Rives PARC parametric equalizer

Shadome--well stated. We have found on installing the PARC in systems where people have been used to the bass bloat for some time, we have to reduce the attenuation on the notch filters as much as 50%. It's almost like we have to ween them off of the bloated bass because they have become so used to it--as you say "recalibrate". We have also found--even for myself, that totally flat is not pleasing. A little interaction with the room and bass is needed to give us a sense of space--a context so to speak. I think some people have gone for flat and found it's a bit on the sterile side, but that is the beauty of it--you can adjust it not only for accurate measurement, but for personal tastes as well.

Thanks to Shadorne and Rives the inventor of the PRAC for your insights. As i stated i like to hear from folks who have used the device. If you are not one of them, please don't bother. I am a PARC user. In my system, i love what it does to attenuate the bass boom from the standing waves in the 35-45 hz range. However, I can subjectively hear that it subtlely curtails the dynamic contrasts and sucks some life out of the overall sound of my LPs. I only attentuate at 40hz. Further up I don't have problematic peaks. instead i have some suck outs in the 100 to 200 hz range.
I am using a power cord and ICs costing the same as the PARC to feed the PARC. I would like to hear from other PARC users whether they hear anything similar to my experience. And was it bothersome?

I have heard the PARC--obviously, in very high end systems. There are a few things that you might do to see what it could possibly do to the signal--we engineered these things in for just this purpose.

First, the bypass is a true bypass. It goes off the audio boards. Second, if you power down then all the circuitry is removed from the PARC and all you are left with is the connections. You might set up a memory that has no attenuation for any band and then go to bypass and then turn the unit off. In theory--if the PARC is totally transparent and has no effect what so ever you would hear no difference in these 3 settings. Let's face it, you are going through a more complex signal path with each of these. In the world of mega buck cables, speakers, and room acoustics you can hear the difference in almost anything--but here is a way to hear exactly what that difference is. Give it a try--you be the judge.

Tks Rives and sorry for late reply...been travelling.. I have obviously tried the bypass mode vs taking the PARC entirely out of the chain. in my system and to my ears, the PARC does something to the sound besides attenuating bass booms. E.g.,the usual slight hiss from my tube pre-amp is greatly surppresed with the PARC in the chain, whether bypass mode is on or off. I don't know if the extra ic causes that.
I prefer PARC out of the chain. However, it would make the bass boom unbearing to listening. So it is a compromise.

I have been using a PARC for well over a year now. Certainly the PARC improves the bass and I prefer less bass bass attenuation then the Bare software recommends. In my system the midrange and treble sounded slightly flattened (2D) and less lucid when processed by the PARC. But I like what it does for the bass.

My speakers support passive biamping and the bass section crosses at over around 300 Hz. So, I ended up biamping with the PARC between the preamp and the bass amp. The preamp signal sent for the midrange and treble amp does not pass through the PARC. I find the midrange and treble sound better this way versus biwiring or using jumpers on the speakers.

Certainly there may be some advantage to biamping and also avoiding processing the midrange and treble through a second set of cables and additional connectors.

Bob