Headache city........This pricy Parasound is eye catching and full on features at first. However, once installed it constantly locks up for no reason what so ever. The sound once you get it working is okay. It's not good enough to overshadow the BIG quirks about this system.

love this piece. with the p/dd1500 decoder it is spacious and has wonderful steering did lock/unlock on some dvd's early on so i sent it to parasound for a decoder upgrade ...no problem since and they were very professional and responsible.2 channel stereo is very good all the music, no color I can discern.
i give it a four for build quality looks and performance
knocked off one mark for the clunky volume/remote integration...it takes repeated clicks of the clicker to get it to roll up or down smoothly (like one would if the signal were weak due to bad batteries or such) called parasound on that and was informed "it is how it is" no problem just annoyance.

I have the Parasound 1500 preamp. At first I had the lockup problems, but I suspected electrical problems. My listening room was wired pathetically, with a lot of stuff on one line. So I invested in some wire, and brought a sigle line in to the preamp. It has never locked up since, not once.
I think it is very power hungry at startup, needs to draw a lot of amps, to setup acceptably.

I am not an electronics expert, but that has been my experience. A dedicated line, and no problems since.

Chris

I will try to keep this short. I had one, didnt like it! Had to send it to the factory two times to repair the RCA connections on the inputs! One time the unit was in for an overhaul Rod at Interior Sound Design in Peoria let me take home a P/SP 1000, it sounded much much smoooother than the 1500! The remote control functioned slower than a snail! Traded it for a DVD player! I now have a Parasound P/LD 2000 Pre-Amp! It Kicks!!! I dont need no stinking surround!!
This thing deserves no stars!

I purchased the 1500 surround last spring. My overall first impression was great (I bought the Parasound 806 amp, plus the scamp, and Jamo 507 speakers...overall about $4800.00 then the P/sp 1500 unit started locking up on me also.. I have to unplug the whole system and then turn it back on. I guess it resets itself, but I'm not a real expert on this side of the field.. I am really pissed that there is a problem with this $1500 PREAMP I have not had it in as of yet for repair. I am scared to find out and get to the bottom as to why it locks up...any info would be great. I haven't been able to explain to my wife this so called great piece of equipment that I spent months saying we desperately needed is now a piece of junk.
And to top it off, the store I purchased it from went out of business (Electronic Safari in San Mateo) So now I am stuck to call Parasound,
I called Parasound a few weeks ago inquiring about there new P/DD 1550 decoder and they were extremely rude to me.
If anyone has more info on this please would you please email me directly. Thanks

