Parasound Halo HINT 6, new integrated, replacing HINT

Audio 5.1 in Edmonton, AB is a Parasound dealer.

The Parasound Halo HINT 6 is listed at C$4,200.

 

It is just under $3,000 USD at Audio Advisor IIRC ...

 

I like a sound that is slightly on the warm side of neutral, much like the Marantz Reference line. Where does Parasound hang out in the sound spectrum?

 

Thanks, but it's irrelevant to us as a) A US dealer likely won't ship to Canada, and b) it wouldn't be warranty protected.

 

And indeed they did for me. Found an original HINT demo at a great price.

 

JV, like you I am heavy vinyl in my listening, so I purposefully went to Parasound for my amplification after I had NAD C356BEE. The NAD is warmer, gave me too much warmth for vinyl, so enter Parasound. I don't consider it analytical at all, but very neutral and a hint of warmth. The bottom end needs time to develop, easily 250 hours+, this info direct from Richard Schram after I bought my HINTO, mine took maybe 300 hours.
I get the perfect warmth from my phono preamp and the Delos, the HINTO gives me the power and current I was looking for to drive the Rega RX5. Probably the only thing I like in the HINT6 is the volume ladder, the rest is almost identical to the HINTO, I could careless about an extra OPT input.
I toy with getting an A21 and use the HINTO as a preamp......Without spending uber money, for me Parasound gets me easily 95% there..........

 

Thanks Catcher10! That's some good information and I'll keep the Parasound in mind as a possible addition. My preference, truth be told, is acquiring the new Marantz Reference PM-KI-Ruby, but at $5G's in Canada it might be too much for me...we'll see. Maybe I'll take a drive to Edmonton and audition the HINT 6 before I decide.

 

Like you I would love the Parasound JC5, but I ain't spending $5K for just an amp. I'm not sure I need more than what the HINT gives me, about 4-5 wpc in Class A, balance Class A/B and plenty of current as well. The Regas are 6ohm so probably 210wpc............plenty headroom. Yea that Marantz is sweet, let me know ur thoughts when you buy it LOL.

 

Parasound is generally Nuetral with a little bit of warmth thrown in for good measure. That is why they have been and will continue to be my favorite amps for the foreseeable future. They also voice most of their stuff that way as well ( my Parasound zphono sounds like that too). Wonderful stuff. And they tend to match well with a wide range of speakers. Sounds great with my def tech and infinities

 

Parasound just released the A21+.

 

Yup...but at $2K now the A21 is lookin nice...damn it!!

 

You if have to have the cheapest.... there are plenty of used A21 floating around the Internet for $1500 or less.

 

Model refresh is generally more acceptable to consumers when there is a price increase ...

 

I had been on hiatus from vinyl for 30 years. In January I got my albums out of storage. I just picked up a Hint 6 in November from Audio Video Therapy in tax-free Nashua, NH. I was looking to improve the sound of my newly purchased EAT C-Sharp turntable. I was driving it with a Yamaha Aventage RX-A1070 AV receiver. I wanted to explore what the next step up in the sound quality food chain might sound like and at what cost. AV Therapy has great sales people who are patient and do their best to meet your needs and not upsell you on something you don't need. They will also let you take a demo unit home for 30 days. So if you live within driving distance of tax-free Nashua, NH they are great folks to deal with.

I love the Hint 6. I am driving SVS Ultra Towers and two SVS SB-2000 subs with it. It made a huge improvement to the bass end. Much richer and fuller bass. I noticed greater detail and an improved soundstage. This was not me expecting to hear this and so I heard what I wanted to hear. I had no idea what to expect. The Hint 6 had a huge WAF. My wife, who is hardly a critical listener, noticed the improvement in the sound. In fact she comes in to listen to music with me quite often now. Other times she encourages me to play it loud so she can hear it in other rooms. If she goes to bed before me I offer to turn the volume down, but she says no I want to hear it too. Movies played through the Hint 6 and Yamaha using the Home Theater Bypass mode sound better than ever. I find I am playing my music quite loud with no listener fatigue. I am sometimes in the low 90db's for a few tracks and I have no desire to turn it down. The Yamaha I never really played at that level. If I played the Yamaha in the mid 80db's I would feel the need to turn it down after 30-45 minutes. I can play the Hint 6 for hours at high volume. The only reason I turn the Parasound down would be to preserve and protect my hearing.

