2. amps-preamps
  3. 183367-181164

Moving on from Parasound P5 Dac or Preamp

I have a parasound P5 driving my new Nad 298, which replaced a hypex nc400 amp that died.

this drives a pair of aperion vs grande towers and an SVS sub.

I chose the P5 as it had a good home theatre bypass a knob to adjust the sub output and a dac / phono stage.

lately I’m starting to think I want a better Dac.

currently it’s fed by a node 2i.

Any suggestions for preamp or Dacs?

I was looking at a benchmark la4 preamp and rme dac 

Suggestions welcome.

looking to spend no more than 5k all in.

Also on a separate note I have a hegel bugle2 phonostage which is really great but I can’t seem to get rid of rf Humm despite being well grounded, is this common?

 

 

 

 

 

lummock

Showing 4 responses by lummock

lummock OP
4 posts
 

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

 

 

lummock OP
4 posts
 

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.

 

 

 

lummock OP
4 posts
 

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.

 

 

 

lummock OP
4 posts
 

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

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