The S2H blog: Sucks to be you.

So, I got this great deal on eBay last night! WOOHOO! I’ve been looking for a new amp for my DJ service for the last 6 months or so (I’ve got another gig the end of May). So, that’s the background – and here’s the story…

I’ve been looking at Crown amps. Crown is pretty much has the best PA amps you can buy – robust, dependable, good sound, lots of power, great protection features, upgradeable filter options… the works. You know those crazy Metallica and “Fitty-cent” concerts where the music is so loud that the speakers thumping suck the air right out of your lungs? Yeah, you can bet it’s Crown MacroTec amps making those speakers thump – entire racks of them, we’re talking probably 50,000 Watts of REAL power (not the 100W rating you see from Pioneer receiver at Best Buy that only puts out 12 Watts) running those speakers in a setting like that. Go to your local THX Ultrascreen cinema – it’s probably Crown XLS amps running the system. Olympic stadiums… ball parks… churches… auditoriums… the best all use Crown.

One of the great things about them is that they’re all made right here in the USA – Elkhart, IN. [enter in “God Bless the USA” background music]. I actually had a job lined up there out of school as a design engineer (thank you MSOE for being on my resume). Unfortunately, Crown suffered from 9/11 just like everybody else and lost a bunch of funding. Well, technically, Crown was doing pretty well – but the mothership “Harmon Industries” (i.e. Harmon Kardon, JBL, dbx, AKG, lexicon, etc) was doing poorly as a whole – and Harmon had just recently acquired Crown. Anyway, budget reductions… They killed my position (that was pending the budget update), another entry level position, as well as “letting go” of a few people. Hard times. It’s disappointing that I didn’t get my dream job out of school… but who knows what my life would be like now if I were in Elkhart, IN. Let’s hope I still would have met the girl of my dreams on eHarmony… I’m pretty sure God would have worked that out somehow again. He’s cool like that.

Anyway, I have been watching prices for months… and was just about to make a purchase last night. I had decided on the XLS-602 for subwoofer duty on my DJ rig. I have two other mono amps that currently run the subs, but was going to move those to the main full-range cabinets in the interim until I got another gig to pay for an XLS-402 amp to run the mains. I found a good deal (not incredible) and was going to “Buy It Now” on eBay… but I just got this notion – “What the heck, let’s see if they have any Parasounds up for sale…”

I currently am using a Parasound HCA-1500A to run my main stereo pair of speakers. I have fallen in love with Parasound amps. I also have an HCA-855A on my rack that runs the center and surround channels. When I got the 1500A, I had always planned to find a mate for it. The 1500A can be bridged into mono operation… giving a much better sound quality – and boost the power rating to 600W (from 200W/ch). I don’t need the power at all, but just wanted the better sound from bridged mode. It produces a much wider sound stage and reduces distortion considerably… a wonderful thing.

One of the reasons I love the 1500A is because it was designed by legendary audio designer John Curl. I’ve had the privilege to pick his brain online a few times on various audio forums that I frequent. I’ve read a lot of his posts and find his design philosophies to be ingenious. And it’s all backed up with the incredible sound quality that comes out of Parasound’s amps. Granted, Parasound “tweaks” things from his proposed designs to reduce cost on a few components, but the heart of the matter remains.

That said, as I scrolled through my search query, I came across a 1500A with an incredible “Buy It Now” price on eBay. I was stunned. It was meant to be. 1500A’s are rarely for sale because everybody that owns one wants to keep it. It’s perfect. Now I can use the two 1500A’s in bridged mode at home for audio nirvana… and be able to use the bridged mode “on the road” for DJ gigs to take advantage of the incredible power. Boo ya!

This also means I don’t have to make a new crossover circuit for the DJ setup (which I would have had to do if I would have gone the other route). The downfall is that I do’t have dedicated gear for the DJ setup… but if I keep getting gigs, I’ll be able to afford some dedicated gear for that that’s better suited to the task. Crown will definitely come into play if that road is in my future.

Check out the Parsound HCA-1500A specs here.