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Parasound design consultant John Curl is a legend among audiophiles and electronic engineers. This pioneer of quality electronics brings high-end features and exacting standards to the reasonably priced Parasound line.
Curl makes sure the products he designs for Parasound stand above the herd with the best possible sound quality and features. Among his designs are the Parasound HCA-1500A amplifier, the Multi-channel Amplifiers, the HCA-1205A, HCA-2205A, HCA-2003 and the HCA-1206 .
His premier Parasound HCA-2200II Ultra High Current Amplifier was called by Stereophile magazine "a benchmark product against which other amplifiers can be measured."
When Curl sets to work on a Parasound product, he said, he does everything he can to bring the best possible workmanship and electronic circuitry to audio equipment priced with average incomes in mind.
"Parasound makes products that use fairly sophisticated designs," Curl said with classic Curl understatement. These products may not have gold-on-gold connectors, or other elements featured in sound systems that can easily cost more than suburban tract houses.
But, Curl said, his Parasound designs "are really typical of far more expensive products. What we're trying to do is make them affordable."
Curl considers himself a coach. The competition among mid-range manufacturers is a game with few superstars. Curl frequently reminds the factories that manufacture Parasound products that the competitive advantage "can be gained by serious study of the game and good coaching. I like to win this game. I expect my efforts to be taken seriously."
To say Curl takes his work seriously is to understate. Curl likens his efforts to bringing Porsche's double overhead cam designs into the price range dominated by push rods.
It is his circuit designs that give many Parasound products the superior quality that keeps independent reviewers raving.
His attentive work with the factory technicians who oversee production of Parasound products guarantees that what he designs in Walnut Creek, California emerges undiluted in the finished product.
Curl has designed some fantastically expensive products on his own, such as the Vendetta Research phono preamplifiers. Curl founded Vendetta Research in 1981, naming it to describe some of his earlier disappointments with the business practices of some famous people in the audio industry.
In 1974, he sparked the quality hi-fi revolution (now called high end) when he designed the groundbreaking Mark Levinson JC-2 preamplifier.
While Curl makes his living consulting on Parasound's affordable products, the so-called "high end" remains more than an avocation. He was recently asked to evaluate a one-of-a-kind turntable-which, he said, "makes every other turntable look like a toy. Even at forty-something thousand dollars, the designer would ultimately lose money. There's just too much in it. That's the problem with high end. More than anything else, it's a labor of love."
Download PDF file of a new interview with John.
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Last Update: December 25, 2017
