Parasound DR-40 Receiver (1985)
A receiver under $300 that promised 40 watts and frequency-synthesized tuning. It mostly delivered, as long as you didn't ask too much of the tuner.
Overview
At $299.95, the Parasound DR-40 landed in a market where "budget receiver" usually meant a stripped-down tuner section, a noisy phono stage, and a power amp that folded the moment you connected inefficient speakers. Parasound pitched something different: 40 watts per channel continuous into 8 ohms from 20 Hz to 20 kHz at 0.04% THD, frequency-synthesized AM/FM tuning with five presets per band, and a genuinely separate loudness control. Audio (April 1985, p.101) noted that feature was "rarely found in receivers costing much more than this one." That's the sales sheet. What reviewers measured is more interesting and, in places, less flattering.
The amplifier section is the strongest part of the package. It's rated at 40 watts per channel with 1.0 dB of dynamic headroom and a damping factor of 150 at 20 Hz, which is enough grip to drive moderate-efficiency speakers in a normal room. Leonard Feldman, writing in Audio (April 1985, p.99), found the amp "sounds quite good" at moderate listening levels. He warned that pushing it harder with medium- to low-efficiency loudspeakers produced "slight graininess" tied to dynamic intermodulation distortion. His advice was blunt: use efficient speakers, keep the volume sane, and the amp does reasonably well. The 0.04% THD figure and the sub-0.03% SMPTE-IM rating look respectable on paper, but the static test-signal numbers don't tell the whole story once the amp is working hard.
The phono stage is a pleasant surprise at this price. Parasound rates it at 2.0 mV input sensitivity, 80 dB signal-to-noise referenced to a 5-mV input, and 220 mV overload. Feldman measured 75 dB of hum and noise below 1-watt output, which he called satisfactory. The overload figure didn't hold up. He got acceptable performance at 100 mV for a 1-kHz signal, well short of the claimed 220 mV. He suspected Parasound measured overload at a higher frequency to hit the bigger number, and said that if they did, they should have said so. The RIAA response was also tailored to the IEC-modified curve rather than the official RIAA curve. That's a deliberate choice, not an error, but it matters if you're fussy about phono accuracy.
The tuner is where the DR-40 shows its budget roots. The FM front end uses an FET r.f. stage with bipolar oscillator and mixer stages, and the i.f. and multiplex functions are handled largely by multi-purpose ICs. It's a basic circuit, and it performs accordingly. Parasound claimed 9.3 dBf mono usable sensitivity. Feldman measured 12.0 dBf. The bigger disappointment was signal-to-noise, which never exceeded 65 dB in mono or 61 dB in stereo even with strong signals. He considered 70 dB the minimum acceptable for a modern program source. Harmonic distortion measured 0.3% in mono and 0.18% in stereo, and frequency response was flat within ±1.0 dB from 30 Hz to 10 kHz but down 5.0 dB at 15 kHz. Stereo separation was a claimed 44 dB at 1 kHz and 36 dB at 10 kHz. In strong-signal areas with low volume levels, FM is acceptable. In weak-signal areas, it isn't.
On the plus side, the tuner is genuinely frequency-synthesized, with five AM and five FM presets, manual or automatic scanning, and 50-kHz FM / 10-kHz AM tuning steps. A five-LED signal-strength indicator uses two red LEDs for weak signals, an amber for marginal, and two green for strong. It's crude but readable. The preset memory is backed up by a pair of AA batteries in a rear-panel holder, a thoughtful touch at this price, though Feldman wished for a cheap plastic cover over the compartment.
The control layout is unusually complete for the money. A two-color LED shows green for normal operation and red for short-circuit or overload. The separate rotary loudness control isn't tied to the volume pot, so you set listening level first and then dial in bass compensation independently. That's the correct way to do it, and rare at any price. Bass and treble controls offer ±10 dB at 100 Hz and 10 kHz respectively, and the subsonic filter is rated at -6 dB at 20 Hz with a 12 dB/octave slope (Feldman measured 4.2 dB of attenuation at 20 Hz). A single tape-monitor loop, mono/stereo switching, and a stereo headphone jack round out the front panel. The rear panel carries 300- and 75-ohm FM antenna terminals, an external AM antenna terminal, a hinged ferrite-rod AM antenna, two sets of color-coded speaker terminals, and switched and unswitched AC outlets.
One small oddity: the high-level input pair is silkscreened "CD/Video" rather than the traditional "AUX." That's the mid-1980s for you, with CD players and VCRs crowding onto the back of every receiver. According to Feldman, the owner's manual was a fold-out brochure of roughly eight pages, two of which were a full schematic.
Parasound's own advertising positioned the DR-40 as a lot of receiver for under $300, and on the amplifier and feature side that claim holds up. Feldman's closing verdict was more measured: the DR-40 "does represent quite a lot for its price," but "in audio equipment you still get what you pay for." The tuner's marginal signal-to-noise and the amp's behavior under load are the two places where the budget shows. Used with efficient speakers in a moderate-sized room, at sane volume levels, it's a capable and unusually well-equipped little receiver.
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