ease of use, quality vs price

cant preprogramm learning remote

Sounds great in 2 channel or multichannel configuration. This preamp/processor is easy to set up and use. My unit has none of the quirks mentionned below. The 1800 is one of the cheapest prepro's on the market therefore i wouldn't expect performance equal to say a lexicon but expect that it will surpass almost all receivers in sound quality and it does just that.

My system:

parasound 1800
b&k av5000 series 2 amplifier
monitor audio speakers
hsu vtf-1 subwoofer
tributaries interconnects

Similar Products Used:

sherwood newcastle 9080

Great sounding DAC's, Plenty of inputs, Very good tuner, looks good,

Annoying remote control interface, Could have more controls on the face panel, Speaker selector switches are in an inconvenient place

Problems so far:
1.I have the popping sound when changing inputs. Never had it with any other switching equipment in my setup, so if its my "amp" or my "power" then it also means that the AVC1800 is very sensitive.
2.If I leave it on for a long time(which is all the time, since I'm always listening to the radio or CD's), and I switch the front L/R to small I get no audio from an analog source(tuner, vcr, etc). I also don't get any sound from the calibration procedure on the front L/R. I think this is heat related, because it does seem to get really warm after a while, and this is with a relativly cool room and good air flow where it is sitting(between a window and my door, which has a good draft).
3.The gain level really is annoying, It should have a higher maximum output voltage.
4. If I am on an analog source and I turn the volume all the way down to -60 and then keep going i get the annoying "popping sound syndrome" again.

But I would not trade this for anything. Being a college student, I don't have tons of money to throw around on this stuff, and being able to get this much for a great price is a steal.
The stuff I like(so far):
1.The DAC quality is remarkable, I have yet to hear a DAC sound this good(which is also in my price range, and even my parents price range).
2.The tuner is also very good. I can easily puck up faint stations that I have had trouble getting at home with other tuners.
3.The surround setup flexibility is very nice, though the speaker size switches are annoyingly placed.
4.The onscreen display is not as bad as everyone says, though I might grow sick of it, who knows.
5.The ability to convert composite inputs from my VCR to the SVideo out to my TV is a neat feature.
6.AC3 and DTS in one machine.
7.The Cinema Re-EQ works, and occasionally helps.
8.It remembers my settings when shut off and even unplugged from the wall(someone below said it didn't).

All in all its a great addition to my setup, and if Parasound ever updates the control chip to fix some of these problems(or updates whatever they have to), I will be in heaven with the AVC1800.

-Steven Adeff

Current (measly) setup:
Parasound AVC-1800
Leach 2 channel Amp
H/K FL8300 CD player
Hollywood Plus, Pioneer DVDrom as my DVD player
21" Viewsonic Monitor
KLH Model Twenty(old school baby, my first speakers since I was 12), Front L/R
Bose 901's(free from my aunt, no complaints =) surround L/R
Sony HiFi VHS VCR
Sony HiFi Beta VCR

Soon to be finished system(I love Co-op jobs...)
Parasound AVC-1800
Leach 2 channel amp(surrounds)
Leach 3 channel amp(front l/c/r)
H/K FL8300 CD player
32" Panasonic Superflat TV
Sony HiFi VHS VCR
Sony HiFi Beta VCR
Paradigm LCR350's(unless I can find the Studio/40's cheap)
Paradigm CC350(ditto for the Studio/CC)
Paradigm ADP350's(ditto for the Studio/ADP's)
Hsu VTF-2

Similar Products Used:

H/K AVR75, Marantz AV600

price point, evident build quality, sound

bare-bones feature-wise, processor quirk, constant FM display mode

This really did seem like an appealing product at the $1199 asking price. Where else could you get a comparable dolby digital/dts preamp from a similarly reputable maker?

The AVC-1800 does deliver largely as advertised, too. First, it comes double-boxed in a heavy duty shipping container. Very impressive.

Although the unit is not particularly substantial (approx. 14 lbs), build quality is evidently higher than your average home theater gear (read: receivers), and it is an attractive unit to boot. Simple, classic lines indicate that this is a no-nonsense product.

