Parasound, CEDIA, and new gear

[Chris D]

Worried that we haven't heard as much from Parasound this past year or so? I was out of the country last year, and missed CEDIA 2010. We just just got the Zphono USB press release, but hadn't heard more, and Parasound wasn't on the exhibitor list this year again for CEDIA 2011.

I hadn't touched base with the guys before this year's EXPO, but I was walking by the KEF booth, and did a doubletake on what I saw there. I also ran into Paul and Richard from Parasound over the day, (GREAT guys) and got some more scoops.

I think we're going to all be VERY happy people. More soon. In the meantime, here's some visual teasers:

[HDBLU]

that stuff look awesome.

[Chris D]

well, now, let's see what we've got here. We've got some mighy fine things about to come our way. Let's start with a couple of CD/MP3 players, smallest to biggest and the best. Please excuse the file hacking I had to do to get some of this PRELIMINARY (emphasis) info up here for you guys:

[Chris D]

And now the granddaddy of them all:

[Chris D]

For those who have forgotten, take a look at the sticky thread here about wish list items that we'd like to see from Parasound. You'll see that for quite some time, we've been asking for a CD player in the Zcustom line. Our requests have not fallen on deaf ears! Cool features on it, too, like the ability to play MP3's from a connected portable player. Notice that it's even got volume functions, so you don't even need a zPre2 if you don't want?

That's going to be a PERFECT addition to my office "Zetup" that I use!

And the CD1... WHOA. The more I hear about it, this thing is a freakin' MONSTER. It's so good to talk to the Parasound guys and hear that not only is the company business going strong, but they're happy and excited about the new products that they're developing. While that means that we will likely not see a new processor or BD player anytime soon, it DOES mean that we're getting some AWESOME gear made available to us as consumers. Not just gear that is being made because they can, or because it fills a market niche, but the kind of gear that these guys are making because it's what THEY would want to own and use for themselves.

Now that's cool, and fortunate when a company is strong enough that it can orient itself to that kind of business. It's quite encouraging, when you come across people in business that are dedicated to making quality products, not just pushing out whatever they can to make a buck.

So this CD1... I didn't see this one coming. Since the D3 was such a good audio disc player (and still is... it's still my multiformat player in my own system, and companies still use it in their reference demo systems in shows) I wasn't expecting to see another audio disc player. This thing is simply awesome. A few "picoseconds" of jitter? Really? Previous Halo units like my C1 were developed in Norway, well this one's Danish. From the sounds of this design, it's going to put out one heck of a sound from plain redbook CD's. The proof will certainly be in the pudding, though.

While the price is quite a shocker ($5k retail) and a bit more boutique than Parasound's typical pricing, I have to wonder/speculate if even at that price it'll be a value for it's supposed performance. Due to all the developmental costs, apparently even at that price point, Parasound isn't making close to the same margin as their other items. We'll see if it does indeed live up to expectations. If it does, though, it could be the last disc player anybody could ever need, and the CD1, JC2, and a pair of JC1's could be the finest digital audio performance available on the market today without blowing 6 figures. (assuming one also uses a good pair of speakers) Seriously, since the JC1 and the JC2 are already far at the top of their class, if the CD1 were to do the same, one couldn't ask for more in a system. Add a JC3 and a high-end turntable, (the only other item Parasound doesn't make of those components) and you'd also add analog nirvana.

Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear. Should I really even tempt myself to consier adding one of these babies to my own system? While my pocketbook isn't deep enough for JC1's, (or a JC2 to this point) I think my A21 and C1 would still do quite a respectable job, mating up with the C1 for a mega Halo setup.

But it doesn't stop there... rumor is, there's even more items coming in the future from Parasound. While I can't discuss one item I heard about in particular, I'll just hint that it's three simple letters.

Your thoughts, fellow Club members?

