good DAC's and good processing capabilities

As stated in review below, lack of compatability with progressive scan DVD players. If mating with a progressive scan player I would recommend looking at other units!

Boy, looking at the prices some of you paid it looks like I got taken to the cleaners!

I bought this unit primarily by reading reviews (such as this site) and through my local dealer recommendation. What I didn't realize was the units incompatability with progressive scan DVD players. What happens is that the unit will pass through the component signal OK, but the unit's "On Screen Display" becomes jumbled and unreadable. This means that the only way that you can read volume, source information, surround processing, etc is by getting up and looking directly at the 2500u display panel - not on your televison!!! (in a dark home theatre sitting 15 feet away from your unit this gets aggravating!) Also everytime you attempt to increase volume or change any of the parameters, a jumbled blurb of alphanumerics comes up on the screen for about 5 seconds. Since the alphanumerics were driving me crazy I now just have my DVD output directly to my projector (via 25 ft of component cable) and use the 2500u for surround processing only. The lack of OSD really takes away from my home theatre experience.

I wrote Parasound regarding this issue stating that I felt this OSD incompatability with progressive scan should be addressed (hopefully in an upgrade). I mean at their price point who isn't looking at progressive DVD players! Parasound was apologetic but had no solutions at this time.

Sound processing (DTS, Dolby Digital) is very good, the remote, although difficult to program, works well, and the amount of connectors will enable just about any type of system configuration. The auto formatting sequence works great and really simplifies set-up.

If you decide to purchase a 2500u, one other thing to investigate is the 2500u's bandwidth for handling HDTV. I am not certain but I believe that the video's component output will not handle the bandwidth (so in my case I'll again have to feed my projector directly from the HDTV decoder (utilizing a second run of 25 ft component cables) instead of running the video through the 2500u.(Just another issue I was hoping to avoid esecially after spending $3500).

I bought this unit with great anticipation. I now have mixed feelings. The sound processing end of the unit is excellent-the video end of things is lacking. Please Parasound offer an upgrade or the ability to trade up to your next generation processor!! This is almost an exceptional product!!!

Similar Products Used:

first surround processor

overall sonic qualities, price

component video bandwidth

This design from Parasound, while excellent sonically, is aging... especially in the video section. True high def sources and progressive scan DVD (480p) can not be effectively run through the component section of the processor. If you are willing to run component video sources (high def satellite, terrestrial HD broadcasts and progressive scan DVDs) directly to the monitor/TV, bypassing the processor, then this is a sonically strong, cost effective processor choice.

The Dolby and DTS processing was fine, the setup was simple, bass management was very good. I even used this unit with the companion center rear channel surrond SRS decoder which also worked well.

The 2500U was mated with two of their 5 X 200w Curl amps. I bi-amped my front towers using 4 of the channels - the sound was awesome - and used the other channels to drive center, 2 side surrounds and 2 rear surrounds all with equivalent drivers. Source was typically Sony S9000ES DVD/SACD player.

Similar Products Used:

Integra Research, Rotel, Anthem

Service, Clean Sound

Remote Control, Display on unit hard to read

I have had this unit and the corresponding amplifier, 2205, for about 10 months. It has worked very well. Set up was not too hard. A detailed instruction manual is present, yet there are not many diagrams and somethings took me a few hours to figure out.

Recently I noticed my bass was out. I checked both outputs and confirmed the unit to be the problem. I called their number, not 1800 for customer service, and was told it was my expensive and heavy connectors. I packed it up and sent it in. I took advantage of the shipment to upgrade the bass management and 5.1 system.

The turnaround was amazing. ONE day to fix and upgrade. Several days shipping both ways. In about 7 - 8 days the unit was back! Please keep your original box! I had to rig up something since I threw mine. Remember in 10 years, if something doesn't work or if you want to upgrade, the box will save a lot of packing time.

The unit is very clean and relatively easy to use. I had an old JVC 1010VTN Digifine series, the last of the good JVC home products before they went cheapo and sold low and mid class stuff. I bought it about 13 years ago for $1,000. The unit had a warm feel to the music unlike the Parasound.
The remote control was ahead of its time: LCD with changing displays and batteries that last about 1 1/2 years with daily use. The Parasound is a basic remote with back lit keys. Unfortunately when you push the keys, it is difficult if not impossible to read the display on the unit to see what's happening. The unit's display letters are about 1/4" high. Of course, unobtrusive being small, albeit not very usefull.

When purchasing the unit, I mail ordered from Steve 612-308-7736. Excellent service and very, VERY good pricing. Of course always support your local guy if possible.

