Moving on from Parasound P5 Dac or Preamp

I’m unclear on your goals and I will share what my goals were and how I solved it - during my upgrade path I explored upgrading my DAC- Moon 280D. 
 

I replaced it with a Moon 390 - it’s a preamp, streamer/DAC with a phono stage. Great piece and new is above your budget but a used one might be a fit. 
 

It was an upgrade (at least to me) a McIntosh C2600 and Moon 280D. 

My goals are to increase the soundstage and musicality of my system. Right now it sounds mostly good and occasionally great. I’m aiming for more often than not excellent.

the P5 was useful as it provides high and low pass filters for 2.1 listening, however I don’t enjoy the phono stage or dac much

The dac on the p5 could definitely be improved upon, I found even my oppo 203 dac sounds way more open than my p5 dac, I found that my p5 dac sounded veiled and lacked details.  You may want to see if just adding a better stand alone dac gives you more do the sound you want, rather than swapping two components.

For separate DACS Have a look at:

Bryston BDA 3

Benchmark Dac 3 over on tmraudio

wyred4sound v2v

The benchmark is fine. It is more of a clean clear sound than expansive soundstage type of DAC. It has noticeably strong bass impact. I would say this is entry level highend… they have a 30 day trial so no risk.

I like bench mark better than Wyred4sound. I have owned both. The bench mark is as good in all aspects and better at others. The volume on it really sucks though in use. Hard to control with a remote (motorized) and I think their pre amp would be needed just for that along.

mu favorite I have heard is the chord Hugo TT. Really great unit but $6k. Maybe used. I feel that it betters the benchmark in all aspects but not by a huge margin but better to my ear. Sounds bigger and less “digital” sheen in the highs.

Thanks for the comments,

an outboard dac was where I started this journey.

im a fan on benchmark, but will look into

Wyred4sound , chord Hugo seems a pretty big step for my system I think.

I was looking at the RME, dac has anyone listened against the benchmark?

I have balanced ins on the parasound so I intend to find something with xlr outputs.

I read benchmarks comments on the subject and it sounds like there is something to it.

Thanks for the comments,

an outboard dac was where I started this journey.

im a fan on benchmark, but will look into

Wyred4sound , chord Hugo seems a pretty big step for my system I think.

I was looking at the RME, dac has anyone listened against the benchmark?

I have balanced ins on the parasound so I intend to find something with xlr outputs.

I read benchmarks comments on the subject and it sounds like there is something to it.

Over a decade ago I had the P5. It is NOT a balanced design, although as I recall, the XLRs are separate from the main boards. I eventually got the P6, a significant upgrade, but that went down the road too. For the last 4+ years my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 pre/dac has served me very well. Ive made wholesale changes to the rest of my system, the DDP-1 passes them all through. Great value if you can find one; the outboard PS is a must

hth

does anyone else have experience with audio alchemy ddp-1 seems like can find it used with power supply for 1k. 

can you output to RCA and XLR simultaneously? (sub over rca power amp over XLR)

Benchmark DAC3B is frontrunner at this point, allowing me to keep the bass management of parasound halo p5

My manual doesn't say but try www.audioalchemy.com