[hamtor]

Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear. Should I really even tempt myself to consier adding one of these babies to my own system? While my pocketbook isn't deep enough for JC1's, (or a JC2 to this point) I think my A21 and C1 would still do quite a respectable job, mating up with the C1 for a mega Halo setup.

But it doesn't stop there... rumor is, there's even more items coming in the future from Parasound. While I can't discuss one item I heard about in particular, I'll just hint that it's three simple letters.

Your thoughts, fellow Club members?

Hello Chris

Go for it, dig as deep as you can. It is worth it. :T

I have in my livingroom JC1, JC2 (thanks Peter) and D3 on B&W speakers. That sounds great.

I am waiting for a disc-player in the JC-series and hope that the rumors you have heard is about somthing like that.

[Chris D]

hamtor, actually, this player, the CD1, would be the "JC-series performance-level" disc player that you're looking for. It's not going to get much better than this. I'll be packaged in a Halo casing. I'm pretty sure the reason it's not going to be labeled in the actual "JC series" is that John Curl (hence the "JC") didn't participate in the design of this player. I don't know that John Curl does anything with disc players, actually.

So I know this player has been proposed for a while. Given the history of the original D1, the C3, and ideas of the BD1, I honestly wasn't sure if this one was going to make it to martket, so I'm indeed caught by surprise. But we'll likely even see this by the end of the year!

The more we look into this, the more interesting it gets. Richard Schram has been quoted elsewhere as saying that "the CD1 will be for people that always wanted the performance of dCS, but couldn't afford it". So, looking into dCS offerings, they've got some stuff that appears to be rather amazing. For instance, check out this Stereophile review (not by Kal) of their "CHEAP" Puccini disc player, at $17,000. (before you add the $5,000 U-Clock) *IF* the CD1 matches the performance of dCS players that only get more expensive than $17k, and *IF* that performance really does give *THE* best CD performance possible, then we could be getting a real deal at $5k.

http://www.stereophile.com/hirezplayers/dcs_puccini_sacd_playback_system

Oh, and note that the Sterephile review of the dCS player used a Parasound JC2 and JC1 amps!!! Like I said, can you imagine pairing those with a CD1? Could be 2-channel audio equipment nirvana.

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/

[Chris D]

Well now, looks like new stuff is showing up on Parasound's website now. Check it out: http://parasound.com/

They haven't put out an official press release on the Zcd yet, but it's there, hopefully shipping in the next few weeks: http://parasound.com/ParasoundZ/zcd.php
Some review snippets of the JC3: http://parasound.com/halo/jc3.php?rev

And by chance, is ANYONE going to RMAF in Denver just over a week from now? http://parasound.com/richard.php I grew up just outside of Denver, and would love to go back for family visits and RMAF, but I'm already going to be travelling through there in Nov and Dec, so it's out for me this year. Looks like there's going to be some serious Parasound participation there, with some great looks at the latest gear. I got to see and hear the same KEF setup they'll be demo'ing there. (see the pics at the top of the screen) Those $30,000 speakers sounded pretty sweet with that ULTIMATE Halo setup, including the CD1, but that was on a noisy trade show floor. I'd really like to check it out in a controlled and CONFIGURED environment. Great opportunity to hear all about the intense CD1 design from Thomas Holm, too, unless you just happen to live in Denmark yourself and can do it anytime.

[Chris D]

Richard tells me that they've updated the new stuff on the Parasound website even more. There's more on the CD 1 there. Similar to the preliminary cutsheet posted above, with more detai. This is hotlinked from here: http://parasound.com/news.php

[Chris D]

(oh, and this thread contains the 10,000th post here in Club Parasound. Yay!)

That deserves a banana. :banana:

[globalkiwi]

Cd 1

Is it just me or does the CD drive in the new CD 1 player look identical to the hotswappable CD drives on most laptops?!

Intrigued by the idea of Parasound launching new CD play-back technology just as the rest of the planet is declaring the medium dead. I for one hope this is the beginning of something. Now, if it would only read SACDs ...