HINT Manual

HINT Cut Sheet

The documents included are recovered from the Parasound archives and have not been verified against production units. The information included is not intended for diagnosis or repair.

HINT Education Pack

HINT Savitech drivers

HINT Drivers and Instructions

Hifi Pig (UK) March 2018

"This is a great sounding amplifier! The Parasound does great music making everything sound effortless, dynamic and powerful. Highly Recommended"

Positive Feedback December 2016
"A company's track record is important—Parasound has been around since 1981 and has built a reputation on providing superior performance for the dollar. The Parasound Halo Integrated Amplifier is a first rate, high-current amplifier. Uncompromising 'best sound for the dollar' value. The Halo Integrated is a no-brainer for anyone stepping into the realm of high-end stereo and digital audio. Highly recommended."

The Audiophile Man (UK) April 2017
"A highly accomplished piece of hi-fi equipment, the Parasound Halo offers a wealth of sonic options that should satisfy any determined audiophile. Whether you’re talking analogue or digital, the Halo performed superbly, across all formats and sub-formats, providing a basic sound quality that hit a peak way above its own inherent price point."

Enjoy the Music.com's Blue Note Award 2016

Enjoy the Music.com's Best of 2016 Award

Stereo Times May 2016
"A serious contender for 'Best Integrated.' Parasound's effort to integrate the quality of separates into a single, functional, aesthetically-pleasing unit capable of providing high quality sound paid off in the Parasound Halo 2.1 Channel Integrated Amplifier."

Goodsound.com January 2016
"Parasound has succeeded in creating the ultimate affordable DAC-integrated amplifier. Unique among its peers. With ruler-flat neutrality, top-to-bottom linearity, and a gorgeous midrange, it becomes peerless. There is no better DAC-integrated on the market for the price."

Audioholics April 2015
"This Parasound isn't your traditional integrated amplifier. Whether it's vinyl or the latest and greatest in digital audio, the Parasound Halo Integrated Amplifier looks like it's equipped to handle just about anything you can throw at it. A force to be reckoned with when it comes to high resolution digital audio."

Positive Feedback Writer’s Choice Awards 2016
"Parasound's Halo Integrated 2.1 channel integrated amplifier is a force to be reckoned with. Any integrated amp that can readily drive high-current loads while providing clear, clean, and spacious sound for under $2500 is a winner. The Parasound Halo Integrated provides an amazing value proposition."

Everything Audio Network November 2016
"A classy integrated amp with D/A. Quality parts, design make the Halo a fantastic value. An enthusiastic nomination for EAN's Amplifier Product of the Year. We say 'wow.' At this price it is perfect."

What Hi-Fi? (UK) October 2016
"It's not often that such a fully-specified amplifier still delivers top-class sound quality. If you're after one do-it-all amp, there are few better alternatives."
Sound, Features, Build ★★★★★

Australian Hi-Fi (Australia)
September/October 2016
"The Parasound Halo [Integrated] is an excellent amplifier, but it's also an excellent phono stage, an excellent headphone amplifier, an excellent DAC and the inclusion of the electronic crossover circuit is a secret weapon that will improve the performance of any loudspeakers you own when you're also using a subwoofer. No surprise then that I consider the Halo to be outstanding value for money."

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, August 2016
"Parasound Halo gear is reliable, well made, superbly engineered and can't be beat for value. Don't waste your time trying to compare the features and ability the Parasound Halo Integrated can offer with another audio product. With an excellent DAC and an amplifier that has enough punch to handle any dynamics one would want, the Parasound Halo Integrated will make you reconsider the need for separates. It really is that good and an early favorite to receive 'Best of' honors in the category."

The Ear Hi-Fi Music Gear (UK) July 2016
"The Parasound HINT is capable of addictive musicality when you find a good speaker match. The Parasound does an awful lot for the money but it gets the important thing right, it makes you want to listen to more music. The Ear Best Buy."

AV Forums (UK) March 2016
Recommended Award
"It is supremely powerful and unfazed by what you are likely to connect to it. The HINT should be on anyone's shortlist. If you are a 2.1 user though, it needs to jump a long way further up that list. Put simply, the HINT is the best implementation of what is needed to do 2.1 properly I've seen at almost any price and the result is by far the most musical."

Stereophile April 2016
Class A Recommended Component
"Easy, intimate realism, great boogie factor and overall easy flowing, mostly smooth, and decidedly mellow personality. This was not to take away from the Parasound's musical incisiveness: The Halo played tunes and sang songs as if they mattered. A well-engineered, well-performing product."

