Parasound Solves Domestic Problems with "Architectural" Loudspeakers

Home theater fans almost universally agree that multichannel sound is great, but not all agree on how best to achieve it. Most find that incorporating five large box speakers---plus subwoofer and all the necessary cabling---into a typical home is difficult at best, and a point of contention that can strain even the most solid domestic relationships.

Parasound wants you to relax and enjoy the movies, without the stress and clutter caused by having to accommodate several large enclosures in a room not designed to handle them. The company's new Precision Architectural Loudspeaker line (P.A.L.) consists of four full-range in-wall speakers, one home theater LCR; one in-wall subwoofer; and three ceiling speakers. A combination of these will work in most locations, freeing up floor space and minimizing clutter.

Retailing at $800 per pair, the top-of-the-line PAL-380 will be available in October. It's a three-way in-wall speaker with an 8-inch Kevlar woofer and an unconventional tweeter/midrange sub-baffle that can pivot ±15 degrees along the vertical axis of the speaker, for flexibility in placement. The tweeter/midrange baffle is tightly sealed to provide a consistent acoustical environment for maximum performance regardless of the speakers' placement in the wall. The speakers are packaged as mirror-image pairs.

Coming in January, the $450/pair PAL-360 LCR features the same isolated mid/tweeter configuration with dual 6-inch Kevlar woofers, and can be mounted either vertically or horizontally. Construction is superb throughout---high-power motor structures, premium crossover networks with glass epoxy circuit boards and "high-resolution" inductors and capacitors. Aluminum dome tweeters, three-position treble controls, two-position mid-bass adjustment, and a three-position midrange control on the three-way models let users "shape" the sound of the speakers to the room in which they are installed. For installation near video monitors, Parasound can supply optional magnetic field cancellation covers to prevent magnetic distortion of the picture.

Other full-range models in the P.A. L. line include the two-way PAL-280 (at dealers in November), and the currently available PAL-265, and the PAL-245, all sporting 1-inch aluminum dome tweeters and 8-, 6-1/2-, or 4-1/2-inch woofers respectively. These models will carry price tags of $600, $500, and $400 per pair respectively.

Low bass duties are handled by the $400 PAL-1002, a 10-inch in-wall dual-voice coil subwoofer with a Kevlar sandwich flat-piston diaphragm and a cast aluminum basket. Later this year, Parasound will begin shipping three models of audiophile-grade two-way ceiling speakers with round covers: the PAL-80, PAL-65 and PAL-45, also retailing at $600, $500, and $400 per pair. Visit your local Parasound dealer or the company's website for more information.

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