How good is the parasound 1205a

[stephenb1]

Hi i wonder if someone can tell me how good the 1205a is ? and what does it compare with ?
I have a secondhand one and i find it dull sounding so think there could be a problem, its fine as a sub bass amp in my mains and eq'd as centre but far to dull on tweeters or mid-range, so use a nad and arcam for them.

Its no-where near as nice sounding as the mentioned nad and arcam so am thinking of sending for a service and repair ?

Any advice welcomed

[thxgoon]

Ya you may want to have it serviced though I don't know what kind of problem would cause it to lose frequency response??? From my experience with Parasound I've always thought they were on the 'lively' side of things and which is why I like them. It's a great amp, maybe just a bad match with your speakers. Are you running a bi-amp or tri-amp setup?

[stephenb1]

Hi thanks for the reply,

Its a kef 3-way tri-amp setup q55.2 's they were 2.5 way but now 3 , i can only use it for the subs 70 hz down which sound pretty good, but mid range is dull and on tweeters it needs alot of gain from the cross-over,
luckly i bought a nad 216 thx at the same time off ebay and the difference is night and day.

I 've read a lot of reviews and they all really like the amp so probably will have to send it away ?

This is off topic but i have just seen your system , very nice by the way
i have ptae-700 also which seems a little grainy at times , which i think also could have a slight fault i wonder if yours is the same with certain discs and how do you feed it a signal is it hdmi or component interlaced or progressive, i would appreciate your advice.

Thanks

[clubfoot]

Do you have all the pots on the rear panel set to max or THX level?

http://www.parasound.com/pdfs/vintag...03_1205aom.pdf

[thxgoon]

What is 2.5 way?

I would try running the speakers full range (ie no bi amp or tri amp) off of the Parasound and see how it sounds. If it still sounds muffled then at least you can rule out problems due to the multi amp setup.

My projector can look grainy at times with any standard def material. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this aside from an expensive video processor. HD material always looks great though. Hooked up currently with component.

[stephenb1]

Hi
thanks very much for the reply
I was a little concerned with the projector and its with the supplier at the moment as they claim the pictures fine, as i have to make up my mind on sending to panasonic but maybe charged if theres no fault found. The thing is i have another which is fine with sd material so was not sure what to do ? but i think i'll sent as i think one of the panels is out of line or something ?

Regarding the parasound and kefs, 2.5 way is the mid-bass and lower bass running off the one bass input terminal thats what kef call it, although i 've modified them to run full 3 way which usually sounds great.

I have tried running the centre which is the same drivers and it still sounds a little dull, although not quite as bad, but it is eq 'd alot , it is still powerful, i find it sounds like a reasonable P.A amp.

Will have to have a go at running the speakers normal sometime and check it out that way before sending to the parasound agents ( they said also dull is not what people usually say about their amps eitheir so there could be a problem).

I 've heard of relays problem before on these getting dirty and not functioning properly ? not sure if that would make a difference to the sound though.

I run the input just under full not sure how much difference it makes apart from volume, i will have to experiment a little more, and read the pdf from parasound.

Thanks