Lake11,
I was exactly in your shoes, going 80% music and 20% movies/TV. The AC-5 did bring me smiles when compared with other cords. Before I'm pointing out your weakest link, allow me to write few more things about the AC-5.
My Anthem's gear did appreciate the AC-5. The AC-5 gave me what I was looking for in that application, 80/20, detailed, classed and clean sound. Very fast respond for movies. It covered up weakness and flaws of Anthem's gear. But right when I took a big step and moved to a dedicated 2-ch gear (Jeff Rowland), I found that the AC-5 went a bit away from my 2-ch listening- musicality and warmness.
But as time goes by, I now do miss the AC-5. As matter of fact, I'm looking to buy a used one again right now, but there's so many fakes ones out there that I'm just tired of looking, searching, and investigating.
Read here and chat directly with PS-audio's CEO:
http://www.psaudio.com/ps/forum/viewthread/774/
About your weakest link, I lived with my Anthem's gear for about 4 years and I thought I was in heaven each time I played it -reliable, fun, and friendly user... until, yup, until I took the risk and bought the seperate JRDG. My current JRDG 102 amp is only 100w D-class but gets much more clarity and class when compared with 225wpc Anthem A5. The pre-amp Anthem AVM-30 was not even close when put side-by-side with the JR Capri. How much diff? like a $100-unit compared with $2K one.
I kept the Anthem for awhile to try diff combos & mix it up and I felt that the Capri preamp mated with A5 amp sounded cleaner than the AVM30 mated with JR 102 amp. Though I've never owned your Parasound, I think I'd still pick the Anthem AVM20 as for my first replacement.
Great luck.
Best,
