Parasound P5

I just noticed that Robinson mentions in that first link that the P5 will go for around 1000. Also didn't realize that the XLR inputs are fully balanced.

With a release looming in the spring, I'm really interested.

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.

That's interesting. Over at AVS, a poster by the name of Bill Mac got an email from Richard himself relating several features, and that the P5 would go for 950. Mind you, that email was from April 25, and perhaps things have changed since then. I hesitate to copy the email or link to it as I'm not sure what the rules are here.

I need a good phono section and a DAC, which seems a rare combination in a pre. I'm hoping for September as it was initially slated for a spring release.

Runnin, you are correct: the P 5 will retail for $950.

Built-in DAC with optical, coax, and asynchronous 24-bit/192kHz USB inputs
Fully adjustable high and low pass crossovers
Front panel subwoofer level control
Home theater bypass mode
Six unbalanced inputs (including phono) and one balanced input
Unbalanced and balanced outputs
Dual unbalanced subwoofer outputs

Dealer disclosure.

To further add to the mix, Wyred 4 Sound released a stereo pre with DAC earlier this year. I just found out about it and it retails for 1099. Also Peachtree now has one, though it's more limited in connectivity and is a hybrid tube variety, for 1120. Neither of these have a phono section however.