Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
after reading a review on the Parasound P7 and many of the Stereophile Music in the Round articles, I wanted to upgrade the home theatre to an all analogue system from my Pioneer Elite receiver (circa 2002/3). The Pre5 multi-channel pre-amp definitely popped up in my search for something similar to the P7 but at a more affordable price point. I have matched this pre-amp with Parasound MCA-855 5 channel amp and use the analogue outputs from my Panasonic BD10A blu-ray player as the main source. For HDMI video switching, I found a Key Digital HDMI4x1 video processor and to maintain TV/Dolby Digital, picked up a Marantz DP870 Dolby Digital preamp in bypass mode for the Audio Refinement Pre5.

The sound improvements were so night and day that I was floored!! The biggest improvements beyond raw power was incredible clarity in the centre channel and a lot larger sound staging. Before my upgrade, I did audition a lot of higher end Receivers and listened to a few friend's home set ups. They really don't match the detail I get out of this set up now. One friend who came over immediately noticed the improved centre channel also.

Price Paid:  $550.00 from Web

Summary:
Awesome. Transparent, yet dynamic.

Works well in front of tubes.

Strengths:
Clear, ariticulate, full and lifelike sounding

turns volume down when put into standby

Weaknesses:
power/stanby button a bit weak.

front foot a bit odd looking - maybe should have 2 in the front and 1 in the back. its probably for good reason.

remote hard to find.

Similar Products Used:
Bryston BP25
Rotel RA-01

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Price Paid:  $575.00

Summary:
I have to say that I was very disappointed with the Audio Refinement Pre-5. I thought the build quilaity was horrible, very cheap. The volume and selector knobs seemed loose. The sound was less than stellar, I felt it was thin sounding.
I owned it for a week, and then sold it.

Strengths:
NONE

Weaknesses:
Poor build quality
thin sounding

Similar Products Used:
Unico Research integrated amp
Juicy Music pre amp
Carver C-2 preamp
Sunfire TG3 processor

Price Paid:  $475.00 from audiogon

Summary:
I'll try to keep this short. Oustanding preamp. Have been listening to it for three weeks now and it has been an absolute breath of fresh air. I had to downgrade my system from surround to two channel because of space. I use a parasound halo a51 to bi-amp NHT Evoluition T5 towers. I had an ultra-highclass processor that I had to sell on ebay, and the pre5, to be honest, shines. And I mean it shines. Instruments image, and images are solid across the soundstage with wonderful depth on music and movies. I spin lps - music hall mmf 5, top level goldring cart, with a cambridge audio 640p pre - and this thing is great for records, and because it's gain is so solid it's an excellent pre amp for quiet recordings and quiet on-line stuff (like Heroes at NBC.com). Detail, detail, detail, but the overall sound is not fatiguing. Powerful too: tall images, excellent bass, and outstanding mid and high clarity. No hash and no buzz and very quiet. On movies, like Howl's Moving Castle, when you're inside Howl's castle the detail and layer of sound is intoxicating. It would be great if it had a good phono stage, but come on. At this price? And I have the option to re-upgrade one day to 5.1 surround. Lastly, it's quite handsome and elegant, and the add-on remote is handy. This is an oustanding audiophile preamp for a budget price. I love it and will be depending on this one for a long time.

Strengths:
Cost, simplicity of circuit design, strong gain without distortion, awesome soundstage and imagery, exciting sound and invigorating detail. Love it's simplicity, and yes it goes without a digital face but it also darkens up the room, right?

Weaknesses:
No phono stage. No treble/bass controls. Wish remote had individual source buttons rather than just the arrows that you push to get to the correct source.

Price Paid:  $560.00 from audiogon

Summary:
Other have covered the virtues of this pre-amp quite well, so I am mainly writing this review to answer some questions raised in the weaknesses section of the last review.

1. The pre-amp does have separate 5.1 and stereo outputs, but the stereo and front outs are the same, at least with a multi-channel source, so you can connect to either. I have not verified this for a stereo source, but at the very least you should be able to connect your fronts to the stereo outs and not have to swap any cables to go from stereo to multi-channel listening.

2. The pre-amp does have a relatively high gain, but I just turned down the input sensitivity of my power amp to compensate. You should do this anyway, as attenuating at the power amp is better than attenuating at the pre-amp (i.e., lowering the volume control): in the former case losses between the pre-amp and the power amp are less significant, as a larger signal is present.

Strengths:
Great looks and build quality.
Great sound.

Weaknesses:
Remote is an extra-cost option.

Similar Products Used:
Nothing terribly similar, just a 12-year-old NAD 1000 stereo pre-amp.