Price Paid:  $500.00 from eBay

Summary:
I, like the other reviewers on this site, am impressed and satisfied with this player. Music is much fuller and richer. Strong vocalist like Elton John, Pavarotti, and Micky Cruz (friend and Latin singer from Albuquerque – www.mickycruz.com) are stronger, more detailed – you hear them breath, but not harshly. Acoustical instruments come through very true and notes and detail not previously heard are marvelously presented. Good soundstage and separation of instruments and vocalists in multi-singer groups. Have not taken advantage of the HDCD capability, but will be trying it soon. A variety of music genre has been played on this unit already and each plays well. The most amazing part is that music on this player truly matches units costing more. Parasound claimed the design was better than some 24/96k units. After putting this unit in the system and listening for a while, I agree! My wife gave it a listen and noted how much better Elton John’s voice presented itself (Whispers album), how much more detail was presented in some whistling in a few Micky Cruz songs. She encouraged the playing of Santana and Pavarotti via A-B testing. Her reaction was, somewhat typical, that this was a good upgrade at an extremely reasonable price. I initially bought the unit thinking I would use it as a transport and get a good reasonably priced DAC, but based on its performance the DAC may not be necessary. Too bad Parasound dropped out of the CD player business! Current set-up: Krell KAV-300i Integrated Amp Parasound 2000 Ultra B&W Nautilus 805s Sonic Horizon (www.sonichorizon.com) – Daybreak Speaker cables (shotgun bi-wire set-up – 4 wires to each speaker) Sonic Horizon – Hurricane and Skyline interconnects Sonic Horizon – Hurricane Power Cords

Strengths:
Heavy unit with good vibration isolation. Unit has excellent build quality, detail and clarity.

Weaknesses:
Remote layout and quality. Top load design takes some adjustment. Parasound does not build them anymore - so no future upgraded units to trade up to.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha CD-X5U, Krell KAV-250cd, various Sony and Denon.

Price Paid:  $600.00 from private party (AR marketplace)

Summary:
I am totally delighted with this CD player. The quality construction, and dampening of the chasis is superb. The belt drive mech. is silky smooth and quiet. My unit doesnt take that long to skip to a chosen track.

This CD players ads so much detail. Every intrument, every track in the recording has an identity of its own. The sound just has more weight,,more density....Not a trace of harshness..

The remote kinda works whenever it feels like it, but i knew it would do that. Most remotes have Gremlins. I dont find the loading mechanism hard to use, and I love top loading.

At 600 bucks, this was a bargain, in my opinion.

system:

Cd player: Parasound CDP-2000 Ultra
Amp: Musical Design D75
Pre: Parasound P/HP 850
Speakers: Mission 774's
Cables: Speaker: MIT T2 Biwire, IC's are Monster M550's, and factory power cords. (may upgrade to SonicHorizons)

Strengths:
Build, smoothness, balanced outputs, clarity, weighty sound, clarity and detail.

Weaknesses:
It doesnt read a couple of my CD's but maybe its the scratches?

Similar Products Used:
adcom gcd700, and various others.

Summary:
My system includes: Marantz SR-18 receiver & CD65SE 5-disc changer, Kimber Kable Silver Streak .5mm interconnects, Nakamichi BX-300 cassette, JM Lab Electra 915 speakers with Monster MC500 speaker wire.

Good news and bad news: First the bad news. The Parasound CD/P 2000 Ultra is no longer being produced by Parasound, because they have discontinued their CD player line. Why is beyond me, because their players are very good and this unit is awesome!

The good news is one more of this model was available as a demo from Audio Advisor about two week go at, www.audioadvisor.com for $999.00, about $500 off list price. The demo I got looked brand new and came with the instruction manual and power cord, but no remote. A.A. sent me the remote separately though. That looked new too.

I own the Marantz CD65SE five disc changer & Marantz CDR 700 CD recorder, and my last CD player was a Denon DCD 1500II. I've demoed a lot of different CD players in the $500+ range including the California Audio CL15, YBA Integre', Marantz CD67SE, CD17MKII & 6000OSE, Parasound CDC 1500 & 1000, NAD Silver Series single-disc S500, Denon DCM5000 & Creek CD43 and Sony SCD-777ES. Of these players I extensively A/B'ed the YBA Integre', Creek CD43, Parasound CDC 1000 & 1500 and Cal Audio Labs CL-15, through the same amp/pre amp and speakers; because the Parasound CD/P 2000 Ultra had already been discountinued I couldn't demo it.

This unit is very beefy at 20lbs., can play HDCD's, uses two Burr-Brown 1702 20-bit D/A converters, (One for each channel.) and is a top loading belt drive player using CEC's 5100 transport . Many say CD players don't have the warmth of vinyl. I don't know about that, because I haven't A/B a CD player and a record lately, but I don't miss the popping and scratches of records. With this player there is so much natural depth anyway. To me I guess this is the
warmth vinyl purist talk about?

The 2000 sounds very clean and full bodied. My two favorites from the above testing, the Cal CL15 while a great player seemed a bit two analytical and YBA rich, but HDCD encoded discs in the YBA didn't sound as good as in the Cal. From my memory of the two competing players the
Parasound combines the best of both worlds, the warmth or the YBA and clarity of the Cal Audio.

