Sound Quality, Build Quality, PRICE!

Are you kidding me?!

When I was younger and first started out at the age of 16, I did not no any better and bought a Sony Pro Logic receiver, with all the lights, bells and whistles. I thought I was the coolest kid on the block. This thing had so many differnt controls that I thought I HAD to have bought a state of the art machine, and that this was the sound to match all sound. For a few years, I enjoyed the music. After the Sony mysteriously kept loosing the left channel I bought a no frills Yamaha receiver at the advice of goodsound.com.....wow- I guess it COULD sound better. Now we are talking! Years later when I moved to Washington DC to go to college, I came accross an "audiophile" store and decided to go in. BAD MOVE. I went home later, popped in a CD and the sound that I thought was so wonderful sounded well, "receiverish". I had been introduced into the wonderful world of Jolida, Levison, and the like. I felt like I was a fool all those years, thinking that my "system" was unbeatable, with my yamaha, stock cables and such. Sorry if I am babbling, but I want you to get an idea of who I am and how I came to my senses. Anyhow, I started fresh, lived off Instant Soup and Macaroni and cheese and began to feed my new audio habit. I went out and slowly over the course of 4 years built a solid entry level system. I bought a pair of Pinnacle ac-65O's digital Sub 150, Marantz CD-48, and a parasound, HCA-750A power amp. Music actauly brought me to tears. I could not belive it. Then came tweaks. I read up on the cable debate and took the plunge. I WILL NEVER GO BACK! DH labs T-14, rewired speakers internally with t-14 as well, and had the audiophile store build me some pure silver interconnects to replace my Monstercable 400. My thoughts were, how much better can it possibly get? But every time I changed something, or tweaked something the sound just got better and better. I was very relunctant to buy a preamp because the sound I was hearing was so crystal clear that I woudl dread masking it with something else in the chaine. ENTER the Parasound 850. HOLY SH%T!!! are you kidding me? The sound was everything I had before and MORE. Midrange was robust. My unit is now broken and my sound is absolutely marvelous. No introduced noise, I have a phono stage which is a plus. The 850 made a great system even better. I honestly had my doubts, but this black box is a real performer! The synergy between the 750 and 850 is great. It sounds so simmilar to the more costlier amp preamp combos I heard at the store that I cant possibly see spending more. Weak Bass? Not on my sytem. I have found nothing to complain about. This a truly a great product even at its retail price, and for the $217 I paid via internet, its an outrite steal!
My system is as follows.

Parasound 850 preamp
Parasound 750 Poweramp
Pinnacle AC-650's on studiotech stands
Pinnacle Digital Sub 150 12' sub
Pioneer PDR-555rw CD recorder
Marantz CD-48
Yamaha rx-485 (only for its tuner)
panamax 1000+ line conditioner
DH labs t-14 speaker cable
Hand made silver interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha and Nakamichi.

I have the 850 hooked up to the Parasounc HCA-1000a. It does everything you could ask. Controls are straight forward, construction is solid and it doesn't get in the way of the music.

The P/HP 850 is a great preamp and I loved mine. I could not have asked for any more except for a remote. I'm not lazy, but I want to be able to lower and raise the volume from where I am so I can answer the phone or whatever without having to walk to the pre-amp every time. The Rotel RC972 is just as good, costs the same and has a remote. And for the same money, the Adcom GTP350 gives you as good performance AND has a superb tuner built in. The Adcom GTP 450 and the Carver CT24 give you equally good performace, an exellent tuner, AND a remote, for only $100 more. In fact the Carver is now available direct from the manufacturer for $400.
If its wasn't for the competition, it would be a 5, but with equally good performance, a tuner and a remote available elsewhere for not much more money, its gets a 3.

Hard to beat for the money. I use it with Parasound HCA-1500A and Legacy Classics. This setup competes favorably with those costing much more. Spending more for a preamp is probably wasting money, only speakers in $5000+ category need a more refined preamp. Another quality Parasound product.

I have owned this preamp for about a week now and all I can say is SWEET!!!Very smooth, rock solid sound. I gather from other reviews I've read that there are other preamps in the same price range you can aqcuire that include a remote, I haven't auditioned any of them but I can say that if you're looking for a rock solid preamp for
an excellent price, I highly recommend this unit!
Five speakers!

