Parasound 2205 review {wow} !!! (1 Viewer)

[Legairre]

John,
Congrats on the 2205. It's one hell of an amp. It will only get better with use. When I got my amp I had the dreaded ground loop hum. It sure does stink to be all excited about a new amp and then when you plug it in "Buzzzzz". I beat the crap out of the problem after about a week thanks to lots of post on this forum (thanks everyone). Here's a link to how beat the hum.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...&highlight=hum

 

[John Morris]

Why do Parasound amps hum?

Hmmm, maybe because they don't know the words? Sorry Geo but I couldn't help myself.

 

[Steven Simon]

I just purchased an HCA-1500 yesterday and I'm now powering my Studio 100's with this amp. This was the next step in building up my amp inventory for the Outlaw 950...

 

[Larry B]

Ric:
I thought it was a new album with Sarah McLachlan on vocals, and John McGlaughlin (Mahavishnu, for you old-timers ) on double-neck guitar. Thanks for straightening that out.
Larry
P.S. I met John McGlaughlin a long time ago, in a health food store. Unfortunately, he didn't play; he just ate a salad.
Larry

 

[Legairre]

Why do Parasound amps hum?

It's really not the amps fault. My Rotel 1095 amp hummed like crazy. The ground loop hum is caused by having components with different grounds. What you need to do is bond all the grounds together to the house ground. In my case my sat system was grounded with a grounding rod on one side of the house while the house already had a ground. I bonded them together by running the copper bonding wire from the sat ground to the house ground. With them bonded together the problem was solved. To solve the last 2% of the hum I bonded my sat receiver to the amp chasis with speaker wire. Quiet as a mouse now.

John,

You've been in rare form since you got back. It's good to see you around here again.

 

[John Tompkins]

Thanks RicP and Legairrie for the links, I will give them a good read. It seems like half the amps I have owned dont hum and half due hum. I think its probably the cable t.v , but it could also be my dss as I have both systems. Actually the Parasound is fairly quit versues some of the others. I can hear the parasound from Id say a foot away..not to bad and even if I cant get rid of it, I could live with it..But Im looking to MAYBE replace my sherwood that drives the back four speakers right now, It hummed very loud without cheater plug..
Which leads me to one more question, I have a 20 amp line not dedicated..I have 3 lights,55 hdtv, dvd, parasound, sherwood and denon 4802 along with a ceiling fan.. No problems except the light dim a bit when components are turned on....If I get a hca-3500 to go with the rest of the gear listed, will it be a problem ?? and if not a problem will it affect sound quality....ANY information or sugesstions about this would be HIGHLY appreciated
PS.As John said, maybe some just dont have rhythm

 

[Evan S]

John, just to let you know there is a 1500 on Ebay right now in case you were interested.

 

[John Tompkins]

Evan,Thanks for the tip..The 1500a is 325.00 as of now, pretty good deal but it will go higher, no buy it now price..Did you see the hca-3500 for 1750.00 buy it now!! I dont think so. I was thinking that if I didnt bi-amp with the 2205 that I wouldnt be happy unless I got the 2200mkII @ 250 watts or hca-3500 @ 350 watts,...?? I'v heard alot of good things about the 1500a though

 

[John Morris]

I was thinking that if I didnt bi-amp with the 2205 that I wouldnt be happy unless I got the 2200mkII @ 250 watts or hca-3500 @ 350 watts,...??

JohnT: I had a 2200MKII a while back as part of a balanced two channel music system. It is a very nice John Curl design, as are most Parasound amps, and sounds very nice. I found it a tiny bit warmer than the current 2205a amp. Still, it will be a nice match to the 2205a. I sold mine for around $900 a few years ago, but I've seen them sell on Ebay for less than that. If you get one, make sure it is in MINT condition as these amps are starting to get old. Also, they tend to run a bit hotter than the current Parasound amps so you will need to give it some breathing room.

 

[Legairre]

John,
Try adding up all the watts on the back of your gear. If I remember right(from when I was checking out the 2205) it pulls 1200 watts. Your 20 amp circuit can handle 2400 watts, but I've read that for saftey reasons you should leave 20% or 480 watts free. So you shouldn't really exceed 1980 watts. Even if you do exceed this amount. The chance of you actually using the max wattage from all your gear at the same time is very unlikely. It's usually best to have the amp on a circuit by itself. Lights and other gear can induce noise into the line. If you add the 3500 I'm sure you'd trip the breaker. Here's how my gear and circuits are set up.
20 amp circuit #1
Receiver 672w
CD Player 11w
Satellite Receiver 35w
VCR 23w
DVD Player 14w
LFE sub #1 12" 250 watts(uses 350w from outlet)
LFE sub #2 12" 250 watts(uses 350w from outlet)
Left surround sub 10" 150 watts(uses 180w from outlet)
Right surround sub 10" 150 watts(uses 180w from outlet)
Total: 1815 watts
20 amp circuit #2
Amplifier 1600w
RPTV 336w
Total: 1936

 

[Legairre]

John,

I forgot to mention. The feeling you have since getting the 2205 is very similar to mine when I got my new amp. I just love it when someone says amps don't make a difference in sound. I can't say if there is a big difference going from one amp to another, but going from my receiver to the was a big difference. At least I'm not alone in noticing the differences. Really made me realize what I had been missing. The detail, clarity and bass are incredible. The receiver sounds good, but the amp sounds great. I've had mine just over a month and I'm still excited about it. Enjoy that amp. I guess the next step for you and me are pre/pros.