Vocals on the CD/P 2000 sound full and uncompressed, the bottom end is clear, tight, unmuddled. Cymbals are crisp with sustain and acoustic instruments sound natural! While there is a lot of depth everything sounds natural, not harsh or overly bright.

How this is all accomplished it's hard to say? Maybe it's the belt drive, solid CEC top load transport or beefy chassis that isolates the jitter; or perhaps the two power supplies that help isolate the unit or maybe it's the HDCD chip? I think if you're going to spend over $1,000 for a CD player it should have HDCD. While many disc aren't encoded in HDCD, the ones that are sound so awesome; and the HDCD chip makes unencoded disc sound better!

This unit even blows away the Sony SCD-770ES SACD ($3,500), which doesn't even have HDCD. Plus, HDCD discs don't cost anymore while SACD's run about $25 each.

On Paula Cole's "This Fire" HDCD her voice is so sweet and I can hear her breathe. The sound of tambourines is distinctive, while before I wasn't sure what I was hearing.

The same can be said of the Japanese import version of Anggun's self-title CD, which is recorded in HDCD (The US release isn't.). Her voice is so natural & sweet and the mix of all the instruments including percussion on the various track are perfection.

Even non-HDCD disc like Handel's Water Music, conducted by Christopher Hogwood is awesome! Acoustic instruments like bass drums, pianos, cellos and violins are to die for! They are rich and natural sounding. Imaging is equally great.

Rock/Heavy Metal sounds good through this too, as long as the recordings are good. If not you can really hear the poor studio production work.

Parasound has an impressive warranty and you can actually talk to somebody in their customer service department. If not they will actually call you back! You really have to hear this player to appreciate the nuances! So if you can find one grab it while you can!

Strengths:
Parasound 10 year warranty/customer service, aesthetics, solid construction, belt drive top-load, natural sound and HDCD.

Weaknesses:
It's a little hard removing and putting in the CD, because there's not a lot of room on the top where the CD is put onto the spindle.

Similar Products Used:
Parasound CDP 1000 & 1500, Marantz CD65SE, CD67SE & CDR 700, YBA Integre', California Audio Labs CL-15, Denon DCD1500II and Creek CD43.

Summary:
My system: Parasound HCA 1500 amp, PLD 1100 Pre-amp & CDC 1500 5-changer, JM Lab Electra 920 speakers, Vampire Wire OSC interconnects, Monster Cable speaker wire.

I've only had the Parasound for only a week, but I just wanted to let interested parties know while Parasound has discontinued their complete CD player line and these units are impossible to find new that I was able to find this demo from Audio Advisor, http://www.audioadvisor.com, who obtained a limited number of demos direct from Parasound. My unit looked brand new and came with the instruction manual, power cord and remote.

My friend Tim and I have both exstensively researched and listened to many CD players in the $500-$1,800 range. Of these we a/b'ed several models like the Creek CD43, Parasound CDC 1000, Cal Audio Labs CL-15 and YBA Integre' through the same speakers and pre/amp. Of these we found the CL-15 ($1,695) & YBA ($1,795) to be the best. The YBA was richer and the Cal cleaner. It depends what type of sound you like. Both are great!

I had always heard about the Parasound CD/P 2000 Ultra, but was never able to find one till I found the demos at Audio Advisor, where I purchased this unit for $999 plus shipping without even hearing it. I figured if I didn't like it I could return it. I'm keeping it! I think it combines the YBA's and Cal's sounds perfectly. With the HDCD it's even better! This unit is so natural sounding!

So if that's the sound you're looking for then grab one of these before they sell out!

Strengths:
Looks, solid construction, natural sound and Parasound warranty/customer service.

Weaknesses:
A slight weakness, but putting in and taking out the CD's is a little tough, because the top doesn't have much room. It's like plaing the game "Operation".

Similar Products Used:
Marantz CD67SE, YBA Integre', California Audio Labs CL-15, Creek CD43, Parasound CDC 1500.

Summary:
Purchased the CEC 5100Z cdp belt drive which is identical to the Parasound (the latter being made by the former, a Sanyo sub). At first use, without break-in the sound was like the previous post, hard, forward, and irritating. But clearly providing information my previous cdp had never shown. Not being patient for the break in and, furthermore, using an OTL amp into the Gallo References, wanted to max out the system dynamics. End result was that I bought DIY solid silver cables, teflon tubes, etc. etc. (see Greg Weaver's articles either in Positive Feedback or the Soundstage Archives--Feb and Nov 98). The result: phenomenal. Got rid of the AQ and Kimber, had to reduce the pot on my AI Mod 3A from about 2'oclock to 10:30. A little more break in and all hardness, forward, irritating sounds disappeared totally. the sound is now smooth as can be with an insight into classical, jazz, and other that has never been there before. Concerned about the placebo effect, brought the young females in this family to hear and they confirmed the clearly audible difference in musicality. Outstanding.

Give this the 5 stars it deserves.