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Denon x6500h & Parasound amplifier issue

utahdeej

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Nov 7, 2022
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Need some help from the pros on this one. I have my Denon x6500 running a 7.1.4 home theater. LCR (and a second zone) are powered by a Parasound HCA-1205a amplifier and working beautifully. The other 8 channels (4 klipsch R-14s for surround and 4 Jamo 660A2 ceiling Atmos) are currently running off the Denon and also working beautifully. So everything is great like that and I should just not post this BUT I have two Parasound HCA-806 amps in my rack that I'd like to use for those 8 channels. Why? Cause they're available and by all accounts should work at least as good and maybe a whole lot better.

When these channels are added to the mix via the Denon preouts (Denon now isn't driving anything but of course the amp boards are still since I don't have preamp mode) the problem starts.

At low to moderate volume the surround but more often height channels cut in and out. It sounds like a loose wire or a dirty pot neither of which are true however. At higher volume the problem seems to be less likely or even disappear... Atmos/ other surround modes are the main culprit, multi channel stereo with music seems to be less likely to cut it out. Maybe the signal gets too low for the amp in those modes?

Input sensitivity on the 806's are 1.0v (same on the 1205 FWIW).

Things I've tried: (granted with different speakers but I highly doubt the speakers are the trouble)

iPhone to lightning headphone to rca as a source = no trouble at any volume
Fixed output from a Denon 2910 DVD to Parasound using the volume control on the amp = no trouble at any volume

I suspect the output of the Denon is not a good match for the Parasound but I'd love to hear what y'all think and thanks in advance.
 
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