Some likes and dislikes:
LIKES:
+Great sound as described above
+Low noise floor
+I like the memories on the remote for the startup volume and favorite volume.
+Bass and treble controls. I usually bypass them totally but it is nice to have them available to take the edge off the occasional bad sounding LP.
+The Home Theater Bypass mode works great and improves your movie watching experience.
+I have seen some folks criticize the headphone amp. It is is supposed to be one of the bullet point features of the Hint 6. For me, my AQ Nighthawk Carbons have never sounded better.
+ Understated and clean appearance.

DISLIKES: (These are quite minor.)
-The illuminated Volume Display. I like the digital readout, but be aware it can not be turned completely off.It has too brightness levels that I would describe as "Too Bright" and "Very Bright". I wish there was a third option for totally off. This is my "biggest" complaint so far. I would guess having the display off, might even make a tiny improvement to the sound quality too.
-The IR remote is quite sensitive and fussy. You must aim it precisely at the IR sensor to get the remote to work. I sometimes have to press buttons 2 or 3 times to get it to register on the Hint 6.

Lastly I will mention I had to install my turntable away from the rest of the system, so I needed a separate preamp. I went with the Parasound JC3 Jr. The Hint 6 was so quiet and I was playing my music louder with it and I notice my Clear Audio preamp was picking up WiFi noise. I replaced it with the JC3 Jr and experienced another big improvement in the sound. Once again my wife mentioned it. This time she did not know I had a new preamp. She just said boy this record sounds even better than last week when you played it. Bottom line I never knew vinyl could be so quiet and sound so good. Based on AV Therapy's recommendation, I bought the JC3 Jr outright without an in home trial. They mentioned they had 6 customers bring a demo unit home to try and all 6 bought the Jr.

Jim

 

I agree that A/V Therpay is a great place. However, in my experience, a 30 day demo was not an option. Even asking for a week seemed to be asking for a huge favor. But I understand, and they are great people.

 

Hello everyone, I just upgraded to the HINTO from a vintage Onkyo receiver! I did buy a demo model, was in the store for about 3 1/2 years based on date on the shipping box. I do notice some noise when I am playing music and moving the volume control. Is this normal, seems kind of odd, it otherwise sounds fantastic.

 

I assume you got a full warrenty. Take it bace and have them fix it.

 

Yea send back to Parasound for inspection and repair, they have 5yr warranty even on B stock. I don't experience any noise at all from my HINTO.

 

No noise here too.

 

Unless you got a screaming good deal I’d just return it. Even if they fix it you’re still buying damaged goods. And probably paying a lot.

 

Thanks for all the replies! I tried something and it seemed to work, I stopped playing music and rotated volume control back and forth about 15 times, the problem now gone. I did notice balance control seemed fuzzy when I first plugged it into house power, I moved that control back and forth a few times, problem never came back.

I still have an email out to Parasound to see if there might be a larger problem, but at this point, there is no more problem as it’s all working perfectly. I will keep everyone posted, thank you!

 

Dirty knobs? Figured it take longer than that to get dirty but cool would love a HINT

 

I will admit when I read SoCalUser's post, I thought of dirty knobs. Back in the 70's I had a spray can of Realistic spray cleaner for dirty knobs with a little red straw like thingy to direct the spray deep inside the offending knob assembly. But I haven't heard a dirty knob in a long time, I guess I just assumed it was no longer a problem. Also that Parasound was so new.

But glad to hear it is fixed and you are up and running.

 

There was a rash of Hint-O units with faulty volume pots just FYI. Parasound can identify if your unit is one of them via S/N.

 

You probably have a scratchy pot, and mine had absolutely no noise, they are dead silent, Parasound will fix you right up.