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
Check out the 250lbs Classe Omega. I think it was like something 100wpc class a, 500wpc in a/b. then like 3400wpc into some crazy low impedence. that's nuts.
Aroc: I've heard from more than a few folks, including straight from a Classe' dealers own mouth, that the Omega's are not that good sounding. Like anything else though, it is a matter of system synergy and personal preference.

I also had a response typed up to Tok2000 and Twl but it somehow disappeared from my computer. Must have happened when it locked up earlier today. Sean
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Sean,
I am surprised that you are spending so much time looking at specs. You know better than most, it is the sound.

I personally love Krell amps. Although the specs don't change that much as I have upgraded over the years, the sound has.

Richard
The "sound" of a unit has to do with the design of the circuit, how the circuit is laid out and the quality of the parts used. A good portion of what one hears can be described in specs IF one is provided with ALL of the pertinent specs. By "pertinent specs", i'm not talking about the typical stuff that is provided in a buyers guide either.

If the specs check out phenomenally good without having to resort to "tricks" such as high negative feedback, etc.. and one doesn't like the sound of the product, it is quite simple to alter the sonics of such a unit by changing passive parts.

What do you think that most of these "tweak guru's" do for a living ? Most of them leave the circuitry as is ( for the most part ) and simply swap higher grade components in place of what the manufacturer used. This is work that a monkey could do for the most part. It is only when one gets into altering circuit design that knowledge of circuitry comes into play.

The fact that this unit is built like a tank, has a good basic design, careful attention to parts layout and hand selected high grade parts for every inch of the circuit tells me that it should be pretty close to what you can get out of a SS circuit. Like anything else, i'm sure that it could be improved in more than a few ways. It makes life a LOT easier if you start off with something that is "solid" to begin with though.

The first thing that would have to go on these amps would be the binding posts. I'd also like it if if was a little bit faster too : ) Sean
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Sean, the first thing to go would be the binding posts? I chose the Superior Electric as they are the best sounding as well as the most rugged of all the ones available.....I have run four of the JC-1s on one twenty amp circuit and have had no problems whatsoever......Atkinson had way too much fun with the specs and think Parasound's specs of .2% distortion for clipping is a better place to be than Stereophile's 1%....Yes the amps are powerful as they drove the heck out of the Sound Lab speakers at the CES, a feat in itself.....Glad the review is finally out as have been biting my tongue now for a couple months....The amp is the best we can do in a machine made very powerful amplifier......The amp would run three times the price if made here in the USA by hand....This is probably the first high end product to be machine made overseas with no scrimping on parts quality......