Official A/V Thread

[voltronbadass]

Well, believe it or not, the volume just ran away on that parasound p6 preamplifier.

Im in another room, its on low volume with my kefs and vidar in the other room. I hear the volume start to increase, I start running. By the time I get there the volume display window shows 99 and the speakers are distorting hard getting ready to fail.

So uh, I guess that saves you all from the review of it I was going to write. It has to go, I wont take that chance again. Im sure it was something stupid like a dirty positioning sensor on that volume knob, but no thanks. No sir, cant trust this unit again. Bye Felicia.

 

[fake]

Unbelievable that high end equipment can have such a ridiculous manufacturing error. Especially one that can damage other parts of the system.

 

[voltronbadass]

Its a current model but I think its been around 10 years. I never looked at the date on mine, could be just a dirty sensor or something, its just not worth risking other components. Maybe this is why the previous owner sold it on, Im going to see if I can get a refund via ebay.

 

[voltronbadass]

Man, hifi people are some of the best people to deal with. The seller accepted a return pretty easily even though the terms of the sale said no returns.

So we start looking at other options. The parasound shaved off too much of the extreme highs and lows for my taste was the conclusion I was coming to when it failed, had planned to try it in my bedroom, wanted to try the headphone amp part. Otherwise it had pretty amazing qualities, ridiculously muscled in the mid range. Feel free to recommend some options around 2k. Im definitely a fan of a colored sound, no super flat stuff. Im sure terry will say peachtree..

 

[terry.330]

Yeah I'm happy with my Peachtree but I don't think it's going to blow anyone's socks off. I also had a NAD for little while, now that was flat sounding. The first hifi amp I had was a Jolida, that thing sounded great for the money but it broke after about a year and even after sending it back to the manufacturer for repair I didn't trust it but some people swear by them.

Although I really like the look of the new NAD 3050, I wouldn't say no to giving one of those a shot and I've heard good things about the Rega Elex.

 

[voltronbadass]

Yeah I'm happy with my Peachtree but I don't think it's going to blow anyone's socks off. I also had a NAD for little while, now that was flat sounding. The first hifi amp I had was a Jolida, that thing sounded great for the money but it broke after about a year and even after sending it back to the manufacturer for repair I didn't trust it but some people swear by them.

Although I really like the look of the new NAD 3050, I wouldn't say no to giving one of those a shot and I've heard good things about the Rega Elex.

I totally missed your nice response terry, sorry. I was talking just talking about preamplifier options, I should have made that clearer

Im totally in love with the parasound A21 amplifier. It gave a whole new life to the fortes and my interest in hifi. Im sticking with it, I can tell it has so much more in reserve I havent heard through either preamplifier.

I think I could pick apart the sonics of the nad vs para pre’s with a wall of gibberish but instead i’ll go to something darko always says: the nad pre made the system very lean back, the para made the system very lean forward.

I want to try another lean forward preamp, one with a lot more low bass than the para. It was the para preamp cutting off all the extreme highs and lows. Super bizarre, even the output to the sub was like cutting off the lowest of the low. Like wtf you bitch ass preamp, why you messing with what lows the sub see’s.

 

[voltronbadass]

Oh and let me praise the furman power conditioner in another post. Man you can get these things half price nib on ebay regularly. I dont know if Im hearing any differences from it. But its fixed some noisiness overall for sure. I can tell its silently buffering power on that circuit because my hifi shares power with my ceiling fan in that room, and with any other power device or hifi setup ive had I can hear that fucking fan in the hifi. Not since the furman though.

 

[fake]

Oh and let me praise the furman power conditioner in another post. Man you can get these things half price nib on ebay regularly. I dont know if Im hearing any differences from it. But its fixed some noisiness overall for sure. I can tell its silently buffering power on that circuit because my hifi shares power with my ceiling fan in that room, and with any other power device or hifi setup ive had I can hear that fucking fan in the hifi. Not since the furman though.

I was once told those were only needed for nonresidential utils. I actually considered getting one just for my guitar amp because I moved to a spot with three radio towers within a quarter mile like an idiot and now it’s hard to play without picking up a baseball game or top 40. But I called Sweetwater and they said that people call asking if a Furman would solve that all the time and the answer is no. I’m moving this summer so hopefully there’s less radio interference.

 

[terry.330]

I've had a Furman linear conditioner for several years on my hifi setup and liked it enough that ended up buying Furman for all of my main electronic setups. Gaming/4k TV/HT, computer etc. Honestly it's stupid not to have anything even remotely expensive hooked up with quality power strips/surge protectors.

 

[voltronbadass]

I paid $449 on ebay nib for an elite 15 and I watched a few used ones sell around $75 less. At audio places they were like $800-1000.

The audioquest niagra was the other one I was considering.

 

[smokehouse]

It’s really not much, but landing a PS5 last summer sparked getting the band back together. I bought a decent enough Denon receiver, used it for 4K HDR content pass through. First time running HDMI arc as well.