I purchaed the Parasound about three months ago, and I was very wary at first at the whole deal, because I've read that this unit has had its share of quibbles as far as overall build quality is concerned. I have been listening to high-end audio for years now (Cary, Pro-Ac's, Mcormick, CEC, etc.), and have gotten used to the concept of an actual, proper two channel image, (Something that I belive is a learned concept, by the way, but that onto itself is a diffrent topic for another review.) something that anything that serves as a Pre-amplifier needs to get right, or the whole thing falls apart. But the Parasound gets this---there's a certain 'rightness' to all of the instruments and voices, and they both maintain that rounded quality that is a both natural and wanted quality in a pre-amp. Soundstage is well-defined, at least in my system, which consists of a Parsound Amplifier, the six-channel 806, NHT Superones on sand-filled Alantic speaker stands, Pioneer 604 laserdisc player, Toshiba 2108 DVD player, Sony V series television, Sony 740 'hi-fi' VCR, Vantage Point A/V rack, Silver Sonic interconnects, and Kimber Cable 4vs speakercable. The Parasound 1500 replaced an Harmon Kardon AVR 25mk2 as the pre-ap, and I can tell you from both memory and listening notes that the Parasound has that something 'extra' in every audiophile category---and some in the videophile one two. Bass was deeper and tighter, and voices, while still retaining some of the 'dark,'or laid back quality of the H/K, seems more open. Indeed, my fiancee has commented on how much easier the Parasound is on the ears, citing to me that the pre-amp stage or more likely, the amplfiers in the Harmon/Kardon are somewhat laid back and closed in, which makes for me at least, the Parasound far easier to listen to. Overall, I preferred to switch the PS/1500's THX processing on, as it yielded both a deeper soundstage, and a better sense of surround envelopment. Most importantly, for those of us with spouses, I can at least say that the Parasound has produced flawless sound and operation for me at least so far, (God bless that.)with only a few quirks, like a remote who's buttons are too small for me and egonomics my be a little strange. But the unit is easy to set up, supplies good sonics, and is AC-3 / DTS ready (Chiro has a unit that will plug in to the Parasound, D-25 connection on the back, if any of you can't find Parasounds adapter; with DTS it retails for $1,699.)It has a small amount of quirks, and seems to be sensitive to cable lines, (No hum, but my unit made the DVD and LD's picture go wavy until I grounded the cable line.)and the remote, while not slow, is not as fast to change volume as some of the Japanese recevier. But this unit has good build quality, nice styling. And let me tell you somethin, after hearing all the groaning about the ACT-3 I can tell you that I am overjoyed with my choice of the Parsound. The PS/1500 is not the ultimate in surround sound resoultion,but costs half as much as the units that do--it laid back (But not closed in)character helps to minmize harshness in soundtracks, something that is sorely needed. My only caution is to make sure you pair the Parasound to a pair of netural to bright loudspeakers and amplfiers; dark amps and loudspeakers might ruin your party. I've heard my setup (Amp and preamp, with a Sony 7000 DVD player as the source.) driving a pair of NHT VT1.2's and I've fallen in love; this will be my next speaker. But even though, again, this is not the ultimate in resolution, it costs half as much as the units that do provide this service. Give the Sherwood newcastle a listen; they have a DD/DTS pre for about the same price as th Parasound. But I can highly recommend this product, Stereophile already has, Class A. Enjoy!

We all know the P/SP 1500 made some problems. But did you ever listen to an6 channel pre that did sound better in stereo or DPL? Sorry, but I did not.
The point is that if you still want stereo in perfection you have to look
for an analog base like the P/SP. Did you ever listen to a full digital pre?
Well, there are missing the point in stereo, and the world is not fully
surround yet. So the P/SP is still the best of two worlds. Perfect stereo
and a DB25 connector for DD and DTS upgrade.
Five points for sound quality

I am currently using the p/sp 1500 as a two-channel pre-amp,which it handles very well - 4 stars for sound quality.

Build quality is good, and the unit is attractive.

It locks up about once per year, so that you cannot turn
it on (it never locks up while on), so that
you have to un-plug it and plug it back in.
This bugged me at first, but now I am used to
it.

There is quite a bit of cross-talk problems between
the video inputs. If you plug a satelite receiver
into "video 1", set the pre to "video 2" and turn
the volume all the way up, you can hear "video 1"
sound quite clearly. Fortunately this does not
affect the audio inputs.

When I first purchased the P/sp1500 around 6 months ago I was VERY pleased! After about 3 months of use I noticed it would just lock up and I would have to pull the power plug. After returning this product the store gave me another immediatly and I took it home. Once again about 2 months later the same problems started to happen and now a new problem with the volume. Personally this is NOT acceptable for a $1500 preamp! The store that sold me the Parasound then let me have all my money back to buy a DIFFERENT companies Preamp. After giving me my new preamp by B&K, I was told that they had over 75% of the P/SP 1500 fail on them within 3-4 months.I would NOT recommend this product. (parasound makes GREAT amps though!.)

I bought my unit about 6 weeks ago and was amazed how easy it is to operate. The unit gives you alot of listening options (DPL, THX Cinema, Stereo Direct....). I listen to music using the Stereo Direct mode which fires up my front left/right speakers and subwoofer. For movies, you can't beat the DPL/THX Cinema mode. The remote is easy to operate, matter of fact, the unit was one of the easiest I've ever set up. I'm looking to add Parasound's DD add-on as soon as it is out on the streets. I also own Parasound's HCA 1206 amp (135 watts x 6, THX-certified) and this combination is awesome for home theatre and music. My hat off to Parasound for making such quality equipment at a competitive price.