SoundStage! Network Reviewers' Choice January 2016
"In the Halo Integrated, Parasound has succeeded in creating the ultimate affordable DAC-integrated amplifier. It has a raft of analog and digital inputs, built-in bass management, fully featured moving-magnet and moving-coil phono stages, a discrete headphone amplifier, and defeatable tone controls -- a feature set that, all by itself, makes Richard Schram's Hint unique among its peers. And when you include a sound of ruler-flat neutrality, top-to-bottom linearity, and a gorgeous midrange, it becomes peerless. There is no better DAC-integrated on the market for $2495 or less."

Home Theater Review Best of 2015
"Pretty much anything you pump through the Halo Integrated's speaker outputs sounds downright sumptuous."

Stereo+ (Norway) November 2015
"Superlative and affordable. In the price range under kr. 30,000 this is the amplifier that currently reigns, and I have difficulty seeing any other integrated amps, or for that matter preamp and power amp combinations which can deliver the same capabilities and the same sound. The Parasound HINT is just as good as everyone claims it is and it deserves an audition."

Hi Res Audio Central November 2015
"Let me say it without a blush: I absolutely loved this piece of gear. It hits on so many touchpoints of convenience, flexibility, usability, and musicality that it's hard to not develop an immediate crush."

Stereophile November 2015
"I believe that J. Gordon Holt would characterize the Parasound Halo Integrated as neutral and accurate. Why? Because, with certain extravivid recordings, I perceived the Halo as tracking the input signal pretty close to the feeling of master tape. Likewise, it was neutral, in that well-considered, just-right Goldilocks way: It was never too anything-except, maybe, too inexpensive!"

HiFi Choice Editor's Choice (UK) December 2015
"If there was ever a product that personifies the modern integrated amplifier, this is it. There's nothing not to like about this great value mid-price integrated."

TheAbsoluteSound.com, October 2015
"I suspect that many audiophiles who never anticipated wanting or needing an integrated amplifier may find, someday, that they do need a compact yet powerful one. If that is the case, they may find that the Parasound Halo Integrated 2.1 amplifier is the high-value solution. For $2495 it includes a powerful basic amplifier coupled to an excellent preamplifier that includes a built-in analog crossover as well as a DAC that supports all modern formats."

The Absolute Sound 2016 High-End Buyer's Guide
"For many audiophiles such mid-priced components will deliver a high enough level of sonic excellence to make for joyous listening for many years to come."

Hometheaterrview.com, September 2015
"Its performance blew me away, and its incredible bass-management capabilities make it stand apart in what is slowly but surely becoming a crowded integrated amplifier market. I'd say Parasound has a winner on its hands here... especially for the price."

Lyd & Bild (Norway) September 2015
"The Parasound Halo Integrated Amplifier is one of the really exciting amplifier purchases one can make for under 30,000 kroner. Here is the power to breathe life into a party house with resolution and musicality in spades. The amplifier is ideal for driving expensive high-end speakers, while it can help less expensive speakers realize the promise of their full potential. Sound-wise the HINT is slightly full bodied, but it is neutral enough so the speakers are what determines the final sonic signature. The little fullness that's there is like magic washing over us, and we can sit and listen to music for hours. And that's what it's all about! If you have 30,000 kroner to spend on an amp and compare it against others, its ingenious subwoofer output with high and low pass crossover filtering, in addition to its fairly lavish phono stage, should nudge you in the direction of the Parasound HINT. Even if you don't need these, it is still a bargain."

EnjoytheMusic.com, August 2015
"So as I said, I wanted the Parasound Halo Integrated to shine, and I got what I wanted. It concentrates on sound quality while including home theatre passthrough, subwoofer output, bass management, high resolution digital inputs, a decent phono input stage, quality headphone output and tone controls in a conservatively styled package. When you take a look at what Parasound is asking for this component, just $2495 in black or silver finish, you may well be as impressed as I am. I'm going to miss it around here."

Cnet, June 2015
"The Halo Integrated transformed the sound of the .7s. Really dynamic recordings, like Antonio Sanchez' drums solos on the Birdman soundtrack amply demonstrated the Halo Integrated's muscle."

New Record Day, August 2015
"The bottom line—my absolute favorite thing about the Parasound Halo is its no-nonsense approach of simplicity combined with feature-rich tools when you are ready to push the limits of what the Halo Integrated has to offer."