[Mr Winston wolf]

Hi chaps.. looking for a bit of advice!! here goes, im in the market for a new
av amp/processor or reciever been looking into the parasound a51/a23 combo
and buying the a51 used and the a23 new, problem is ive been looking out for weeks for the parasound and nothing seems to be turning up?? the rest of my system as follows: m&k s150 (lcr) ss150 (rears) sw85 (ex roof mounted)
mx 350-2 (sub) the problem starts with the denon 3802 thats powering them!!!(and yes it does get hot!) I NEED MORE POWER ASAP.
Thing is ive seen a couple of rv8's out there and one a version 2 at not a bad
price is it really worth me waiting for the parasound? and also the rv8 is more wallet friendly!
The processor for the parasound system would be a mc8b but added at a later date, also been looking at a used lx7 amp to make things even more complicated but prices are a little steep (sevenoaks sv).

any advice would be greatly apprieciated, cheers, stacey

[leon]

hello i would get the parasound it will be worth it ..and as for power i can move my junk in my loft at half volume it would work well with the m&k i have used lexicon and found the parasound to be better for my music and films ( imoa) if you private message me ill tell you where there are discounted parasound and a first class service..i have just found out that i can run 5 subs of it ..not that i will tho 4 will be enough to keep the neighbours happy

[leon]

some piccys

[leon]

more piccys are you tempted yet ?

[leon]

more piccys

[danny daniell]

Have you considered Nad Master Series? Very good value at £4k for amp & processor & has achieved wildly enthusiastic reviews on both sides of the pond.

[Streetrod]

Hey, I would back up Danny on this one, I had ambitions to get some Parasound kit a while ago but is was out of my price range. I then tried the Nad Master Series and was blown away. I ended getting them instead. You owe it to yourself to listen to this gear. All of the reviewers have raved about them.
I have attached a couple of pic's of my set for you to see. Not only do they sound great they look brill and the build quality in out of this world. As you can see I am a convert

[Streetrod]

Stacey, this was a little review I wrote after I got my kit.

OK folks a quick at home review of my Master series kit. First off build quality. Well I would still be impressed if the kit had cost twice as much and people who have seen it all guessed it cost more than it did. The operating system. The DVD has some well laid out colour menus that are easy to navigate and set up. The display panel is bright but some of the lettering is very small so you to be close to read it. The processor on the other had has a very basic black and white menu system but at the end of the day it again is easy to navigate and set up. One negative is that the OSD is not available over HDMI, this is not too much of a problem as it works over component, S-video and composite. As i have mentioned before the processor is not overly endowed with features but I like this as I am a great beliver in keeping things simple. And most of the tweeks I have seen on intergrateds dont get used anyway. The remote feels nice in you hand and works well, and should not present anyone with problems.
The amp, oh what a beast, as mentioned before it does weigh a tonne and getting it into the rack on my own was an interesting exp, I suggest you use a friend.
Now to how it performs. In a word great. The DVD player I think compares very well to others in its class for picture quality and knocks most of them out of the ring for sound quality. The processor does not appear to impose any character on the music, ie the sound is very transparent which is good. At the end of the day it does what it has too, no more, no less.
The amp really is the iceing on the cake. It has huge reserves of power and never appears to get into a flap. The bass really slaps you in the chest and has great control. The sound is very smooth but detailed at the same time. I think it would make a great upgrade to almost any system. You owe it to yourself to have a listen.
So overall I am very happy, its not perfect, the processor could do with more HDMI sockets of the latest versions and I also need to buy a phono stage to allow me to listen to records. But non of these are a great problem. I just hope that Nad have a matching Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combi player on the road map, now that would be a killer app


The Parasounds are wonderfull bits of kit, I personally think that Lexicon stuff is overpriced, but if you can afford you are are a lucky man.
Good luck in your search

[danny daniell]

Absolut Beast!

[Mr Winston wolf]

Originally Posted by Streetrod

Stacey, this was a little review I wrote after I got my kit.

