Parasound P5

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.

Runnin is correct regarding the update on the P-5. Spoke to Richard Schram last Thursday and the retail price is firmly set at $950.00 and will start shipping the first week of September. John Curl was not involved with the P-5 or its phono stage.

Sweet, that's good news. It's a great package of features and everything I'm looking for to go with my Halo A21. Should be mine by Christmas.