PARASOUND HALO

The arrival of Parasound’s ‘Halo’ integrated amplifier came as something as a surprise to this reviewer, since founder Richard Schram and designer John Curl have specialised in building preamplifiers and power amplifiers for more than thirty years. The last integrated amplifier Parasound built was long ago, in 1986.

But this new Halo is more than just an integrated amplifier. It has an on-board DAC, as well as a subwoofer output with its own variable low-pass crossover network, and a pre-amplifier output with its own built-in variable high-pass crossover network. It also has home theatre bypass circuitry. So while it’s certainly a two-channel integrated amplifier, it’s one that offers much more than you might expect.

EQUIPMENT

Parasound’s Halo is certainly full-featured. On the analogue side, there are five line-level analogue inputs, four of which are unbalanced (RCA terminals) and one of which can either be balanced (XLR terminals) or unbalanced (RCA terminals) — but not both at