Has anyone heard the new Parasound Halo preamp?


How does this unit compare with other preamps under $1000?
triumph
I've had the P3 for about a month now and have been very happy with the sound. My goal was to get a preamp with a remote and phono stage for under $1000. I look at a lot of used stuff here but most did not have the remote capabilites. I auditioned the NAD and Myryad (although the myryad did not have the phono) and this easily sounded the best. The P3 replaced a denon 3300 being used as a pre-amp feeding a pair of Outlaw m-200 monoblocks and Paradigm Studio 20's. The nice part of the P3 is that is has 2 direct connects that bypass the tone circuitry. I found these much cleaner than the other connections for the CD. Listening to the into of Roger Waters, Amused to death, the background dialog went from slightly above/left of the front left speaker to behind my left ear. I was a happy camper.
I had the pleasure of working with and demoing the P3 for some time. Before leaving my employer I picked one up along with the A23 amp. I have them powering my Energy Veritas 2.4 towers and couldn't be more happy with how gorgeous the system sounds. As a matter of fact I'm thinking about picking up another so that I can bridge them and put one on each speaker. I currently work with much higher end equipment on a daily basis for my employer but still stand behind the entire HALO series. Proabably THE BEST deal out there for the money. You could go as far as to say it's "underpriced"
Geoff
I have the P3 / A23 combo driving Paradigm Studio 100 v2's.

The P3's sound is excellent but there's a few 'gotchas'. It has unbalanced (RCA ) and balanced (XLR) outputs. If you can use the balanced output, as with the A23, it seems to deliver more bass. Or perhaps the output is just a bit higher. It sounds better with balanced to me.

Also the tape "monitor" is wierd. If you have a deck hooked up and it is in 'record' mode don't you dare switch the input of the P3 to TAPE! It completes a feedback loop which will send your system howling bloody murder! That loop doesn't happen on other preamps I've had. Wierd.

The last gotcha is the headphone jack. For some completely unexplained reason Parasound put a 1/8" inch jack on there instead of 1/4" inch. So you now have to use an adapter for 99% of the "real" headphones made.

If the headphone jack don't matter, if the tape monitor thing don't matter, and if you can use the XLR outputs ( all true for me ) .. then yes it is a great sounding preamp ( that is "no sounding" ) at a good price.
I agree- replaced my B&K Ref Pre and 5125 with Halo C2/A51... did it in steps. The switch in Pre/pro was HUGE... the C2 BLOWS AWAY the B&K.. in fact, I think it is AS GOOD as the arcam.. and cheaper.

The A51 was another MUST HAVE- you are right..nothing in SS out there that comes close- this stuff is as good as gold... for the price they ask.. BETTER
Is the Parasound Halo P-3 preamp sonically comparable to the Adcom GFP-750 preamp?
BTW, I'm wondering if there's a break-in period for a preamp. Got my P3 this week and there's no indication about that
As mentioned in previous thread, I receive my P3 a few days ago. My choice stopped on this preamp for many reasons. Of course, I would like to have a musical fidelity or a Classé used for the same price as the P3 new in box. But I liked the design of this preamp, the cool look, the silver esthetic that goes with the rest of my system. But it is mainly for the functions such as Balanced in AND out, Decent phono stage, remote, 2 Direct inputs (bypass all tone and balance funtion) and so on. Quite hard to find a preamp under $1k with all these features. Rotel RC-1090 is something like $1400 I think, but as I said I'll keep this one for a while and wait later for my classé. There is two things that I don't like about the P3. First, as soon as I turned it on, I noticed a fainted "hiss" in the background, only apprears when volume is turn up to the first step. When the display indicates "0", there is no sound of course, but as soon as you got to the first step (i.e. "2") that hiss appears and stays at the same level no matter where the volume is set. Of course, it is very hard to ear unless you almost put your ears next to the tweeters but from my listening position (7 ft from the speakers), I hear it. I guess that many preamps are doing the same but my Cambridge was dead quiet. It can be due to the digital volume, I don't know. After three hours of listening at low level, it can become fatiguing to the ears. When there's music at normal volume, you don't hear it, but can be heard with low levels if I stay at my listening point. Second, the volume starts from "0" anf goes up to "80" max. The first levels increments of "2" until it reaches "40. Above 40, it increase by steps of "1" after that. The drop of volume between "0" (no sound) and "2" is quite loud, like if the transition is non-linear. I send a mail to Parasound just to be sure that it's normal and the preamp is conceived like that. They answered me back, with a very professional and polite way and I knew then that they were standing behind their product. Service looks very effective. They told me that this preamp may have a fainted hiss with highly efficient speakers. The P3 replaced a Cambridge C500 so I can only compare with Cambridge as my pojt of reference, quite hard to compare with other preamps in the store, without the same speakers, amp and listening room. I have a B&K ST2140 and my speakers are Wharfedale Sapphire 88 but will change in the next year to B&W or JM Lab's. It seens that this preamp needs something like 200 hours of break-in and I just did somethjing like 20 hours now, so my review will be considering that. The bass is quite good, not deep but thight as it should be. The mid's are more extended than my Cambridge around 1 Khz. Not that much but enough to noticed that the voice of Diana Krall sounds like she's really in front of the others, like she would play right in my living room, singing for me!!! The high's are very good, not forward but mostly laid back (the way I like it) absolutely not harsh or pitched to my face. I find the high's neutral above 4 Khz. I mainly listen to Classical, Jazz, new age and movie soundtracks and I like the sound of violins and trumpets with the P3. I'll see how it will change after a couple of weeks (if there's a difference then). I really recommend this preamp, I personally love it in every way.
I forgot to mention that the warranty is 10 years (10 years parts and 5 years labor) That's another strong point for them!