I told you so...

ukcolin99

When I sold my Parasound A21 because I'd bought an A51 to manage my 2 & 5 channel listening through my Yamaha RX A3020, a voice in my head said "don't look back you can never look back" well Don was wrong.
Immediately realized digital music via RCA's through my Yamaha did not work.
Result is a v.crowded Samson SRK21 rack with mismatched silver Parasound A21 (sounds very good though) 2 x Furman power, LG Blu-ray, Netgear switch, AC Infinity Multifan S3 & the Cambridge 851N to look at in the front.
Added 2 x 703's to replace the 705's in the 5.1 system, so far all is good (definitely much better) in my audio visual world.
Excuse to attach a photo or 2, more importantly lesson to all; don't be hasty or your rack components won't match..

gudnoyez

I got a A31 in the HT setup in silver don't bother me a bit, however it sits on a black amp stand off to the right between the stand that has all the other gear, and the right tower speaker the color mis match is not as noticeable that way as if it was all in the same rack with all black gear. The way it looks you have that rack placed behind your
set up no one will notice it anyways nice rig by the way, got a love those Parasound Halos.

rpf65

Aluminum foil, dull side, could be a solution.

Airplay355

Not to derail but how do you like the furman? I was considering one to combat the noise floor.

ukcolin99

Definitely like Furman units, plug them in leave them alone. I have 2 x PL-PLUS units in photo, plus a PL-8C 15 without the lights. They will increase in value in Oct 2015 they were $157 now same unit is $239.

ukcolin99

For everyone including me, who was not ok with the silver A21, I feel better & you are welcome.

mhardy6647

looks -- purposeful.

DaveHo

Nice looking rack. How hot do those amps get?

pitdogg2

Too tight for me Dave.

ukcolin99

Thanks mh, needed a different look, older viewers will recall my horrible ULine wire shelves, now everything is hidden in the Rack behind the TV stand (except the Cambridge) using BAFX IR repeater.

Thanks DH, No issues (& no back on the Rack), the 51 has space to breath, the Furman directly above the 21 is around 6" deep so most of the amp is clear. By far the hottest component is the Yamaha, (AC Infinity Cloudplate T1 fan above). If I put the temp sensor directly above the Yamaha, fans will run within minutes.

To be fair I am not pushing either Parasound very hard; 706c & 4 x 705's driven by the 51 & tiny rears running off the 3020 for TV/HT.
Mostly adult volumes on the 2C/21.
They do all run at once, I'm a huge watch muted movie/sports while listening to 2 channel music, guy.

cfrizz

Nice stack of gear and rack!

ukcolin99

Thanks cf, for those interested the pile of wood, drill, place mats & motorcycle lift (not pictured) were used to maneuver the amp into position so the mounting screws aligned with rack mounting holes, that beauty is heavy.

dromunds

Sweet!

ukcolin99

Final lesson of the day for the Solid State Digital gang, we know who we are, (embrace the convenience & quality).
If something does not sound right it’s you not your components. Last year power was suddenly down, checked connections, changed wires, checked settings & warranties. Found inexplicably my iTunes master volume was set at three quarters instead of max, still have no idea how it changed (best guess software update).
Last week after the black Parasound A21 was installed, detected left speaker output was slightly lower than the right. Checked Mac Pro & iTunes settings first, dived deep into Cambridge set up, checked connections, hoped it was Spotify - not, Lossless iTunes also sounded right side stronger.
Surely it couldn't be my new to me A21 bought off the 'Bay from 100% seller. I'd carefully checked & adjusted the back of the Parasound before Rack install; Input Balanced, Ground Normal, On/Off Manual, Gain maximum, Manual start (middle setting). Visual check looked okay. Out of town for a few days, laid in bed (at night) thinking what have I missed?
Started again checking speaker connections, looking closely at rear of unit & component connections, everything looked good, reached back through my mess of wires, tried to turn right Gain dial clockwise to maximum, would not move, turned left Gain dial, it moved an hour on the clock face to maximum. Fixed it. Can't imagine how that gain dial moved, sadly why it took so long to isolate the issue, blaming age related deterioration.

mhardy6647

in the 1970s, we on the CB (Citizens' Band) radio had a benediction of sorts that we would share with our fellow CBers.

Keep the shiny side up, and the dirty side down

You, sir, have turned the dirty side up.

mhardy6647

A more typical example of a CBer who has failed to keep the dirty side down.

Clipdat

ukcolin99 wrote: »

Started again checking speaker connections, looking closely at rear of unit & component connections, everything looked good, reached back through my mess of wires, tried to turn right Gain dial clockwise to maximum, would not move, turned left Gain dial, it moved an hour on the clock face to maximum. Fixed it. Can't imagine how that gain dial moved, sadly why it took so long to isolate the issue, blaming age related deterioration.

I don't like that Parasound amps have those gain knobs.