Parasound PHP 850 review

ohskigod

hooked up the Parasound PHP 850 i bought from Spasticpitbull on the flea market. this replaces the Rotel rsp960 pre i was using previously (pro logic pre run in stereo mode).
this pre definitly has a warmer tone to it, which is a good thing for me. low end seemed to open up, where as before i was using a subwoofer due to lack of adequate low end. with the parasound, no need for the sub (it has been disconnected).

whereas i bought this thinking the tone controls might be handy on occasion, i learned right away that tone defeat is the way to go on this thing. as soon as i try to do otherwise seems to make it sound a little, i guess, fuzzier would be the right word.

seems that i am getting a little more detail out of music, especially with the toshiba as my source. I however, did not get much of an improvement with vinyl. Maybe the built in phono pre is not as good as the Denon i was using previously (only the phono pre section). i'll explore that later.

Overall i am happy with the improvements this piece brought me. the only problem i have now is with my SDA 2b's. they currently use the SL2000 tweeter, which i heard had some "issues". I never noticed a problem before, i allways found them to be quite good performers, but when i hooked this pre up, the 5 db spike in the 12-13k range everyone talks about became quite apparent. had a shrill sound to it. it's listenable, but as the volume increases, the spike is more apparent. I think i am finally going to get those replacement tweeters everyone is talking about.

Shizelbs

Thats a pretty good testimony to a new piece of gear if you can drop out a subwoofer. Thats some big time improvement.

faster100

Osh,

I went from that rotel like you have, to a adcom to the parasound like you have now... all improvments IMO.... that is a nice pre, and i still have mine as a stand by.. I use a tube pre-amp now...
I also use a Tosh 3960 and it works rather well with this combo... installed some Signal IC's and im good to go... I installed an IEC socket on the tosh and a heatsink on the chip inside is all... Glad you made a "upgrade" worthwhile... enjoy

steveinaz

The PHP-850 definitely benefits from by-passing the tone controls; especially in the bass. Bass becomes more solid and less colored, even when the bass knob is set at flat, versus hitting the defeat button.

I personally think this preamp can play with any of the big leaguers under $1000, and may well embarrass some costing over a grand.

FWIW, if I had to hand over my MF A3CR and go back to the PHP-850; it wouldn't bother me a bit---it's that good.

Enjoy.

NOTE: To clear-up a bit of a wives tale concerning the "Direct Out"; it DOES NOT bypass the tone section as some reviewers have said. It simply eliminates DC blocking components for amps compatible with such a setup or that provide DC blocking. This makes the output path more direct, therefore better. If your power amp does not block DC, use the "Normal Outs" and the preamp will provide the necessary protection. Some have said that using the "Normal" output can tame harsh sounding sources; I don't know personally if this is true, I only ran mine "direct out." Might be worth investigating if you have an over-analytical system...

ohskigod

i'll check that out, i was wondering what the direct out was al about. will definitly look into it.

steveinaz

It's a more simplified signal path with no dc blocking capacitors.

Pauly

Glad you are enjoying.

Paul

ohskigod

i have no idea if my Carver 4.0T has DC blocking or not. should i try the direct out? or should i just leave it alone.

steveinaz

I'd run the "Normal" outputs until you can verify. You might jet Parasound an email and ask them if they know...

Early B.

FWIW, if I had to hand over my MF A3CR and go back to the PHP-850; it wouldn't bother me a bit---it's that good.

Steve has said this before and, at first, I didn't quite agree with him. Now that I've gotten into tube gear, he's probably right. I've had the PHP-850 and the AC3R. While the AC3R is an awesome unit and the differences with the 850 are more than subtle, the 850 is a smoother sounding unit. The AC3R, while more detailed, exaggerated some of the instruments and made them sound a bit unrealistic and made the overall sound unbalanced. In other words, the AC3R added more "junk" to the signal while the 850 just seemed to open the doorway for a cleaner signal path.

steveinaz

The PHP-850 is definitely a Giant-Killer status product. I recommend it to anyone, without hesitation.

It's not that I feel the PHP is better than the A3CR, I prefer my A3CR, but is there $1200 worth of improvement w/the A3CR? Hell no. I got my A3CR for $625, so I'm happy with the bang-to-buck ratio, but I would have been seriously pissed off had I spent $1500 on a new one.

Early B.

Steve -- you got the matching amp to go with that A3CR?

steveinaz

No, I have the Parasound HCA-1500A.