Well, enjoy and good luck

Similar Products Used:

JVC 1010VTN

Service, Clean Sound

Remote Control, Display on unit hard to read

I have had this unit and the corresponding amplifier, 2205, for about 10 months. It has worked very well. Set up was not too hard. A detailed instruction manual is present, yet there are not many diagrams and somethings took me a few hours to figure out.

Recently I noticed my bass was out. I checked both outputs and confirmed the unit to be the problem. I called their number, not 1800 for customer service, and was told it was my expensive and heavy connectors. I packed it up and sent it in. I took advantage of the shipment to upgrade the bass management and 5.1 system.

The turnaround was amazing. ONE day to fix and upgrade. Several days shipping both ways. In about 7 - 8 days the unit was back! Please keep your original box! I had to rig up something since I threw mine. Remember in 10 years, if something doesn't work or if you want to upgrade, the box will save a lot of packing time.

The unit is very clean and relatively easy to use. I had an old JVC 1010VTN Digifine series, the last of the good JVC home products before they went cheapo and sold low and mid class stuff. I bought it about 13 years ago for $1,000. The unit had a warm feel to the music unlike the Parasound.
The remote control was ahead of its time: LCD with changing displays and batteries that last about 1 1/2 years with daily use. The Parasound is a basic remote with back lit keys. Unfortunately when you push the keys, it is difficult if not impossible to read the display on the unit to see what's happening. The unit's display letters are about 1/4" high. Of course, unobtrusive being small, albeit not very usefull.

When purchasing the unit, I mail ordered from Steve 612-308-7736. Excellent service and very, VERY good pricing. Of course always support your local guy if possible.

Well, enjoy and good luck

Similar Products Used:

JVC 1010VTN

I just got the AVC-2500. I have it hooked up to an HCA-2205A. It looks great. Sounds even better. Tons of inputs, and lots of flexibility. I can even setup multiple surround modes and enhancements (e.g. THX on/off, sub on/off etc.) for the same source by using differerent inputs. Back panel is also very easy to work with. Remote is good, but its not a MKII.
OSD can be turned on/off for all outputs - component, S-video, and composite. All inputs (audio and video) can be assigned to any source with any processing mode. You can also automatically scan on incoming audio or video signals. The auto caliberation of channel delays and levels is quick and easy.

The surround modes don't work exactly as outlined in the manual. For example, DTS in stereo mode is supposed to play all 6 channels, but in practice downmixes to two channels. In some modes the sub does not work eventhough the manual says the sub is used. I could be doing something wrong.

In any case, this is great piece.

As far as I can see or hear....I think this preamp is amongst the best in it's class and deserves a good rating. Stop bashing good products people!!

I have this unit and I love it! The flexability is awsome,the sound is awsome (to my ears).my favorite things about it are componet switching,zone control outputs w/ir reciver,you can asign any level,source,or decoding to any input you desire.it automaticly selects DD,DTS,DPL for you.you can relable any source to say what ever you want it to say. there are input and outputs galore including 5.1input and is factory upgradable.the first dvd i watched was dances with wolves(DTS) i was blown away by the separation in the channels.awsome imaging and a crips clean sound.every disc i watch sounds great!other equipment i use parasuond,1205a,1500a,snell 500 thx speaker system,pioneer dv-05.also i had 2 psp1500 that i hated! but parasound took both back for a full refund.so i give it 5-stars see ya. chuck

