Hello and what to do

[gnmaurice]

Hi all,

I am new to this site and this if my first posting. I have a question for all of you. My brother upgraded his audio equipment some time ago. Thankfully, he never gets rid of his stuff. Well, his wife made him clean out his storage room and he gave me the following equipment:

• Energy speakers (I forget the model, but they were called the "million dollar speakers"
• Pioneer Elite SP-99D
• Parasound SP/P 1500

All three items work perfectly. I am pretty sure the Pioneer and Parasound are redundant and that I would only need to use one of those in a setup. I have a Technics turntable and Philips CD player that I would like to set up to this equipment.

What do I need to complete the setup? Do I need to get an Amp to power the speakers? I have seen several parasound two channel amps on ebay for pretty good prices. Should I get one of those?

When i tried to use the turntable with my home theater setup (Yamaha HTR-5280, Mitsubishi surround and subwoofer, etc.) there was hardly any sound coming from the speakers. Do I need to get something to boost that signal?

As you can tell, I am new to this. Any help would be appreciated as I would like to get this set up to listen to my music.

Thanks,

George

[Feanor]

Hi all,

I am new to this site and this if my first posting. I have a question for all of you. My brother upgraded his audio equipment some time ago. Thankfully, he never gets rid of his stuff. Well, his wife made him clean out his storage room and he gave me the following equipment:

• Energy speakers (I forget the model, but they were called the "million dollar speakers"
• Pioneer Elite SP-99D
• Parasound SP/P 1500

All three items work perfectly. I am pretty sure the Pioneer and Parasound are redundant and that I would only need to use one of those in a setup. I have a Technics turntable and Philips CD player that I would like to set up to this equipment.

What do I need to complete the setup? Do I need to get an Amp to power the speakers? I have seen several parasound two channel amps on ebay for pretty good prices. Should I get one of those?

When i tried to use the turntable with my home theater setup (Yamaha HTR-5280, Mitsubishi surround and subwoofer, etc.) there was hardly any sound coming from the speakers. Do I need to get something to boost that signal?

As you can tell, I am new to this. Any help would be appreciated as I would like to get this set up to listen to my music.

Thanks,

George

Welcome to AR.

Is the Pioneer a receiver or a surround processor? You mention that the Parasound and Pioneer are redundant with each other, but the Parasound is a surround processor/controller, also called a "prepro". To drive speakers using the Parasound you will also need an amplifier. A used Parasound, or alternatively Adcom, Carver, NAD, etc. is good option.

To get proper sound from you turntable & cartridge you will need a "phono preamp" that will, in turn, connect to your Parasound by way of an Auxiliary (AUX) pair of inputs. Assuming the cartridge is a "moving magnet" (MM) type, a very low cost, but surprisingly good phono preamp is this one from Phonopreamps.

Let me know if you have more questions.
...

[gnmaurice]

Welcome to AR.

Is the Pioneer a receiver or a surround processor? You mention that the Parasound and Pioneer are redundant with each other, but the Parasound is a surround processor/controller, also called a "prepro". To drive speakers using the Parasound you will also need an amplifier. A used Parasound, or alternatively Adcom, Carver, NAD, etc. is good option.

To get proper sound from you turntable & cartridge you will need a "phono preamp" that will, in turn, connect to your Parasound by way of an Auxiliary (AUX) pair of inputs. Assuming the cartridge is a "moving magnet" (MM) type, a very low cost, but surprisingly good phono preamp is this one from Phonopreamps.

Let me know if you have more questions.
...

Thanks for the quick reply. Just to follow up on what you stated:

• the speakers are Energy Pro 22 speakers that just had the tweeters rebuilt
• the Pioneer is a preamp and digital surround processor DTS & DD
• i forgot to mention that I also recieved a Parasound P/DD-1550

So, it looks like the parasound now has digital capabilities for my home theater. I looked into the phono preamp that you mentioned and will be putting an order in this weekend. Thanks for that lead. I am pretty excited about this as I finally get to listen to my LPs again and I will finally have a space where I can listen to my CDs with better euipment.

Here is a plan I mapped out with all this new equipment:
Get a "decent" 5-channel amp to use with the Parasound gear for my home theater. The Mitsubishi 5.1 speaker system is good enough for now until I upgrade within the next year or two.

Then, in the living room use the Pioneer along with a good 2-channel amp, a subwoofer, my cd player and phonograph as my music set-up. This seems logical and with all that equipment my brother sent me my wife is pretty happy that I am not spending a ton of money on this stuff.

My question to you is: Should I use the Pioneer or the Parasound gear for the 2-channel setup? Does either one have a better DAC and thus better using for the CD player and is either better in general for music, or are they both about equal.

FYI, if it matters I listen to all genres of music. I have classical, punk, rock, country/bluegrass, rock, power pop... My wife loves music also, she is a classicly trained pianist and has perfect pitch. Kind of frustrating to listen to classical music with her and she can pick out the nuances of the sounds. My ears are sort of blunt instruments.


Thanks,

George

[Feanor]

Thanks for the quick reply. Just to follow up on what you stated:

• the speakers are Energy Pro 22 speakers that just had the tweeters rebuilt
• the Pioneer is a preamp and digital surround processor DTS & DD
• i forgot to mention that I also recieved a Parasound P/DD-1550

So, it looks like the parasound now has digital capabilities for my home theater. I looked into the phono preamp that you mentioned and will be putting an order in this weekend. Thanks for that lead. I am pretty excited about this as I finally get to listen to my LPs again and I will finally have a space where I can listen to my CDs with better euipment.

Here is a plan I mapped out with all this new equipment:
Get a "decent" 5-channel amp to use with the Parasound gear for my home theater. The Mitsubishi 5.1 speaker system is good enough for now until I upgrade within the next year or two.

Then, in the living room use the Pioneer along with a good 2-channel amp, a subwoofer, my cd player and phonograph as my music set-up. This seems logical and with all that equipment my brother sent me my wife is pretty happy that I am not spending a ton of money on this stuff.

My question to you is: Should I use the Pioneer or the Parasound gear for the 2-channel setup? Does either one have a better DAC and thus better using for the CD player and is either better in general for music, or are they both about equal.

....

Thanks,

George

You plan is basically good. Just so I'm clear, I assume your music and HT systems are separate listening room, correct?

I have no opinion about whether the Pioneer or Parasound would be better for 2 channel, since both are basically "prepros". You might want to use the one with better ergonomic features in you HT setup, but as for a sound difference, you can only decide that yourself by experimentation.