A couple days ago I emailed Parasound with some tech questions about the "HINT," as they call it, Halo INTegrated. I got a quick reply from Richard Schram, president of the company!
On 11/9/2015 5:19 PM, Richard Schram wrote:
Hello Rich,
Thank you for your message and for your interest in the Halo Integrated. I’ll answer your questions in text below: From: Rich
Sent: Sunday, November 8, 2015 8:18 PM
To: parasound_sales
Subject: Halo Integrated
Parasound Sales,
You have a nice design there. Congrats.
Are all the audio circuits in the Halo Integrated of discreet transistor design? Are their any integrated circuits used in the audio signal paths?
The power amp stage has no ICs in the audio circuit. There are ICs in other parts of the unit. It would be virtually impossible to build a fully discrete unit given the vast functionality of the HINT. Was the whole amplifier designed by John Curl, or just the power amplifier section? Is the power amplifier section unique to the Integrated or is it of similar design to other Halo amplifiers?
John’s primary input was for the power amp. His advice was very helpful in making parts decisions in other parts of the unit. The Integrated’s power amp circuit emplys the same the topology of our A 23 and A 21 Halo amps. The sound is therefore very similar. The biggest difference is that the amp channel circuit boards are oriented vertically, rather than horizontally, as necessitated by available space. Are the balanced input and output true active differential circuits, or pseudo balanced with a grounded negative pin?
A grounded negative pin would be really cheap and (to me) misleading. The HINT’s balanced input is active with a premium balanced to unbalanced driver opamp. The balanced outputs is active with a premium unbalanced to balanced driver opamp. This maintains all of the CMRR advantages of a balanced connection. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Kind regards,
Richard Schram
President
Parasound Products, Inc.
PS: Take a look at our web site. There are some amazing new reviews posted for this model.