No-nonsense also means, however, that Parasound cut some expenditures to hit this price point. Digital toslink and coax inputs and outputs are only sufficient, considering that you are limited to only four video and three audio sources. There seem to be plenty of s-video connections, however. Also: instead of a switched ac-outlet, there are only a few dc-triggers. There are no ac outlets in back at all, although the unit does come with a separate, obviously very high quality detachable ac cord of its own.

Many feel that custom soundfields are superfluous. Well, for those people this is a great unit then, because it has none. Yep, only the basic dolby pro-logic, dolby 5.1, and 2-channel stereo. When you consider that Sony's TAE-8000S or a used Lexicon are only a few hundred more in cost, I wonder how much Parasound saved in cost by omitting more soundfields. After all, you don't have to use them, and it can't hurt that they're there in case you want to experiment with you room acoustics. I do like however, how easily the Parasound 'remembers' which mode to return to depending on the input source, and automatically senses between pro-logic to 5.1.

Annoying features: tuner station is constantly (and I mean CONSTANTLY) displayed regardless of the actual input source playing. This is somewhat misleading and just annoying. I did not pay $1200 bones to see a big '92.3fm' while listening to CDs, MDs, or DVDs. My old Onkyo receiver wasn't even this primitive!

Also: regardless of the source, whenever I start any program material, there is a short gap of about a second in which the sound processor seems to be 'catching up', and no sound is produced. The result is that the first second or so of music is cut off-- actually it's there, but the processor doesn't react quick enough to catch it and send it to the power amp. Makes timing recordings hard (did I catch it??), and is also just plain annoying and distracting, especially at this price point.

All in all, this product is not quite the 'category buster' that my Parasound rep claimed it would be. It's tough getting the right amount of features, build quality, and sound quality in a price-competitive product. The AVC-1800 doesn't have many of the useful features of my old Onkyo receiver, but it still costs thousands less than most dolby digital pre/pros out there. Why do these things cost SO much? Sure, the sonics of the AVC-1800 are great-- channel separation, resolution, sound floor, dynamics are all what I expected them to be-- but I can't help but feel that achieving these things in one box WITHOUT a power amp section at a cost closer in line to the receivers shouldn't be too hard. All in all, if the Sony preamp had just had a built-in tuner, I would have probably gotten that unit instead.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood KC-Z1, various home theater receivers by Sony, Onkyo

Excellent sound, stereo separation, aesthetic quality

Play-delay (see below)

I need to weigh in with my disappointment concerning the processor lag time between hitting "play" on the CD/DVD and music actually starting. Parasound - didn't we do any quality control testing? Readers - do any other semi-high-end preamps have this annoying defect? If/when I return this unit, what others in the same price and feature category would you recommend?

Another annoying problem is that after about one hour of playing a CD, if I switch back to the tuner, I have to engage the "mono" button to get the tuner to play KQED, and I live on a hill by Lake Merritt in Oakland. (Almost line of sight to KQED's transmitter.) I may need to mess around with antenna placement, but I doubt this is really the problem.

All of this said, I really am hooked on the sound of the unit, which is why I give it four stars. I've got it paired with the (Parasound)HCA2205A, and it sounds ridiculously beautiful. Because of the wonderfully musical sound, I hate to return the AVC1800, but at the same time I feel in some capacity that I've paid for a defective product, and I'm sure there are other preamps in this price range that sound just as good if not better. Sigh.

I read and love this forum, and I would greatly value any advice and feedback from this group. Thanks in advance.

Similar Products Used:

None

Deep sound stage, smooth top end, excellent price

Some parts of display difficult to read.

