switching source. You get the picture. There are other problems, but that is the biggest one for me. It was a PITA to live with.
IF Parasound was really using the UMC-1 as a base platform, I would imagine they would not want that kind of instability for their customers, and maybe considered it a lost cause. Maybe...

Oh, so basically it's my Marantz 6003 then? =P Makes sense, as I'm looking to replace it for identical reasons.

[audioqueso]

Oh, so basically it's my Marantz 6003 then? =P Makes sense, as I'm looking to replace it for identical reasons.

Really? Are the X003 series that bad? Don't mean to go off topic, but I went back to my 7002 because it works. It stable and switches very quickly.

[JustinGN]

Really? Are the X003 series that bad? Don't mean to go off topic, but I went back to my 7002 because it works. It stable and switches very quickly.

It's pretty bad if you actually want to take advantage of the HDMI conversion feature. Anything from an analog source (Component, S-Video, Composite) will cause digital snow in the HDMI signal and ultimately lose the connection altogether if high whites or dark blacks are shown (Such as explosions in a game or movie, or a quick transition to a black loading screen). I've also had the HDMI connectors fail to lock on to AC-3/DD and DTS soundtracks over HDMI if the receiver wasn't on before the source component.

Marantz's response was "it's a known issue", and their solution was for me to spend another $1250 on the X004 series. Yeah, not happening :\

[audioqueso]

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. My SR7002 had problems at first, a few firmware upgrades helped, but then ultimately I found out that it took firmware upgrade + good quality HDMI cables to resolve all the issues. This is off-topic, but feel free to PM me if you'd like.

[Lex]

I would remind everyone of the Proceed AVP processor problems years ago. It was never a good product, and utlimately a company with FINE amplifiers started by Madrigal Audio (Maker of Levinson) went bust as it was absorbed by Harman group, and I think in good part due to the failure of the AVP in the marketplace. So, they probably learned a lesson from that as well.

[srb]

Emotiva is an OEM supplier.

To my knowledge, Emotiva is not an OEM supplier or manufacturer. Emotiva buys from a Chinese OEM manufacturer, as do Outlaw, Sherwood and others.

Each buyer may have some design input on the details, menuing and features for their 'flavor' of the OEM product, and if there were physical similarities between Emotiva and Parasound, that may mean that they were both buying from the same OEM manufacturer.

Steve

[Le Caribou]

does Anybody had news about the new products like BD player or CD player, etc...?

[Chris D]

No, although I've been quite curious. The sense I get from Richard's letter is that we're going to see even less previewed, or leaked ahead of time, of new products. Instead, we may or may not see new products just suddenly arrive. I would not be surprised if one of these days, a Z-system CD player just suddenly pops up in the lineup, or something.

Honestly, though, (and this is nothing more than my own personal guess) if we've had these problems with the new HDMI 1.3 receivers, we're not going to see a BD-3. You never know, though!!!

[Peter Nielsen]

Honestly, though, (and this is nothing more than my own personal guess) if we've had these problems with the new HDMI 1.3 receivers, we're not going to see a BD-3. You never know, though!!!

You never know. It's too bad about the D3 though. This probably made Parasound even more careful... It would be really nice if they could put the Oppo BDP-83SE in a nice Parasound case. You can't get much better than that, and I bet there are people would would be happy to pay premium for a BDP-83SE with XLRs.

Theta is selling the regular BDP-83 ($588 MSRP) for $3,000 and Lexicon is selling it for $3,500. If Parasound had the BDP-83SE ($899 MSRP) for $2500 it would be an "easy" sell in comparison... I wonder if anyone has talked to Richard about this possiblity?

[Chris D]

Good question.

FWIW, I still own (and use) my D3, really as an audio player. I'm not going to scrap it until Parasound puts out a universal BD player that will also play all my audio discs.

I could MAYBE be talked into such a player from another manufacturer as well, but it'd have to be very good, for a reasonable price, and look good in my rack. Until then, my D3 and PS3 work just fine.

[Peter Nielsen]

I could MAYBE be talked into such a player from another manufacturer as well, but it'd have to be very good, for a reasonable price, and look good in my rack. Until then, my D3 and PS3 work just fine.

You already have black equipment in your rack, so unless you insist on XLR outputs, the BDP-83 ($499 plus $89 for RS-232) would work well. AFAIK it plays all formats including SACD. It even does SACD over HDMI - finally SACD digital all the way woo-hoo! :T

[Chris D]

Ehhhhhh.... don't tempt me. I'm actually about to head out on another "extended business trip", so I'm going to be holding off on upgrades for quite some time, until I get back. It's possible the entire industry could have made major changes by my return.

[Peter Nielsen]

Yeah, the Oppo 83 has been around for a year already, so I would not be surprised to see a new model around the corner, although they did release a new firmware recently (May 5th).

[hamtor]

Good question.

FWIW, I still own (and use) my D3, really as an audio player. I'm not going to scrap it until Parasound puts out a universal BD player that will also play all my audio discs.

I also use my D3 as an audio player in my livingroom stereo system, along with JC1 and JC2, and will not be "kicked out" before Parasound puts out an cd or discplayer in the JC-line.