 

[John Tompkins]

John, Thanks for the comparision on the 2200 mkII, just what I was looking for. Your comments about the heat issue scares me though, as the 2205 runs fairly warm. Might have to get a fan, But that would probably be worse then the hum. I have plenty of clearance on top about a foot, but the sides only have an inch or 2..

Legairre, Your wattage usage list depresses me, as Im probably way over my limit, guess I will have to get an electrician to run a line...how much ?? 150.00 ??

Also I can honestly say that the sherwood 9080 amp alone ,just completely dominates the performance of the Denon 4802s internall amps..day/night. My opinion based on the amps that I have had is that there is certainly a difference in different brand amps, very easy to tell..Having said that I also think that a processor changes the sound even more then amps do..

 

[Tom-K]

John, quick question. How did the Carver 753 stack up against your other amps. I'm asking, because I currently own (2) of them, and am considering selling, and going for a combination of amps for (7) channels. Thanks.

 

[Evan S]

What's the solution if you are a renter of an older home with no three prong outlets? Due to many disagreements with the landlord over various maintenence issues around the house, I can't very well ask him to bring an electrician over to the place and wire things up correctly. As it stands, I don't have a single three prong outlet in the house. Being a complete neophyte concerning these issues, am I running a risk of fire or electrocution by using a cheater plug to hook up my gear? I can't even plug the surge protector into the wall without one of these. Thanks. I know this really isn't the right thread to discuss this, but it's already spun in this direction so I thought, what the hell.

 

[Legairre]

John,
I had one of my circuits installed about 3 years ago and it cost me $90. I just had the other added in December. 3 years later and still only $90. Can't wait to get a pre/pro. Just don't tell my wife how many watts I'm pulling. She already says I have too many subs. if she knew I was close to pullin 4000 watts she'd say no way to new gear. Hey, what she doesn't know won't hurt me.
By the way. My lights dim too when I turn the amp on. Even though it's on it's own dedicated circuit it still draws from the 100 amp house main. So no matter what room you are in you see a dip in the lights when it goes on. Oh yeah, amps draw some serious power.

 

[John Tompkins]

Tom K, The only other amp that I was really happy with and lived with for a long enough amount of time to evaluate was the Carver 753 thx. Man the specs on that thing are incredible, very impressive looking too.. Its been too long in between for me to compare directly with the parasound, What I due remember is really liking the carvers warm sound..More so then the 4.0T which was nice but didnt compare with the thx753 in my opinion...I dont want to start anything with the faithful rotel owners, but to me I would rank the 753 above both of them that I had..Look out John...Duck
Evan, You got issues No but really that seems like a major problem..I thought there were codes that said you had to have the ground now..but I guess not.

 

[Legairre]

Evan,
If I remember correctly. When we bought our house the inspector told the sellers that they had to have the outlets brought up the code by replacing the non grounded 2 prong outlets with grounded three prog outlets. If you check with city you may be able to get your lanlord to have them replaced, because it is a saefty hazard. If any of your gear had an electrical problem and you touched it. You could become the point of least resistance.

 

[Evan S]

My landlord is a total jerk. I'm buying a house in February of 2003, so I only have 12 months to go, but if I find out that this is the case, I would love to just stick this to him. If he doesn't go for it (and I wouldn't be surprised if he just ignored an order, even if it was a state or city ordinance), I could sue his ass.

Honestly, our three bedroom apartment is not big but I guess that he would have to replace at least a dozen outlets if this was the case. I can't wait to check.:b

 

[RicP]

Evan, it's possible that the outlets are still grounded to the circuit box even though there are no 3-prong outlets.

What you need to do in that case is use a cheater plug that has either the metal grounding tab or the ground wire on it and screw that down under the screw that sits between the 2 outlets.

If the outlet is wired to ground properly, which it should be, that should sufficiently ground your gear to the apt or house ground.

Best bet is to run to Radio Shack and get an outlet tester. These are only a few dollars and will tell you all you need to know about an outlet including polarity and if the outlet is properly grounded.

 

[Scott-C]

I've been following this thread the past day or so and think I may hav to take a look at the Parasound amps. For those of you that have the HCA-2500, can you bridge a couple of channels to deliver more power to any one speaker? I've been considering some different amplification configurations, and in one of them I have one or two passive subs connected to this amp - but I was thinking that since its an SVS I may want to deliver more than 220 watts to it. What do you guys think - is this overkill in your opinion?
Also, in general how do those of you with multiple amps get them to trigger on via a DC cord if the pre-pro only has one DC trigger jack (like the Outlaw 950, for example)? In other words, if I wind up with two or three amps, do I have to use X-10 technology to turn them all on or is there another way to do it. Many amps only have one DC trigger so I'm not sure how to do this. I know this is a general question but I figured this thread has turned into a pretty general and informative amp discussion.
I hope these questions made sense; I'm not yet a "separates" guy so some of this, while basic to many, is a little new to me. I'll be joining the separates club very soon, however!