Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated impressions

Always on the lookout for an audiophile bargain, I was very interested to learn about Parasound's NewClassic 200 integrated amp. A couple of days ago I brought one home to demo. I still have it here, and am listening to it now actually. I also brought home the NAD C368, and for fun an old McIntosh MA6100. The Mac is $700 so seemed like it would at least be fun to try. I think the circuit design and construction is simple enough that repairs on this 40-something-year-old might not be too expensive (famous last words).

I thought I would share my initial impressions of the Parasound, as somebody else here must be looking at it too. If you are, please share. I know there's another thread discussing its announcement and specs, but it seems appropriate to start a new thread for actual impressions.

First let's dispense with the bad (and admittedly less important) stuff. My two main sticking points: 1) I hate that they combine the words New and Classic into one word! I know it's a stupid point to get hung up on, but I don't see the point. 2) To be kind, I'd say it is unimpressive looking. To be honest I'd say it's ugly. It just really does not speak to any aesthetic sense I might have (and as an art school graduate I like to think I have some). However, I've never been a fan of Parasound's industrial design, so no real surprise there. The 200 just looks insubstantial, although the (small) knobs feel nice.

In the past I've had some doubts about class D, but have been able to mostly overcome that. I think there's been some great implementations of the technology, and I think Parasound has done a real nice job here, especially at this price point ($1,097 at my dealer).

The word I keep going back to in describing its sound is detailed. There seems to be gobs of detail, which I happen to think is mostly a good thing. At one point it was nice to hear the room (not my room) when listening to Norah Jones' "Just a Little Bit" (MQA via Tidal and a Node 2i). I'm going to listen for a couple hours tonight to see if it's actually too much detail, and might lead to fatigue.

I'm running it through KEF R700 floorstanders, and find that it has a surprisingly good grip on the bass. The treble seems to be airy and shimmering. Mids are maybe a little recessed, but not terribly so. I have not tried it with a subwoofer, though it has some nice bass management features.

I did several A/B comparisons of its internal DAC (via coax) and my Bluesound Node 2i's DAC. The Node was the clear winner. I think the Parasound's DAC added even more detail on top of what was already there, and made for an overly-energetic sound. I think they both use Burr Brown chipsets, but I don't think they're the same.

The MM phono stage sounds quite capable. I'd been using a Lounge LCR III lately and I didn't feel like the Parasound's was a step down, though to be honest I've not spent much time spinning vinyl with it.

Anyhow, you may be wondering about the C368 and McIntosh. The C368 is a different beast, I think it does more things in the digital realm and I'm trying to figure out exactly what. For one thing the industrial design of it is a huge improvement over the 200, and its remote feels better in the hand, though the 200's has nice blue backlit buttons. Both of them have too many buttons for my taste. All I want is 2 volume buttons, a mute button, and one source selector button.

Its sound is a lot more laid back, maybe a little too smooth, or maybe blurring some details. But maybe that's just in comparison to the Parasound. We listened to it for a few hours the other night and I was not hearing anything objectionable on its own (i.e., without doing immediate A/B-ing).

There's too many things present on both units to do a feature-for-feature comparison. Ultimately I think there's things to like about both. Currently, for me, the Parasound is winning, but I reserve the right to change my mind!

As for the McIntosh, well, I hope you haven't read all this way hoping to hear about it, LOL. I was not able to get a single sound out of it. I double- and triple-checked my connections, and then took it down. Only later did I find out that the pre/main jumpers were missing! So if I get around to removing the banana plugs from my speaker cables again I'll give it another try...

 

That looks really nice.

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences with those two amps. I agree with your aesthetic assessment on the Newclassic 200. Not sexy at all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps slim and trim might be what floats another’s boat.

Surprised the NAD wasn’t sounding better. I would have thought at that price point the sound quality to be above average.

Another amp in that price range is the Cambridge Audio CXA80. I wonder how that one compares to the other two. Maybe a contender?

I don’t have the ways and means to compare amps nor the availability to test drive them at home. Reading others feedback here is helpful and educational. Looking forward to part two.

 

Love me some Parasound! It was the brand that introduced me to high end ( for a kid and now adult) sound. I’m gonna hook up my old Parasound jam tomorrow in honor of this thread. I will be adding the Conrad J. For amplification though. Love em

 

Optical: 192kHz - 24 bit --- good specs here
didn't realize optical could pass that resolution

 

Thanks for the write-up...very helpful. I like the so-called industrial look—absolutely loved the "form follows function" big, powerful box look of my NAD C372. In comparison, my CA 540R V3 looks almost garish. I was indeed looking at and wondering about the Parasound—but I seem to have bonded with a 4.1 setting on the CA called "Music." That setting does do some DSP involving rear speakers, and in this particular listening situation, rears aren't a bad thing. I see where the CA CXA80 has been mentioned in this thread. That unit also has a USB Audio input, an additional Toslink, and A/B speakers. I'm wondering what effect using both the A and B speakers would produce in the same room.

 

I don't think the NAD's sound is necessarily bad. I put it on again last night for a while and it was surely listenable, and some might even find it pleasurable. However, it did confirm my previous impression that the sound was a bit too smooth, and maybe a little dark. Might just be the way it treats my KEFs, or my room, or something else. Who knows. Your mileage will vary. I should mention that the dealer was not surprised all that the NAD/KEF combo gave me these impressions.