Very good piece of equipment. Designed with virtually no superfluous bells and whistles, this preamp does its main job extremely well. Sound reproduction is clear and natural. Tone controls do reasonable job across the entire spectrum. You get an undistorted sound of your source when you "defeat" the tone controls. Does not seem to introduce any noise to your sound even at the peak volume. Volume control works fine even near the point of zero volume. Last selected sound source (it has four conventional sources and a phono stage) is remembered in non-volatile memory when the preamp is powered off. Works very good with Parasounds HCA-750A power amp (and probably with the HCA-1000, which is a step up from 750A).I use P/HP-850 with Parasounds C/DP-1000 as the source and HCA-750A as the power amp that drives Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble speakers.

Sonically, everything! Superb engineering, quality internal parts, is clearly well-constructed for a budget preamp.

If I had to nitpick, the volume knob should be a bit weightier, larger, and smoother to turn, for a more precision feel; tone and balance controls should be a bit larger as well.

This is undoubtedly a honey of a preamp! Not only is it well built with a good amount of heft to it, but it sounds just phenomenal! The sound is liquidy transparent, glassine, velvety, silky, smooth, detailed, and somewhat pleasingly analytical (but not overly) yet tubelike (probably due to the JFET technology used to an extent). It really made my Magnepans come to life! Previous to this preamp, I was running my HDCD player DIRECTLY into my amplifier, and using the amp's dual L and R volume controls. The sound was very good, but after I hooked up the P/HP-850, it was like going from better to best! I was amazed at how the sonics just 'bloomed' forth, and improved in many respects, including low level detail! I am not just saying this... the difference was stunning! This preamp is a giant killer in it's price class and even at twice or three times! I am blown away.

Oh, one more thing, before I forget. This preamp has 2 line outs- a pair of 'regular' jacks (which are hooked up currently), and 'direct' jacks. Has anyone figured out which gives you better sonics, and if the 'direct' jacks are safe for the rest of my setup (I believe they bypass or don't have a DC protection circuitry in line)? Parasound customer service was not too forthcoming with infromation. Please e-mail me direct (KrayZGreek@aol.com).

My budget, yet effective system:

Magnepan MMG's
Velodyne CT-100
AudioSource AMP TWO
Parasound P/HP-850
Denon DCM-370
Straightire Sonata and Encore II interconnects
DH Labs T-14 speaker wire

Similar Products Used:

SoundValves SV100 JFET, Rotel, Onkyo 304

affordable, solid built, natural and clean sound, user friendly and looks good.

no remote control, other than that I have no complain so far.

It match perfectly with my Denon 370 CD player, very clean, open, and natural sound, considered the Cambridge C500 but the Parasound looks much better, performance wise they should be the same, I also like the tone control and it can be defeat as well, very solid built to boot. If you're looking for a good and affordable solid state preamp, this is the one!!!

Transparency, simplicity, build quality, value

Should have two sets of standard "pre-outs" for bi-amping

It's all of the things a baseline pre-amp should be without any compromises made. Transparent, airy and neutral. This preamp was a bargain at $450; now at a new retail of $249, you'd be crazy to pass it up. I've seen reviews of this preamp where its build quality and sound was compared to $5000.00 so-called "high-end" preamps!!! I now see (and hear) why. There are some minor quibbles; it should have at least 1 more input; and there's only 1 set of "standard" pre-outs. (though there is a set of "direct outs"). If you like simplicity and nuetrality, and hate "bells & whistles" (as I do) look no further. This preamp brings high fidelity back to its roots---SOUND. Enjoy!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Carver

Great tight bass punch, revealingly clear and accurate midrange and sweet highs.

None at this price.

As part of a system with decent amplification and loudspeakers, this unit will make everything else in the system sound like much more expensive components. Very well made American electronics with everything geared towards good sound without any gimmicks. Can hold its own with any preamp on the market at any price. This unit will glaringly expose the law of diminishing returns. Overall tonal balance is dead on. Three thumbs up!

Similar Products Used:

Audio Research, B&K, Perreaux, Yamaha, Adcom, NAD.