OK folks a quick at home review of my Master series kit. First off build quality. Well I would still be impressed if the kit had cost twice as much and people who have seen it all guessed it cost more than it did. The operating system. The DVD has some well laid out colour menus that are easy to navigate and set up. The display panel is bright but some of the lettering is very small so you to be close to read it. The processor on the other had has a very basic black and white menu system but at the end of the day it again is easy to navigate and set up. One negative is that the OSD is not available over HDMI, this is not too much of a problem as it works over component, S-video and composite. As i have mentioned before the processor is not overly endowed with features but I like this as I am a great beliver in keeping things simple. And most of the tweeks I have seen on intergrateds dont get used anyway. The remote feels nice in you hand and works well, and should not present anyone with problems.
The amp, oh what a beast, as mentioned before it does weigh a tonne and getting it into the rack on my own was an interesting exp, I suggest you use a friend.
Now to how it performs. In a word great. The DVD player I think compares very well to others in its class for picture quality and knocks most of them out of the ring for sound quality. The processor does not appear to impose any character on the music, ie the sound is very transparent which is good. At the end of the day it does what it has too, no more, no less.
The amp really is the iceing on the cake. It has huge reserves of power and never appears to get into a flap. The bass really slaps you in the chest and has great control. The sound is very smooth but detailed at the same time. I think it would make a great upgrade to almost any system. You owe it to yourself to have a listen.
So overall I am very happy, its not perfect, the processor could do with more HDMI sockets of the latest versions and I also need to buy a phono stage to allow me to listen to records. But non of these are a great problem. I just hope that Nad have a matching Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combi player on the road map, now that would be a killer app


The Parasounds are wonderfull bits of kit, I personally think that Lexicon stuff is overpriced, but if you can afford you are are a lucky man.
Good luck in your search

cheers for the reply STREETROD nice set up mate.. i saw one of these at my local sevenoaks but never listened to it! they wanted me to come back for a demo, but to quite honest never bothered because the bloke in there is a bit of a plonker! will look into this setup tho.. certainly looks top notch.
(ps) i rekon we may be seeing a ps3 on that second shelf before long!!

[Streetrod]

Damn!! you have read my mind, the PS3 is on order at Game at the moment. It will be used mainly as my HD source for the moment. Good luck with yuour search.

[rags]

I would stick to the MC8B. I have owned both the C2 and the MC8 and whilst the C2 is an excellent processor the MC8 is slightly better for movie sound and is far more flexible than the C2. Also Lex's Logic 7 processing is excellent.

Between the Parasound A51 and LX7, it really boils down to how many channels you need. Both are excellent amps but in terms of new the A51 represents better value for money even though it has two less channels. The LX7 is simply not worth £5k or whatever they ask for it new.

You can pick up bargains on all of this kit in the second hand market. It's just a timing thing. I sold my A51 in the classifieds for £1500 from recollection. I also bought an MC8 and LX-7 (mint both two years old) for £3,900 from the classifieds. Just keep your eyes peeled I guess.

[rags]

Very nice looking kit there by the way streetrod

[guyvert1]

If the RV-8 you've seen is from another hifi for sale site then I think you'll find it sold a while back....

[joffy1780]

Streetrod-those are absolutely beautiful.
P.S. there are so many stumbling block when you compliment someone who has NAD in their setup,as you can see from my sig.
E.g.
Streetrod,your NADs are sublime.
I would love to see your NADs in the flesh,Streetrod.
Streetrod,can I see some pics of your Nads.
Your NADs look so powerful.

The list is literally endless.

[Mr Winston wolf]

anyone got any input on the lex rv8? any proud owners out there?

[guyvert1]

Very good unit, if you don't mind not having hdmi switching.. Processing is superb, esp logic7... Amp is a lot sweeter than my old Rotel 1095 which was powerful, but not quite the resolution of the RV8... I think they're def. worth a go if you get one < £3k

[Apone]

The Nad set up looks really nice. Depending on your budget, I would also consider an av amp such as a Denon A11XVA or a Marantz 8001. These can also be used as a separate amp in future if you get a processor in future.

