Parasound P5

Paul at Parasound recently informed me the P-5 has been pushed back from June to September for release due to a bug that has been corrected for production and the price is still set at $1500.00. If the P-5 performs as good as their previous flagship the PLD-2000 which I owned at one time then they truely have a winner.

Runnin is correct regarding the update on the P-5. Spoke to Richard Schram last Thursday and the retail price is firmly set at $950.00 and will start shipping the first week of September. John Curl was not involved with the P-5 or its phono stage.

It is too bad the P-5 has been scaled back from the original prototype from last winter. When the price was originally set at $1500.00, the unit weighed 23 pounds and the current final version weighs 14 pounds. Since 1992 I have owned three Parasound Preamps, the P-FET 900 MKII, the PLD-2000, and the P-3. I recently heard a Preamp from Onkyo that smokes the Parasound Pre's, the Onkyo P-3000R which retails for $1695.00 and can be purchased at a lower price. The Onkyo is superior to the Musical Fidelity and Pass Preamps that I have owned in the past. The Onkyo weighs just under 25 pounds and is sexy as hell with its satin black finish. It comes with a MM phono stage, has a built in Burr-Brown DAC with USB or XLR input. Has bass and treble controls and a headphone jack. I heard the piece just over a week ago and my jaw dropped from the sound quality. Very pure, ultra clean clarity with a dimensional holographic space typically found in very high priced Preamps. Very smooth with a pleasant warm character.

Ouch!!...just spoke to Joe at Audio Advisor who informed me that the P-5 has been pushed back again for release to late October/early November. Parasound blew it and should have never announced release dates which they have done three times since December. It would've been better if the cow was out of the barn first before announcing the P-5.

The Onkyo has a lot going for it at its price that is unmatched anywhere on the market at this time and will easily hold its own against Preamp's in the $10K range. Its that good and is truely a best value component with its patented low distortion technology, and beefy power supply with two transformers. Hook it up to a pair of D-Sonic M3-600M mono amps,(Abletec Amps), 600 watts per channel at $1950.00 a pair, designed by the current leader of Class D technology in Europe, Patrik Bostrom, and you will have the best value combo on the market.

I only stated the P-3000R can hold its own against Preamps in the $10K range. I have heard the JC2 and have owned the previous flagship Parasound, the PLD-2000. Parasound's Preamps designed by John Curl are too darn cold sounding in the upper frequencies for my taste. Parasound amps have always been better than their Preamps. There are marginal differences in the $3K to $10K range for a Preamp. You have to factor in the more exotic chassis designs with their milled solid block metals and far more expensive cover's, and higher quality connectors. But once you start soaring above $10K, then its a whole different ball game. I would not use an Onkyo amp with the P-3000R. A better quality amp would do it justice such as the Abletec from D-Sonic to bring out the best from the Onkyo.

Dave_72..there should be no problem pairing the Onkyo to the Pass amp which has a low input impedance of 20 Kohms.
Onkyo pairs their M5000R amp with the P-3000R Preamp. The M5000R has a lower input impedance of only 10 Kohms and works well with the P-3000R which has an output impedance of 330 ohms. No problem.

Dave_72..What speaker's are you using?

Dave_72..There is a Onkyo P-3000R for sale on Gon out of Minnesota in brand new condition. Was purchased in June with very little use. Selling for $1000.00. It would be wise of you to snatch that puppy for the price.