I noticed there was not a lot of personal reviews out on thew AVP-2500 so I decided to post my thoughts. For starters, the AVP-2500 has been an instant hit for Parasound. Lead times are finally coming down (around three weeks now). Parasound has had the reputation of having great amps and extremely average sounding pre-pro's. The 1500/1550 combo was a great value but most higherend pre-pro's out did them. I know that at least three demo units have been sent out for review now to the magazines but this happen recently because of the huge backlog to dealers (Parsound already could not keep up with the demand to fill initial dealer orders). They expect the 1st reviews to come out from the Guide in Augest or Sept. They anticipate very good reviews from feedback from the reviewers.I was out a Parasound last summer and talked with the owner (I am a dealer) about how all of the pre-pro manufactures (at that time) in the HiEnd keep messing up. I told him that many products got close but kept messing up by missing key features like Sunfire not having on screen display and only allowing small setting on fronts, EAD not having tape loops, Acurus only having 2 svideo, most processors do not having component video (still a problem). He laid out what his plan was (the AVP-2500) and that is was to be released Q1 of 99.
The Parasound is the 1st highend American designed processor that is feature rich (all the others still have missing features) and it does sounds incredible. The DSP work was out sourced to a Finish company (only a couple of highend companies have the expertise in house and nearly all out source this portion). So when you see "Finland" as the point of manufacture on the back of the 2500, you know why.
Now to the sound... My 1st impression was that the processor did very well in home theater but it was missing bottom end base in two channel. Almost as if it rolled off on the midbase on down. Being very concerned about this (I brought in $13K of product) I talked with Parasound. Turns out the preamp needed to be broken-in to tighten up the base. I see this a lot with speakers and amps but never to this degree with pre-pro's. After 50 hours, the AVP opened up.
In conclusion, Parasound is the 1st to not miss features on a open archetecture/American designed product. Too my ears, it sounds better than the Sunfire, Acurus, Sony, Marantz and others. This should be on your short list to consider if you are looking for a feature rich/ great sounding pre-pro. If you bolt it too the 2205A amp, it makes a VERY nice combo. I have sold a few of these combinations and all have been VERY impressed.
If you do not have local dealer support or have some additional questions,
feel free to call or email me for more info.
I hope this helps,
Steve 612-308-7736
Authorized Lines:
ATI, Acurus, Aerial Acoustics, Aragon, B&K, Bryston, Class'e, Cinepro, DynAudio, EAD (Enlightend Audio Designs), Energy (Local Only), Gallo Acoustics, Gershman Acoustics (Beautiful Sounding and looking speakers), Innersound (ElectroStatic), Lexicon (Local Only), Marantz (Local Only), M&K, Monitor Audio, NHT, Panamax, Parasound, Pioneer (Not Elite), Plinius, Sherwood NewCastle, Toshiba, & Velodyne.

In reading some of these reviews some clarification is in order. To some extent the PSP1500 and PDD1500 has some quirks most of which had upgrades offered by Parasound. Also they also offered the PDD1550 which has none of the previous problems talked about elsewhere. The 1550 was a limited prodution item designed for those who purchased the PSP1500. MSB has a upgrade for the PDD1500 that is approved by Parasound. Weather you like it or not you cant buy that much sound quality at that price (which has also been reduced.} I love Mine!

I have been slowly upgrading my system for many years now. I was finally in a position a few weeks ago to get a dedicated pre/pro in my system and sell my Denon receiver that was being used as a preamp. After listening to and looking at many pre/pros, I was pretty impressed with the sound quality that many of the units out there offered but not impressed with the lack of features and options on a lot of these models. The Parasound seemed to be a good match for my needs in terms of performance and features. To my ears, the Parasound is an excellent 2 channel preamp. I am rediscovering all of my music and finding little details that I missed with the Denon receiver (which was still an excellent receiver). The parasound is extremely quiet as well (low noise floor), a problem a lot of the other pre/pro's on the market have. It has improved the transparency and clarity of my system beyond my expectations. The impact and speed of drums and bass notes sounds incredible. I would say that the parasound is superior to the sunfire and acurus, the other 2 preamps I spent time listening to. For theater, it excells and really brings out a level of detail and clarity I didn't think was possible with Dolby Digital. The rear channel and center channel (voices) sound improved the most and I have been watching movies that I own over again to experience the sound the way it was meant to be. This is an excellent preamp that has every feature I needed. I use the DC triggers for my amps, the OSD helps setup and the auto-setup calibration works flawlessly. It has more inputs than I will ever max out and the rear panel layout was done extremely well. I have only one note of caution on this piece. The remote is OK but most learning remotes will not properly learn all of the codes from the included remote. They used the new Phillip RC-5 AB codes on the remote. The AB codes mean that every button push (for some of the buttons) sends alternating IR codes. A code, then B code, then A code, then B code, etc. So, for example, the mute button has a mute on code and a seperate mute off code, all from one button. When I programmed my marantz remote, I had to create a mute on button and a mute off button. So for many functions (mute, zone, THX, dimmer, etc) one button on the parasound remote becomes 2 on the marantx remote. Not a huge problem, but kind of annoying. The pronto remote will learn the AB codes properly (parasound rep tested this for me). The HK/microsoft remote will not learn the AB codes. Overall this is an excellent piece that I highly recommend.
Associated equipment:

Denon DCM-460 CD changer (used a transport)
Denon DVD 2000.
Parasound HCA-2003A 3 channel amp.
Parsound HCA-1000A 2 channel amp (for rears).
Hales Revelation 3/1/center speaker system.
HSU research HRS12Va subwoofer.
Wireworld Atlantis cables/interconnects all around (except rear speakers).