supapimp Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 I've been looking for quality 2 channel separates for some time now, and finally found a discounted Parasound Halo A23 Amplifier and P3 Preampifier combo at Good Guys this last weekend. Apparently, they're discontinuing the Parasound products, so they've been on clearance for awhile but I got lucky and found these units after calling every store in Washington State. Anyway, I wondered if anyone on the forum had any experience with these 2 units? If so, how do they mate with RF-7's, which is what I'm running for my current setup. I'm still new to separates, and am trying to critically listen to see if it was worth it. I know I got a good deal, and they are certainly an upgrade over my Yamaha RXV 1200, which I was running in stereo, but is this a decent mid-level 2 channel configuration? I'm also using a XLR cables from the preamp to the amp, but not from the source component to preamp, as my Toshiba SD5700 does not have balanced outputs. Also, one thing I've noticed is that there is a faint "hiss" coming from both of the horns on the RF-7's with the Parasound combo hooked up, but it's not present when I switch back to the Yamaha. I've tried all the recommended fixes in the troubleshooting section of the Parasound manual, including activating the "ground lift" switch on the back of the A 23, but no luck so far in eliminating the hiss. It's not very loud or noticeable, but it's there nonetheless and annoys me. Thanks in advance for any help. I've been lurking around these forums for awhile now, but this is my first post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholtl Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 The A23 and P3 are outstanding products. You really lucked out if you got a nice deal on those, since Good Guys no longer has rights to sell Parasound gear. Parasound decided that Good Guys was simply not high-end enough a store to carry such products, and their move was right on the money considering not long after, Good Guys became a CompUSA/Good Guys, with massive downsizing of their audio/video department in favor of their computer equipment. Yes...they've become a Best Buy of sorts. Anyhow, over to your questions. First, you've made a fantastic choice. Parasound Halo products mate phenomenally well with Klipsch. I invite you to come over and meet a ton more Halo owners (many of which run Klipsch as well) at Club Parasound, located at: http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=21 Second, regarding your hiss. For one thing, it's perfectly normal for this to happen. Most everyone with Klipsch speakers, Reference series or otherwise, can hear a faint-to-slight hiss when their ears are up close to the speaker, if not firmly pressed against it. However, despite this, at normal listening distances, the hiss should be non-evident. If in the rare case it IS, however, there are 2 ways to solve this: 1) Make sure you do not have a ground-loop issue or EMI interference. You can accomplish this in a couple ways-- i) try a "cheater plug," or if you use high-end aftermarket powercords with removable ground pins, you may find the solution. ii) Do not coil your speaker cables, do not bundle interconnects, made sure interconnects and powercords cross at atleast a 45-degree (90-degrees preferable) intersection. 2) Use analog RCA's instead of the XLR's you're currently running. Balanced connections introduce a gain of 6dB. Many owners of Halo/Klipsch have stated that they've had superior results in utilizing this configuration. Personally, I'm lucky that my stuff is dead-silent even with XLR's. And finally, what you have is NOT a "mid-level 2-channel" system. You have an outstanding high-end system. Congrats to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 Nicholtl is right on with the recommendation to try RCA cables instead of the XLR cables. Balanced cables are part of a process that manipulates the signal to reduce noise. The manipulation adds a bit of noise on some systems. So if there is no noise from other components, the XLR cables may add noise instead of reduce it. Life is full of paradoxes. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 The XLR section of these units also boost the signal 6dB, which is what causes efficient speaker owners to hear the hiss. If I use the balanced cables with any of my Klipsch Heritage speakers, the hiss is there. The unbalanced, RCA, section is awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPyro Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 I don't have experience with the specific Parasound you are looking at, but I have been running a Parasound HCA-1205A for several years with my RF-3s and Mondial Designs ACT-3 pre/pro. There are typically 3 main sources of "hiss" in seperates. First, the DACs in the pre/pro will add some noise, switching between sound processor modes will help identify if these are the main source. Second, the amp can also add an additional level of noise. Finally, electrical garbage is usually the main source of hiss, it may be either ground loops or from other items plugged into the power supply. I too am very sensitive to hiss, and one must take care selecting components due to the very high sensitivity of klipsch speakers. In my system, the DACs in my old reciver (denon 3801) was adding the most hiss of the system. To my suprise, the addition of the parasound amp made almost no difference (but added some complications due to ground loop humm). It wasn't until the ACT-3 was installed that he hiss radically reduced. Now...most of my hiss comes when i turn on the power to my Sub amp (SVS Ultra). It doesn't bother me too much because i usually have it off except for action movies. So far the parasound has been good, including customer service when i had to sent the amp back for relay repair. My one complaint about the parasound is that the amp could be a little quieter, in reguards to hiss, but it isn't bad (it has to be a nearly dead silent room, for me to even hear it from the listening position) Hope this helps... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev313 Posted July 11, 2005 Share Posted July 11, 2005 I had the same problem in my Halo HT. It was coming from my cable box. This fixed it: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supapimp Posted July 11, 2005 Author Share Posted July 11, 2005 Wow! Thank you to all who are responding. I truly appreciate the input and constantly find myself eager to learn more and more. This seems to be the right place... I find it fascinating that XLR cables can actually introduce noise into the system. I will switch them out and use RCA cables to see if this is indeed the problem. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJLeBlanc77 Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 a31 > RF7III > Gains Knobs what say you? Anyone juiced a pair of RF7iii's with JC1+'s? Asking this because I have the rf7iii's and rc64iii as my front stage, pushing them with a Parasound a31. I'm thinking they could use my horsepower. I have a modern Marantz Processor, cables, other separate amps, 9.3,,blah, blah,,,,Was on the phone with PHT and they said to turn up the gain knobs on the back of the Parasound. *Has any of you turned up the gains knobs on you Parasound with RF7iii's? If so what can you say about it? Going to experiment over the winter break with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuzzzer Posted December 17, 2021 Share Posted December 17, 2021 2 minutes ago, DJLeBlanc77 said: a31 > RF7III > Gains Knobs what say you? Anyone juiced a pair of RF7iii's with JC1+'s? Asking this because I have the rf7iii's and rc64iii as my front stage, pushing them with a Parasound a31. I'm thinking they could use my horsepower. I have a modern Marantz Processor, cables, other separate amps, 9.3,,blah, blah,,,,Was on the phone with PHT and they said to turn up the gain knobs on the back of the Parasound. *Has any of you turned up the gains knobs on you Parasound with RF7iii's? If so what can you say about it? Going to experiment over the winter break with this. In all instances like this, it's much better to start a new thread instead of digging one up that's over 16 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 21 hours ago, wuzzzer said: In all instances like this, it's much better to start a new thread instead of digging one up that's over 16 years old. Not sure I agree. The Victrola vs. Edison Diamond Disk thread has been open since 1913...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 11 minutes ago, ned said: Not sure I agree. The Victrola vs. Edison Diamond Disk thread has been open since 1913...... Anyone worth their salt knows it was Edison all the way!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 21 hours ago, DJLeBlanc77 said: a31 > RF7III > Gains Knobs what say you? *Has any of you turned up the gains knobs on you Parasound with RF7iii's? If so what can you say about it? Going to experiment over the winter break with this. This has been discussed here already, same amp and speakers: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjptkd Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 21 hours ago, wuzzzer said: In all instances like this, it's much better to start a new thread instead of digging one up that's over 16 years old. While I agree with you it is interesting sometimes to see these old threads that would have otherwise probably never seen the light of day again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 the best threads on the Forum are gone , we lost tons of threads over the years - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
314carpenter Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 18 hours ago, RandyH001 said: the best threads on the Forum are gone , we lost tons of threads over the years - Probably mostly due to your 56700+ post count content filling up every hard drive on the Klipsch Forum Servers. 1 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fido Posted December 18, 2021 Share Posted December 18, 2021 3 hours ago, 314carpenter said: Probably mostly due to your 56700+ post count content filling up every hard drive on the Klipsch Forum Servers. Is that a lot of posts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Some disappeared during forum upgrades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
314carpenter Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
314carpenter Posted December 19, 2021 Share Posted December 19, 2021 On 12/16/2021 at 10:02 PM, wuzzzer said: In all instances like this, it's much better to start a new thread instead of digging one up that's over 16 years old. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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