Parasound Halo Integrated
The Parasound Halo Integrated amplifier may appear rather conservative, but once you look a little deeper you’ll discover its rather unusual feature lineup. First, it offers the sort of true bass management usually seen on AV receivers but rarely found on integrated amps. Unlike what you find in receivers, the Halo Integrated’s bass management isn’t handled digitally, the Halo’s is strictly analog. That will appeal to purists who like their analog audio to remain purely analog. You can hook up small satellite or bookshelf speakers to the Halo Integrated, along with a powered subwoofer, and use the crossover controls on the amp’s back panel to perfectly blend sub and speakers. I know of no other integrated amp that offers that feature. It’s a 2.1-channel integrated amp, with a front panel mounted subwoofer volume control. If you have large speakers and no sub, you can bypass the bass management circuitry. The Halo Integrated is available in silver or black finishes.
Rather than use the sort of off-the-shelf Class D amplifier circuitry found on so many of today’s integrated amps and receivers, the Halo Integrated boasts an extremely high-current Class AB 160-watt-per-channel amplifier for 8 ohm speakers, which runs at 240 watts per channel for 4 ohm speakers, and it can happily drive even 2 ohm loads! Precious few integrated amps at any price are as capable driving demanding speaker loads as the Halo Integrated.
