Parasound P6 Halo 21 Channel Stereo Preamplifier and Dac Reviews

Asked how to brand a guitar, the celebrated luthier Wayne Henderson offered a directly-up answer: "Only get a pile of really nice woods and a whittling pocketknife. Then you just carve abroad everything that isn't a guitar." (footnote one)

The making of a preamplifier seems more or less the reverse. You lot offset with a uncomplicated book control and a couple of jacks, then add whatever you lot think constitutes a preamplifier. Choices might include electronic source switching, line-level gain, phono-level proceeds and equalization, tone controls, tone-defeat switches, a balance command, a headphone jack, an iPod input, and maybe even a digital-to-analog converter with a USB receiver. The sky is pretty much the limit.

Asked what constitutes a preamplifier, the California-based electronics company Parasound might simply copy the preceding paragraph: The newest preamp in their Taiwanese-built Halo series of products, the Halo P 5 ($1095), incorporates every i of the items mentioned above. And, remarkably, a few more.

Description
Parasound describes the Halo P 5 every bit a "ii.1-channel stereo preamplifier," hinting at its suitabilities for use in both a stereo music system and a home theater. The latter is presented in a number of ways, the most apparent being its home-theater bypass circuit, by ways of which 1 can add the P five to a multichannel system with a surround-audio receiver or processor, to optimize two-channel listening (footnote 2). (For this to piece of work, the surroundings-sound component in question must have line-level outputs.) Usefully, whenever the P v is switched off, its abode-theater featherbed is automatically selected, so that the surround-sound organisation tin can still be enjoyed without additional drudgery.

Also of interest to abode-theater enthusiasts, the Halo P 5 has line-level outputs for up to iii powered subwoofers—the tertiary output is an XLR socket for balanced connectedness—all of which present the aforementioned mono signal and are controllable by means of a front-panel subwoofer level control. Additionally, the P v includes an analog crossover comprising a low-pass filter for the sub(south) and a loftier-pass filter for the principal outputs. Both filters are user-controllable past ways of minor potentiometers on the rear console, each with a range of 20–140Hz. The crossover'south usefulness, of course, is limited to systems whose subwoofers include defeat switches for their own, internal crossovers; perhaps needless to say, the P 5's subwoofer filters are switchable.

Otherwise, the Halo P five is optimized for serious music listening, right downwardly to its front-mounted bass and treble tone controls, and a tone-defeat switch for removing them from the signal path. The front panel besides sports a nice-feeling rotary switch for source selection, accompanied by a conspicuously marked row of indicator lights, and an exceedingly polish, undetented book control. I was mildly disappointed by the lack of a mono switch but cheered past the presence of a three.5mm input jack, the latter tailored, by means of an extra gain stage, for employ with the analog output of an iPod or similar device. And although I own neither a balanced-out source component nor a counterbalanced-in amplifier, I was impressed that the Halo includes a unmarried pair each of counterbalanced input and output jacks.

The use of a switch-mode power supply—and the consequent absenteeism of a traditional mains transformer—accounts for the P five'south nearly surprising characteristic: Notwithstanding its affluence of features, its moderately sized case is almost half empty! Beyond that, there'due south precious piffling I tin tell you about its innards, other than the fact that its vii excursion boards appeared well made. The P v's casework is nicely done, with a mix of steel and aluminum structures and a textured finish that gives, from a moderate distance, the impression of a high-tech casting. Cosmetics and ergonomics alike were of higher-than-expected quality for this price bracket.

Installation and setup
Owing to a combination of well-labeled controls and a notably articulate teaching manual, the Halo P 5 was a breeze to fix. Calculation to that ease was the simplicity of this item installation: I, who ain neither a subwoofer nor a surround-sound component—or fifty-fifty a tv set that was made in this century—was offered the chance to review the P five every bit a two-channel product in my two-channel organization. The remaining 0.i aqueduct must await another solar day and some other writer.

That said, two aspects of the Halo P 5'due south performance practice require special mention, the kickoff beingness its built-in D/A converter, which is addressable by means of optical, coaxial, or USB connections. With either of the offset two choices, the Parasound DAC functions at word lengths and sample rates up to 24 bits and 192kHz, respectively (the flake at its heart is Burr-Brown's 24-bit, 192kHz-capable PCM1798 DAC), but offers only 24/96 performance when the incoming datastream arrives by USB.

The P 5'south converter compensates with an uncommonly easy-to-set up-up USB connection: Even Windows users should exist able to become upward and running in just a few minutes, without having to download a dissever device driver. My own iMac installation was simplicity itself: In the Sound window of Apple OS10.7.4'due south System Preferences, the P 5'due south congenital-in DAC appeared with the name "PARASOUND P5"; 1 click was all it took to get me up and running, after which my figurer never ceased to recognize the Parasound converter.

Vinyl lovers will as well require an extra minute or two to get going, as the P 5'due south single pair of phono inputs can be optimized by means of a three-position toggle switch on the rear console. Two of the three settings are intended for moving-ringlet cartridges—ane provides a load impedance of 100 ohms, the other 47k ohms—while the third setting, for moving-magnet cartridges, besides offers the 47k ohm load. Although phono-section gain is not specified in either the P 5's transmission or on Parasound's website, I noted that both MC settings provided more than than enough proceeds for my EMT TSD fifteen pickup head, which outputs 1.05mV.

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Footnote i: From Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument, by onetime Stereophile tape reviewer Allen St. John (New York: Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2005).

Footnote 2: Perhaps some day in that location volition exist a very high-quality mono preamplifier that incorporates a stereo featherbed excursion.

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Source: https://www.stereophile.com/content/parasound-halo-p-5-21-channel-da-preamplifier

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