Owner's Manual

Rack Mounting Your Parasound A 23+

With its four feet removed, the A 23+’s front panel height occupies two rack spaces: 3.5” or 88.2 mm. (A

single standard rack space occupies 1.75” vertical space.) For mounting in a standard 19” equipment rack,

you must use the Parasound HRA 2 rack mount kit (purchased separately). The HRA 2 kit includes four bolts

and plastic washers with raised “shoulders.” Slide one washer onto each mounting bolt with its raised

shoulder pointing toward the panel hole. Insert the bolt through the hole and slide the other washer on the

bolt with its raised shoulder facing the rear side of the panel. The washers will sandwich the A 23+ panel and

the four mounting bolts to prevent metal-to-metal contact between the A 23+ chassis, the equipment rack,

and the other components mounted in the rack.

Warning: Do not put the screws for the feet back into the bottom of the A 23+ without the feet. Doing so

could cause the screws to touch electrical components and cause a short circuit.

Audio Connections

Always disconnect the AC cord to your A 23+ before making or changing any input, output or trigger

wire connections. Inserting or removing an input or output cable while the A 23+ is turned on can result in a

blast of sound that can damage your loudspeakers. Make sure there is no strain or tension on any cables

that could cause them to pull loose.

Audio Input Connections

Balanced XLR Input Jacks

In most systems balanced XLR connections will give you the best sound. If your stereo preamplifier has

balanced XLR output jacks, we recommend that you connect them to the A 23+ XLR inputs. Refer to the

Balanced and Unbalanced Lines in the Technically Speaking section for additional information about why we

recommend using balanced lines.

Note: Using balanced XLR input connectors results in a 6 dB higher volume level

compared with using the RCA input jacks. This is a noticeable increase.

Unbalanced RCA Input Jacks

Use these inputs if your preamplifier doesn’t have balanced XLR output connections or if you simply prefer to

use unbalanced connections.

Balanced/Unbalanced Selector Switch

Place the switch in the position for the input type you will be using.

Note: The Balanced/Unbalanced switch is not an input selector. Its function is to optimize

the signal to noise ratio for each type of input. You should not connect both the Balanced

and Unbalanced jacks at the same time with the expectation of switching between two

different devices such as a preamp and surround processor.

Balanced XLR Pin Configuration

The A 23+ XLR jacks conform to the industry standard of:

Pin 1: Ground Pin 2: Positive (+) Pin 3: Negative (–).

Loop Output Jacks

These jacks enable the incoming audio signal to pass along or “daisy chain” from the Left and Right

Input jacks to an additional amplifier or powered subwoofer. The Loop Out jacks are not affected by

the Gain control settings. If you connect the preamp to the A 23+ with balanced XLR input jacks the

RCA Loop Out jack functions normally.