Overview
The Halo integrated is almost the one box solution for your hifi system. All it needs is a pair of speakers and a source unit or rather any source units you can pair it up with. The number of different sources you can hook it up with is beyond your wildest dreams. Its phono stage will accept MM and MC cartridges with switchable loads on the rear panel. Add five pairs of RCA and one pair XLR inputs, headphone out, digital inputs for coaxial, optical and USB (it utilizes the 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC chip), home theater pass through, the Parasound is just a bundle of flexibility and features. But all these goodness does not just end there. Its a power dynamo too with 160W available at 8 ohm and 240W in 4 ohm. And this is promptly conveyed when you listen to it. The Parasound Halo is a seriously good integrated. It does not sound like a $2,500 integrated amp but rather an amplifier that could be $5,000, pre and power included. We had this powering Hansen Audio’s The Prince V2 in one of our listening session and if we had not revealed the Parasound behind it, the customers who were listening it thought it was an amplifier from the $5,000 – $10,000 range. It delivered gobbles of bass, cleanly cut mids and detailed highs. Imaging was spot on with impressive depth and width. The Hansen’s did play a big part in this impressive musical display (its after all a nearly $40,000 speakers!) but it can’t do it had the amplification been subpar. And the Parasound was not subpar in this matchup.
Cosmetically, the Parasound is in great shape. Just minor scuff marks here and there, nothing major. We have the original remote and will be securely packed for safe shipping. Voltage selector switch on the back panel allows for 120V or 240V operation, so it can be used anywhere in the World!