 

One contender that I've never heard but feel I should be comparing is the Rega Elex-R. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any Rega dealers in my area that offer at-home demos.

 

Thanks for your rundown - the parasound interests me a lot. I'm looking to put together my "last system" and parasound in general interests me a lot. My budget isn't huge, but it's pretty decent, so a solid $1100 parasound with built in DAC would go a long, long way in helping me meet my target. Much as I covet the Halo, it's probably not doable for me.

 

Same here. Not only no dealers for in home demos but no dealers here in Western NY at all. I ended up buying one from a dealer in the Hudson Valley that was a trade in unit. Haven’t heard it. Just rolling the dice since I’m happy with all my other Rega gear. It will arrive by the end of the week and I’ll post some thoughts on the forum when I get some listening in.

 

I have the New Classic 275v2 and I kinda like the slim chassis! It is a class A/B though and is very heavy/substantial for it's size(22lbs). I guess they went Class D with the integrated to save space for the rest of the features? Nice Burr Brown chipset in the 200 integrated.

 

I might have been a bit hard on it. It's not so terrible. In another thread someone said it looked straight out of 1996, which is maybe a better description of it.

 

the newClassic lineup is interesting, besides the 200, the 275v2 is a lot of amp for $600.

 

In the NC 275v2 the big transformer is almost touching the top! It doesn't run hot though! I'm planning on getting a second 275v2 and either bi-amping or bridging them. They'll both fit on one rack!

 

That is also an option for me. I'd need to add a DAC and I sure want an RME. I think that option might still might make it under budget and be slightly better than the integrated.

I don't like of particular dislike the low profile look - I tend not to care too much about looks if something is performing well. I do like the Halo look, though . . .

 

I could have stretched for the A23 but I liked the features on the 275v2 including a second set of speaker terminals to run my old Stax headphones. It also has a low pass filter and runs stable down to 2 ohms. You can bridge 2 of them to 200wpc into a 4 ohm load as well, which my Mirages are. Looking forward to getting a second one soon.

 

I have the 200 Pre and 275 V2 combo - it works great with a pair of Harbeth P3's. For the most part I've had pretty minimal integrateds, so these pieces have more options and features than I've ever had - but the designs are smart and useful. Look-wise I'm used to the appearance of pro gear, so these look normal to me!

I definitely like Parasound gear - I was going to go for a Halo Amp and Pre, but I needed something that didn't take up quite as much room, and ran cool... BTW I also really like their multi channel amps - I have a Zonemaster 650 for an outdoor system, and it works great. Nice use of Class D...

 

I see you use Kimber with your Parasound gear. I haven't put my PBJ/8VS combo on my Parasound yet. Been meaning too though.

 

The PBJ's are pretty old and I haven't used them in a while. I'm using them with this system because they don't take up much room - my credenza is only 18" deep, so there isn't much room for interconnects. I'm also going to re-terminate the 4TC's to spades on the amp side...

 

Well now, here's an interesting twist.

I got the McIntosh MA6100 up and running. There was something sorta nice about it but darned if it wasn't kinda hurting my ears.
Then I realized there's a phase switch. Pushed it in and Bob's your uncle! Sounds really nice. I like it better than the NAD. Has a nice energy and presentation. Not sure it has control of the bass in a way that I want, but there's definitely something good going on here. Now if only it had a remote control!

 

Damn. This thing sounds so nice. (the 6100)

Am I crazy for being so taken with this 40 year old integrated???

 

OK, so two problems have presented themselves with the Mac:

1. When I connect my Rega turntable (internally grounded) to either phono input, I get a loud hum. When I touch the Mac's ground post the hum goes mostly away. How do I resolve that? Does the Mac's ground post need to be grounded to... where? Earth ground??

2. This one is more troubling. The volume suddenly jumped up a bit. Turning the volume control then had no effect on the volume, either way. In fact, the power control is integrated into the volume knob and even after I clicked it into the off position I could still faintly hear music for a few seconds and then a terrible distortion for a couple seconds.

What would cause the volume to jump and then be impossible to control? Is that potentiometer shot? Or going? It was fine for 45 minutes. Maybe it fails when it gets hot?

What a bummer, I was really enjoying this amp.

 

Excellent, and now aging thread. I had a Parasound A23 fed from an Oppo HA-1. The upper bass was authoritative, but the highs seemed exaggerated and the mids seemed thin. It sounds like a similar experience to your Parasound integrated.

I now have the NAD C368, and I agree with your assessment of it seeming to be laid back. However, I haven't noticed any loss of detail. I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually more tonally accurate.

That even order harmonic distortion from your Mac is probably romancing you, but I bet it has the worst frequency response of the bunch. In your closing post, I'd agree with your idea about the pot, but I'm not an engineer.

Thanks for posting this thread Lebowski!

 

I have the New Classic 200 and the C368 on my list as well. One question: Does the Parasound start automatically from stand-by when there is a signal on any one channel, like the NAD (I think) does? To clarify, when I play something from my network streamer via Roon app) I want to hear the music directly without having to select the input. Same if I want to watch TV: As soon as I turn on the TV, I want the amp to play the sound, without having to switch inputs.

As I said, I think the NAD has this, also Rotel and probably others. Hope the OP or anyone else can help. Much appreciated.

 

The user manuals are all online. Maybe look there?