Parasound JC-1 vs. Pass 250.5

Irish65. Sounds good to me. Thanks

I was told by Peter that the 350.5 was the sweet spot in the .5 line. It had very similar attributes with the XA series.
Jeff

Thanks guys for all your input -- thought I would bounce this thread back up on the radar, so to speak, and see if there might be any new info. regarding a comparo of these two amps.

BTW, I have heard both amps, but of course were in two different systems. Both sounded very good! Surprisingly, the Pass 250-5 actually sounded a little more "fluid" and relaxed, again within it's own setting. I say surprisingly because I obviously thought the mono block JC-1's would have sounded more at ease.

Denf, I now have lived with the Pass LabsX-350.5 for a year in my system, and am still as thrilled with its sonics as I was when I first auditioned it in my system. It replaced a pretty damn good amp in its own right, EdgeNL-10, because it offered a more "natural/musical" presentation, often associated with tube gear, but with all the details, slam, and clarity of solid state. And yes, the .5 series is a significant improvement over the first generation X series by leaps and bounds sonicly. I never really liked the original X amps, auditioned them when they were released, and kept my Pass Labs Aleph 1's untill the Edge replaced them. The .5 series returned to the "musicality/liquidity" of the Alephs but added clarity, details and great slam.

So...anybody actually heard both these amps in the same system? Both have excellent reviews from users, but the JC-1's are Stereophile Class-A rated, while the Pass amp hasn't been reviewed by anybody that I know of. Stereophile reviewed the XA160, and compared it favorably to the JC-1, adding that "Everything positive I said about that amp I can say about the XA160, perhaps more so". While the X250.5/350.5 is not the XA160, apparently they sound close to it.

Also, does anybody know how many watts of Class-A power the 250.5 and the 350.5 can produce? Or, even better, how many watts single-ended class-a, and how many watts in push-pull class-a?