The main caveat of doing the above is that your money is going more toward a good feature spec and a reasonable sound quality, where the Lexicon or Nad set up will possibly give you a more better quality sound and maybe fewer features.

I have a MK 750 set up with mx350 sub and am also in the same boat as you and am thinking about the above options. I do however have Marantz monoblocs (MA500 X 5) to power the 750's and would use the av amp as a pre amp and keep the monoblocs. You could also just go for the Nad or Parasound 7 channel amp and use your Denon as a processor and see if you like the sound. MK speakers just lurve to have power

Mahmood

[guyvert1]

MX350... crikey I used to drool over these years ago, still a 'mans' sub these days I've not had the heart to sell my old M&K S85's & v125 sub ....

Trouble these days is there isn't alot of mid range all in ones, denon/yam/pio etc offer superb value, but you're always going to be limited with the amp stage, If I'd of come across some brystons, I'd of gone that route, but owners tend to hang onto the good stuff as we all do I'd pretty much decided on lex. as the proc. of choice.

If you've got the time and energy, my advise is to start researching a few top 2nd hand brands, like bryston, parasound, lexicon etc, then spend as long as you can 'handle' tracking then down...Also if you can, go listen to everything

But you're gunna need a budget of around £2k for amp and prob. same for proc.. but the end product will last for many years to come..

[Apone]

Guyvert1

S85's are good speakers. With regard to what you said about the end product lasting years, I think you are absolutely correct. I purchased my monoblocs 2nd hand and have had them for 8 years and I would not replace them as they are fine or my speakers (would not say no to Brystons though.. ).

I did have a Denon A11XVA for a while to test at home and used it as a processor with my amps and the MK speakers sounded even better, I think the advances in digital signal processing has made leaps and bounds progress in the last few years compared to amplifier progress in the same time period.

So maybe what I'm trying to say is that if you go for a pre/pro and amp route, the chances are that in the future you are more likely to upgrade the processor than the amp unless you've got the upgrade bug bad or have the money to do both.

BTW the reason I did not keep the Denon is that I am waiting for Dolby True HD and DTS HD decoding within the amp/processor.

Mahmood

[avfriend]

I have a similar setup as yours, I would vote for Parasound amp A23 or A51 as it match with M&K speakers and sound great.

My equipment:
Lexicon MC-12B V5 EQ
M&K MPS 2510P x 3 (L,C,R)
M&K MPS 2525 x 2 (Side Surround) <-- Driven by Parasound A23
M&K MPS 1525 x 2 (Rear Surround) <-- Driven by Parasound A23
M&K MPS 5310
M&K MX-350

[leon]

wow some nice kit you have there avfriend

[guyvert1]

Wow, I'll have to try my speaker positioning like that

Interesting thread and some great kit guys If it was my choice i would take Lexicon over Parasound although it is quite a bit more $$$ depending on the choice of Lexicon, but IMO it is most certainly worth it as they make great processors and power amps

[guyvert1]

'recruit' , hows the scaler, been thinking about one of these for a while but with all the HD sources now avail, not sure if its worth it?

Originally Posted by guyvert1

'recruit' , hows the scaler, been thinking about one of these for a while but with all the HD sources now avail, not sure if its worth it?

great VP and flawless in it's operation on all sources, one of the best investments i have made

[avfriend]

Originally Posted by leon

wow some nice kit you have there avfriend

Leon, thanks.

Hope to share your usage experience and learn more from you here. I am just a newbie within this forum.

[krishen]

i was also thinking about the a51. how would this pair with a tagav32r processor and monitor audio RS6AV do you think the sound would match nicely?

[miceri]

Is this MCxx range due to be replaced anytime soon, I recall reading that somewhere...

Might be some bargain hunting to be had for a MC12B v5 EQ (Drool) or LX-7.

[grey torq]

Have you considered an MC-1, disadvantages are no HDMI and no 5.1 analogue input but for sound quality it is excellent value. I have owned an MC-8b and could not hear a difference in sound quality hence I couldn't justify the additional expense so the MC-8 went on ebay.