Hola, JA.
I've been through the Parasound Halo 2 review a couple of times, and wanted to ask a "woody" question.
Do you think there is an 'objective' measurement on this piece that would correlate well with its superior soundstaging?
I tried thinking about channel seperation, but most preamps have better channel seperation 'skills' than almost all recordings do.
I was taken by your comment that even mono recordings had more space, which would also argue against channel seperation being responsible for its superior performance.
Could it be a lower noise floor that might allow more lower level spacial cues to be better reproduced and, therfore, paint a better sonic picture of space? (This would be my guess, but I'm frequently wrong. Plus, I've heard imaging champions that were otherwise "noisy," so this may not be the right place to think about imaging, at all.)
So, for an objectivist, where does preamp imaging exist in the realm of measured performance?
Last (and probably dumb) question...
Can a preamplifier (or amplifier) have certain parts of the audio spectrum where it alters phase?
The Parasound was listed as non-phase inverting, I was wondering if electronic devices like this preserve the same phase over their whole range of reproduction?