Paragon system e sub woofer power amplifier

[ekegelmann]

Hi , and greetings to everyone. This has people puzzled and I am thinking this is the correct place to find an answer. WHAT IS THIS? People say its a fake, others say this was something made in the 70's that was hardly made, others say its home-made garbage. Here are some pics and I would love to hear some theories! Thanks Jennifer

[daveschott]

Google is your friend.

Looks like someone took a derelict chassis and put in a power supply, for who-knows-what purpose. I wouldn't call it garbage, but probably only of value to the builder. Chassis has extra holes drilled into it, so I'd say the parts value is next nothing.

[jlyons]

The evidence seems to indicate a stereo plan, incomplete, with bolts projecting out the rear panel showing novice assembly. Circuit board and binding posts suggest more than power supply is present, and further inquiry might be fruitful; usable mono (sub)amp? Is that an input jack next to the binding posts? Also fuse wire cut, and power cord missing...

[SEAWOLF97]

"1974 was a loooong time ago." That is when Mark Deneen formed a small company, Paragon Audio in San Carlos/California and came to market with a new tube preamplifier based on a design licensed from Bruce Moore. This must have taken considerable courage at the time since tube equipment was fast disappearing and the only company still really serious about it then was the formidable Audio Research. Despite these odds, Paragon sold about 400 Paragon 12 preamps and 250 System E preamps.


In 1978, the company sold to Audio Dynamics, a division of BSR, USA

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/j...blueberry.html

http://www.stereophile.com/content/l...dLsRSuhw3W8.97

MAY have started life as a tube amp

[grumpy]

Given the silk screen on the front, the decent wire tie layout, I imagine is just is what it says, and
remains a low-volume, perhaps garage-crafted LF amp of dubious use and value unless (perhaps)
put back in a system designed for its use.

I wouldn't connect it to anything of value without further investigation, test, and flogging.

[Joseph Smith Jr]

Given the silk screen on the front, the decent wire tie layout, I imagine is just is what it says, and
remains a low-volume, perhaps garage-crafted LF amp of dubious use and value unless (perhaps)
put back in a system designed for its use.

I wouldn't connect it to anything of value without further investigation, test, and flogging.

It's reminiscent of a lot of the stuff turned out by outfits like MFA, Wavestream Kinetics and others, all related somehow, some common threads shared by all of them, during the mid to late '80s and into the '90s
Nothern California, San Jose, Silicon Valley origins
Lot of cross pollination and all of it was hand built, small quantities and metal parts sourced locally, locally to the San Jose area that is
Even the finished models looked more like prototypes and most of them were works in progress even once they hit the little stores
That Juicy Music stuff linked above was a hot hot ticket with the Klipsch forum crowd for a while, I believe they managed to survive into the 2000s
Back before the financial collapse when easy re-fi money was burning a hole in everyone's pocket and the more obscure the maker and product the better to some
Not quite as well known as Audio Alchemy but similar in the fact that a bunch of these guys were all shooting for the latest mouse trap, next big thing in "high end"