Thanks so much for the detailed reply. You asked a couple of questions that I'll answer.
On the hiss, I've tried everything to get rid of it. I've (a) used a cheater plug; (b) swapped for very expensive Audioquest MacKenzie RCA interconnects; (c) bought a Furman elite power conditioner; (d) unplugged the coax entirely; (e) unplugged all components except the amp (and it still hisses); and (f) lowered the gain on the amp (this brought the hiss from 2 ft down to 10 inches, but the negative side effects on speaker volume aren't worth it). I spoke with Parasound about it, and they believe that it's a characteristic of the amp floor. Others on other forums also have had these issues with the amp.
I'm using a Denon x7200wa as a preamp, though the end goal is to get a Marantz 8805 or an Anthem once HDMI 2.1 boards are installed. My source is Tidal a (very high-end) home theater PC. It's connected to the Denon with a digital coax cable for audio (and HDMI for video). The digital coax is a generic cable from Amazon. Everything is plugged into a Furman Elite 15 pfi power conditioner.
To be fair, the noise floor is pretty low in the sense that I absolutely cannot hear it from where I'm sitting in the room. I sit between 8 and 9 feet away, and the noise is absolutely inaudible after 2 feet. And even then, it's inaudible over 1 foot except at a height right in line with the tweeters. So really, I may be letting the perfect get in the way of the good here.
As to the Parasound, I agree that it's highly regarded. I picked it because the first 7 or 8 watts are pure class A, which is unheard of at its price for an amplifier with 250w RMS all channels. I also got a good deal on it. But that deal came with a price -- it's basically unreturnable because it was a special order. The store is making an exception and will let me exchange it for an Anthem MCA 525 (for an additional $600), an Anthem A5 (for an additional $1100), or the Rotel RMB-1585 (even trade). I also could go for any other Anthem, Rotel, Parasound, or Mark Levinson product, but there were no other similar choices in the price category that I'm looking at (and they aren't a Classe dealer).
With those choices, I don't want the MCA 525 because I've read a number of posts (and verified with Anthem support) that it sometimes sends pops to speakers when it turns on and off because they removed some sort of relay. I don't want the Rotel because I previously auditioned a Rotel RB-1590 (the big 350w 2 channel one) and found it inferior to Parasound in sound quality -- I suspect that the 5 channel one isn't as good.
That leaves the Anthem A5 or just sticking with the Parasound. I'm on the fence. I don't want to lose sound quality, but I'd like to get rid of the hiss for peace of mind. It seems rather silly when you stop to think about it, though -- I hear the hiss only when I get very close to the speaker, yet I hear the sound quality and use overall amperage/wattage of the amp every day.
I really appreciate your thoughts.
On the hiss, I've tried everything to get rid of it. I've (a) used a cheater plug; (b) swapped for very expensive Audioquest MacKenzie RCA interconnects; (c) bought a Furman elite power conditioner; (d) unplugged the coax entirely; (e) unplugged all components except the amp (and it still hisses); and (f) lowered the gain on the amp (this brought the hiss from 2 ft down to 10 inches, but the negative side effects on speaker volume aren't worth it). I spoke with Parasound about it, and they believe that it's a characteristic of the amp floor. Others on other forums also have had these issues with the amp.
I'm using a Denon x7200wa as a preamp, though the end goal is to get a Marantz 8805 or an Anthem once HDMI 2.1 boards are installed. My source is Tidal a (very high-end) home theater PC. It's connected to the Denon with a digital coax cable for audio (and HDMI for video). The digital coax is a generic cable from Amazon. Everything is plugged into a Furman Elite 15 pfi power conditioner.
To be fair, the noise floor is pretty low in the sense that I absolutely cannot hear it from where I'm sitting in the room. I sit between 8 and 9 feet away, and the noise is absolutely inaudible after 2 feet. And even then, it's inaudible over 1 foot except at a height right in line with the tweeters. So really, I may be letting the perfect get in the way of the good here.
As to the Parasound, I agree that it's highly regarded. I picked it because the first 7 or 8 watts are pure class A, which is unheard of at its price for an amplifier with 250w RMS all channels. I also got a good deal on it. But that deal came with a price -- it's basically unreturnable because it was a special order. The store is making an exception and will let me exchange it for an Anthem MCA 525 (for an additional $600), an Anthem A5 (for an additional $1100), or the Rotel RMB-1585 (even trade). I also could go for any other Anthem, Rotel, Parasound, or Mark Levinson product, but there were no other similar choices in the price category that I'm looking at (and they aren't a Classe dealer).
With those choices, I don't want the MCA 525 because I've read a number of posts (and verified with Anthem support) that it sometimes sends pops to speakers when it turns on and off because they removed some sort of relay. I don't want the Rotel because I previously auditioned a Rotel RB-1590 (the big 350w 2 channel one) and found it inferior to Parasound in sound quality -- I suspect that the 5 channel one isn't as good.
That leaves the Anthem A5 or just sticking with the Parasound. I'm on the fence. I don't want to lose sound quality, but I'd like to get rid of the hiss for peace of mind. It seems rather silly when you stop to think about it, though -- I hear the hiss only when I get very close to the speaker, yet I hear the sound quality and use overall amperage/wattage of the amp every day.
I really appreciate your thoughts.