Hooked my old trusty B&W 601 S3s back up, running 4 of them for L, R, SL, SR. No center channel, no room. Bought an ok Klipsch 12” sub, it’s good enough.

Sound is fine, works well for games and movies. Nice to have surround sound again, it’s been years.

4K HDR discs like BR 2049 or Dune are absolutely amazing, PQ speaking.

 

[fake]

It’s really not much, but landing a PS5 last summer sparked getting the band back together. I bought a decent enough Denon receiver, used it for 4K HDR content pass through. First time running HDMI arc as well.

Hooked my old trusty B&W 601 S3s back up, running 4 of them for L, R, SL, SR. No center channel, no room. Bought an ok Klipsch 12” sub, it’s good enough.

Sound is fine, works well for games and movies. Nice to have surround sound again, it’s been years.

4K HDR discs like BR 2049 or Dune are absolutely amazing, PQ speaking.

Yeah, watching 2049 kinda of reassured me I made the right move in paying for 4K.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

@smokehouse

What Denon did you buy? I'm still undecided if I should finally buy a new one. I'm leaning to the X2800H DAB myself. X3800 if I can get a decent offer.

 

[smokehouse]

@smokehouse

What Denon did you buy? I'm still undecided if I should finally buy a new one. I'm leaning to the X2800H DAB myself. X3800 if I can get a decent offer.

Aw man…I’m not that high of a roller, I got the AVR S760H from tha Costco. Honestly though, it’s really worked well for daily use.

 

[max 330 mega]

Costgoob.

 

[prof]

@smokehouse

What Denon did you buy? I'm still undecided if I should finally buy a new one. I'm leaning to the X2800H DAB myself. X3800 if I can get a decent offer.

Accessories4less sells Denon. They usually have better prices than the main dealers. Not always, but usually. Here's the link to their receivers.

Home Theater Receivers | Accessories4less

www.accessories4less.com

 

[stormy]

Ya, I have bought Denon stuff from them before, no problems with it. I think they sell B stock mainly.

 

[max 330 mega]

I once received as a gift a Denon amp with a 5.1 bose cube setup. Horrid. Lived in a 150 sq ft. room i got shot at in, that was more exciting than that sound setup. Threw it all away, and im not a person to ever waste what can be passed on. It sounded like shit. Even in music mode. Trash in and trash out.

 

[terry.330]

Bose lol

 

[joe8]

I once received as a gift a Denon amp with a 5.1 bose cube setup. Horrid. Lived in a 150 sq ft. room i got shot at in, that was more exciting than that sound setup. Threw it all away, and im not a person to ever waste what can be passed on. It sounded like shit. Even in music mode. Trash in and trash out.

I thought Denon was a good brand?
The Bose 901 speakers are good, from what I've read.

 

[max 330 mega]

I thought Denon was a good brand?
The Bose 901 speakers are good, from what I've read.

901’s fucking rule Joe. No lie. One day when i am not a piece of shit, I want those speakers pretty bad. For real.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Aw man…I’m not that high of a roller, I got the AVR S760H from tha Costco. Honestly though, it’s really worked well for daily use.

It's totally fine. I have a Denon AVR-2310 and bought it when they released the successor with 3d shit. Got it new with 3 years warranty for 600 €. RRP was 900 or 1k. This was 13 years ago and it still runs fine. Main reasons for the upgrade are Atmos and eARC.

Accessories4less sells Denon. They usually have better prices than the main dealers. Not always, but usually. Here's the link to their receivers.

Thanks mate. Pretty good prices for older models. It's harder to get good deals in Germany but at least you can buy new AVRs again. Was really bad in the last 2 years.

 

[smokehouse]

I look at my system as “50% better than tv speakers, with actual surround sound and much better bass.”

It’s not hi-fi, not by a long shot…but it sure as hell sounds better than any tv I’ve ever heard.

I remember my old “home theater” days, that was a good sounding 5.1 system…but old by todays standards.

I’ve never heard any of the new surround codecs in anything outside of a theater. I’m guessing that with high end equipment, those 10+ channel systems sound amazing.

 

[voltronbadass]

I would definitely count those B&W 601 s3’s as hifi level.

Sometimes what we think of as low end or common in our own homes is someone else’s endgame dream setup. Someone reminded me of that when I had all schiit gear. Its definitely something I keep in mind now. Helps me accept what I cannot afford but also helps keep me interested in the gear ive got.

———————

Fellas I spent many hours yesterday reading into preamps. Not one damn model jumping out at me

 

[GohanX]

I’ve never heard any of the new surround codecs in anything outside of a theater. I’m guessing that with high end equipment, those 10+ channel systems sound amazing.

Eh, we already had lossless perfect sound years ago, the new codecs just enable lossless to go to more speakers. It doesn't sound better, it's just kind of a neat trick if the room is large enough to take advantage of the extra speakers. Lossy Dolby Digital to lossless HD codecs was still the biggest jump, but 99% of the people out there couldn't tell the difference in that even.