Parasound P5

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.

While price is not the best indication for a component's performance, in this case I will have to agree with Audiozen regarding the P5. They have tried to combine too many things into that preamp and that price is unbelievable. I hope I am totally wrong and the P5 is a killer amp and deal of the century.

Well, W4S did it at that price. Peachtree has a similar unit. Sure if you want to spend more you can get more performance, but everybody has their own budget comfort level I guess. BTW, the JC2 is 24 lbs, it seems kind of unusual that they'd build a P5 to 23 lbs at 1500, almost 1/3 the price.

The 2100 has been regarded as a good entry level preamp, and the P3 was a step up. Since it was replaced with the P5, one would assume the P5 would be tweaked to have superior performance. I'll be giving it a shot to go with my A21.

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.

Any thoughts on why they would build the P5 to almost the exact same weight as the JC2 for only 1500? Was it another one of your contacts who told you this? Why was he so far off? I doubt Parasound would have started off with such a hefty unit and then basically go back to the drawing board and pop out a unit in well under a year. It just doesn't make logistical sense.