I see many people wasted the review with worthless complaints, speaker toggles on the back, who cares? Maybe half the people actually commented on how good it sounds. Its smooth, accurate and detailed with a good bottom end.
Somebody mentioned it does not have enough buttons on the front panel, if that is what dictates quality to you in a unit, then you should stay with cheap recievers, thats what they are all about. This unit is not perfect, I have not seen a unit that is, but as Anthony Edward put it " for the price nothing even comes close". It has good build quality backed by an excellent warranty, Sounds fantastic and its quite flexable. It has a 6 channel input, 2nd zone output as well good tuner section at $1200 US! If you want better, spend more money and buy better, don't complain because you couldn't afford it. At this price it doesnt get any better.

Similar Products Used:

Mac 3, BK, Act 3

Price

For Mike: You were upset about the delay before starting CDs and DVDs. The Classe SSP25/50 do the same thing. Not sure about the Bryston (very new) and the cj is not out yet. To be fair I don't think it is Parasound's fault, I think it is the built in delay in your source for determining the audio mode. I am not sure any of the suppliers will be able to fix that in the pre/pro. I think we have to live with it. The bigger Parasound 2500 does it too.

Similar Products Used:

Classe, cj, Bryston

Sound, Price

Display, delay on locking to signal

The best thing about this processor is the sound. 2 channel playback is incredible for a product in this price range. I've owned several $1000 to $2000 2 channel preamps and much prefer the sound coming out of the Parasound box. You give up nothing to a high quality 2 channel preamp (except a phono input) The delay in locking on to the data is slightly anoying when listening to cd's. But as pointed out before, this is not the only pre/pro to do it. The tuner is also excellent if you care. Although the station always being displayed is lame. For surround duties, as long as all you want is 5.1 DD and DTS, your set (its all I want/need) I could care less about all those sound fields that I never use. No 6.1 or 7.1 or whatever. No loss as far as I'm concerned. It does not have TXH cert but it does thankfully and Lucasfilms RE-EQ which is a MUST for any surround system (or a similar re-eq feature). I did notice that if you have the sub switch turned off and other speakers running full range, you can hear some mild buzzing on 5.1 material but not 2 channel. I found this out by accident. I think the 0.1 channel is being redirected full range which lets some garbage thru. Abslutely dead quite when the sub is switched on though. From a distance, it is virtually impossible to tell what the processor is doing (I don't have it switching video in which case you could see modes and such on screen). My last 2 processors were a Sony EP9ES and a Denon AVP3000. The Parasound sounds considerable better than both, especially compared to the the Denon.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Lexicon, Marantz, Denon

I'm back, and now with some answers to my previous problems...

1. The pop disapeared when i removed the ground connection from my amplifier(actually, I switched amps while building my new Leach amp. That amp had no ground lead, and no popping. So my Leach amp is now without a ground to the power circuit.).

2. This was a heat problem. Now I have better ventilation and no problems.

3. Still annoying. But, it is definitly loud enough when all the way up.

4. See #1

All the stuff I liked about it before I still like. The quality of the digital decoding still blows my mind.

Now, regarding some posts above my original post...
1. the sound gap when starting to play a digital source:
this is caused by the digital autodetect circuitry. I encounter this with my CD player mainly. I just hit play and pause, then a second or two later unpause it. This causes the digital stream to start and get detected before any real information is passed to the reciever.

2. Mono Radio thing: never had that problem, I'd say its a antenna/station problem. I switch between CD and Radio almost exclusivly(some TV/DVD watching is done in between).

3. Humm/Buzz - could be a signal ground problem. I haven't had any problem with this at all. But do realize Most amps will give a slight humm, thats the noise floor people talk about. But it should only be noticable if you put your ear up to the speaker and when there is no signal going to the amp.

I hope this helps some people. I can't say enough about this. Though I covered most of it in my last post.

-Steven Adeff

Current (measly) setup:
Parasound AVC-1800
Leach 2 channel & 3 channel Amp(with cool ultrabright blue power-on LED =)
H/K FL8300 CD player
Hollywood Plus, Pioneer DVDrom as my DVD player(Coax out to AVC-1800)
32" Panasonic Superflat TV
Parasound Reference Studio 40's (L/R)
Sony 5-disc CD Changer (Optical out to AVC-1800)
Sony HiFi VHS VCR
Sony HiFi Beta VCR