Unfortunately there are no local Parasound dealers in my area. The last Parasound product I bought was from Safe and Sound in Chicopee, MA. They shipped if for free and they were excellent to deal with and always have been. But unfortunately they no longer carry Parasound products. The change obviously due to the new ownership. All great reasons why to deal from an authorized dealer. But what if Parasound gives the dealer a hard time? Then what is your alternative? Will a dealer take a component back that's still under warranty but a few years old? That might be a hard thing to accomplish. My thoughts are why bother dealing with a company that has sent clear messages that customer service is not going to be as easy as it was in the past or as it should be. Then what happens when the product is out of warranty? I can only imagine the hassle that will be.
Thanks for the reminder, I rarely go on HIFI Shark or US AM........ I agree most of what is being sold today is production before the sale. It may be 3-5yrs before we see any "changes" in the performance of Parasound gear due to the sale. But I don't expect Darren Myers to, for example, dumb down the A21+ or JC1 or JC5 amps. The new JCM250 has some nice internal components but is cra cra expensive, it only weighs 42lbs and my A21+ weighs 71lbs, the JC1+ weighs 83lbs..........Weight to me has always been a factor in build quality, not everything but it should be considered.
If something is out of warranty then I don't expect the MFG to do anything, warranty is part of the Terms and Conditions of sale you have to accept especially only a 1yr warranty..........I think Parasound still offer 5yr warranty on new unopened gear.
What I meant was getting repairs done not under warranty. In other words would the number of repair facilities be as assessable as they once were. If dealers are dropping Parasound products due to the issues dealing with new ownership will repair facilities follow suit? Not something I’d risk when paying top dollar that Parasound gear now goes for.
If the dealer is even halfway decent, they would let you trade it in for something else, maybe pro-rated, possibly free.
5 year warranty is very good and the A23+ is good value for the specs. I am still looking but it’s on top of my list. NAD Class D is under consideration. C298 has 2 year warranty.
Well, I reached out to one shop and they won't really give much info on this type of issue beyond offering to have me ship the amp there, pay a minimum diagnosis fee (~$150, which can go towards labor to fix the problem), and then have them work on it if desired. They couldn't just sell me the amp module. That's all fair enough; I know how tough that type of business can be. They said they do repair these, but I think by the time all that is said and done it won't really have been worth it, just to have a fall back option for my incoming monoblocks. Between shipping and time in the shop I'd probably be pretty close to having the new monoblocks anyways, by the time it came back to me. I think this is what I'll do. I had planned to eventually use this is a pre anyways, I just didn't think it would by force. I did look into the AliExpress options a little more - none of the shops had much if any feedback, so I think they are mostly sketchy, and the one I emailed about it jacked up the price and shipping cost/time before responding to me email. So, buying a Pascal seems to be a dead end. It sucks, because I know I could repair it myself, if I only had the part.
That's disappointing. I was hoping for a better outcome... from an information standpoint if nothing else (these failures are very rare vs we see this frequently). Let us know how you get on with your monoblocks. I need to have a plan B in case I ever travel this same road.
Will do - I don’t normally jump on hype trains but these seem cheap enough and I can always give them to my son if they don’t work out.
The A23+ noise level specs is the same as my Parasound 2125v2; the NAD C298's noise floor is dead silent. As much as I love my Parasound 2125v2, my upgrade to the NAD C298 (similar to NAD M23) sounds better because it's more balanced between the vocalist and the instruments/band. As a result, the soundstage sounds wider and there's better placement of instruments throughout the stage. In contrast, my Parasound emphasized the vocalists more which made that sound really good, but it was at the expense of the instruments/band which I could not hear as well.
I don’t want to tell anyone what they can or cannot hear (after making that statement in another thread) … but maybe the NAD is just a more transparent amplifier? To me the noise floor is not irrelevant, but I don’t know that humans can tell the difference between these really small values. But maybe they can. I suspect the differences may be just due to the quality of the amplifier, and the way it interacts with the speakers. I have never heard either or both in my own system so I should take a dose of my own medicine and remain quiet. sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself. I’m sure it’s the same for everyone.
