anyone here tried Parasound "New" JC-5 amp

Sad to see no high-bias mode on the JC-5.

They are not JC1s at all. John Curl has redesigned the amplifier and those that I trust who have heard the JC1 and JC5 have much preferred the latter amp. As far as I’m concerned I view the 5 as an upgrade to the 1. 

I am am sure they share similarities but it is a revised circuit. 

I heard the JC5 at RMAF last year.  I also have owned JC1s and A21 amps.  They are all relatively similar, though the bigger amps with bigger power supply will have more solid sound.  I have also read that JC1 amps require an enormous amount of hours to burn in (some say 400+, some say 1200 hours!)

That being said, the Parasound amps are very refined and excellent sounding amps, but they are voiced slightly on the warm side and the highs are very slightly rolled off and softened. So, yeah, I agree that the top end lacks that sparkle and resolution.  My JC1s definitely had over 1000 hours.

Hi auxinput, it sounds like you have had a number of amps.  Which amps in your opinion have it all, good bass, mids and treble (resolution)?  Thanks

The previous generation Krell Evolution amps (402e, 302e, 2250e) are probably the best amps I have heard for this type of sound (which is my preferred sound also). But they can be as much as 8-10 years old (if you are concerned about age). The larger models are extremely heavy and require freight shipping on a pallet (the 402e is 175lbs unboxed!!). This can be a hassle and expensive if they need to be shipped back to Krell for servicing. The Evo 2250e is only 92lbs and can be handled via Fedex. These Krell Evo amps really “sing” in my opinion. ---NOTE: do not confuse these with the lower end KAV-2250 and Showcase models. They are not the same thing. Examples of other amps with this type of dynamic and high resolution sound are Esoteric, MBL, Gryphon, Soulution, Plinius. Some of these can get really expensive.


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The Emotiva amplifiers actually have an excellent high resolution circuit, --BUT-- they are compromised by low cost parts and, in certain cases, design approaches (to meet the cost target of the product). This results in things such as grain in the sound and harshness / brightness. These things can be worked around with various levels of effort. I have direct experience with the entire history of Emotiva amps and can go into a very detailed discussion if you are interested in exploring this avenue. However, a stock Emotiva will definitely NOT play at the level of Parasound.


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There has been a trend in the last 5-8 years for amps that have the high Class A smooth/creamy type of sound. The newer Krell amps (solo/duo/chorus) have this very smooth sound with a touch of creaminess. They sound completely different than the previous Evolution amps. You might not get the “sparkle” you’re looking for here. The new Mark Levison amps are VERY smoothed and creamy sounding (I don’t know what old Levinson sounds like). Boulder is another amp that is slightly creamy. There are many others, but I can’t remember all the brands I’ve heard in this category (since it’s not my taste).


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Lastly, the final element are wiring and fuses. For all my wiring (power cord, interconnect, speaker cable) I some variation of solid-core OCC copper with Furutech Rhodium terminations. Solid-core copper sounds the most natural and the rhodium plated terminations enable the high frequency sparkle and overall resolution that normal gold/copper cables don’t have. I used to have silver a long time ago. Silver is definitely fast, but over time and listening, I have determined that silver imparts an artificial character to the sound (it just doesn’t sound natural). For fuse, I always use Furutech rhodium, but in some cases the Isoclean gold-plated warmer sounding fuse would be excellent (such as a fast Bryston 7B3 amp). I can also dive deeper into this discussion if you want.