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If i had the money.....

I'd be ordering a set of the Parasound Halo JC-1 Monoblocks. I knew that these were going to be good, but i didn't know just HOW good. I've talked to a few people that have them and the "reviews" of these end users is just as strong as the recommendation that these amps receive in the February Stereophile.

Hard to imagine beating a product that was designed for optimum linearity / performance by an audio legend, laid out by an RF engineer in order to maintain consistent impedances throughout the entire circuit and then building the circuit with each part hand picked to "voice" the unit for optimum sonics by a "tweaker". The total approach to product building for $6K a pair !!! All of this with POWER to spare !!!

THD is predominantly all second harmonic i.e. not the typical odd order that most SS amps generate.

IMD of .0015 !!! Keep in mind that distortion typically goes up quite noticeably as power is raised and impedance lowered. This figure was taken at 4 ohms and at 600+ watts of output !!!

Output impedance of no higher than .06 ohms. This amp should keep the same "voice" and stability into just about any speaker. The power output verifies the stability and "robustness" of the circuit also....

Rated at 400 wpc @ 8 ohms

Power at clipping, broad band signal steady state:

8 ohms: 545 watts

Power at clipping, pulsed 1 KHz signal:

8 ohms: 586 watts

4 ohms: 1154 watts

2 ohms: 2255 watts

1 ohm: 4200 watts !!!

Any thougths / comments on this one ? Sean
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sean
brulee
564 posts
 
Hi Sean, I hope you somehow get the money for these amps. Half the fun is finally getting what you want. The other half is the frustration on the long wait on getting what we want. At least you know what it is you want. You have half the battle beaten.
tok20000's avatar
tok20000
608 posts
 
1 - I do not have faith in technical stats given by a manufacturer about amplifiers. It is sort of like looking at stats of a NFL playoff game... The only thing that matters is what team wins. The only thing that matters is how the amp sounds.

2 - I have little faith in any review that is published for any product. Stereophile has LOVED other products in the past that I have not liked a lot myself. They have also loved products I have loved, but now days they seem to love nearly everything they review.

3 - I would never say that I want a product until I have heard it of better yet demoed it.

4 - Power means NOTHING when judging an amps sound quality. These amps may be able to drive any speaker on the planet, but that tells me little about the way they sound. I'd take LAMM M1.1 monoblocks over about any amps I have ever heard, and they were designed in the early 90's. Not to mention that their stats are only so-so, but they are some of the best sounding amps on the planet (many publications agree by the way... ). They do put out 200wpc CLASS A power into 4 ohms! Not too many amps can match that stat. Somehow, I doubt much of the Parasound power is CLASS A.

Anyway, it is nice you are excited about an amp you have never heard but you have heard good buzz about. However, I do not beleive the buzz until I hear for myself.

Another point: To get every ounce of performance from these amps you would have to put them on two separate 30 amp circuits (yes 30 AMPS!). If one was driving a seriously innefficient speaker that had an impediance between 1 and 2 ohms (cannot think of one that is this inefficient off the top of my head...) in a big room, you could trip a 20 amp circuit with just one amp. Food for thought.....

KF
twl
3,251 posts
 
Sean, it sounds like a dream amp for a power hungry guy like you!

Of course, it would be about 584 watts to much for my Lowthers! :^)
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