anyone here tried Parasound "New" JC-5 amp

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.

Hi auxinput, thanks for the detailed explanation of the virtues of the amps that you have provided.  In musical preferences I am most sensitive to a too bright presentation and this will make or break a system for me.  Even though my speakers have soft dome tweeters, I still think having an amp that slightly rolls off the high end is my preference.  I am not sure if that is what you are referring to as a "creamy" sound.   

I am currently evaluating a Parasound A21+ in my system and at this point I am loving it.  But I need to decide to keep it or not soon and so far I am leaning towards keeping it.  It doesn't hurt that I did get a bit of deal on it. 

Hi jetter, that's totally cool.  It's all about personal preference with this stuff, lol.  It's so hard to try to describe what "creamy" means unless you have heard that.  The Parasound does slightly roll off/soften the highs, but it is not a "creamy" sound at all.  You can have good high frequency response, but still have a creamy sound - it's more of a midrange description, but the "Class A smoothness" can affect the entire frequency range.
The Parasound has excellent clean and realistic midrange, but the slight softening of the highs put it slightly on the "warm" side of neutral.  A "creamy" sound is not realistic at all because it introduces a creamy signature to the actual source waveforms - similar to how some tube amps create this different "tube texture" that is not part of the original soundtrack.

I know this is a little late, but if you like the sound from the JC-5 amp you might want to listen to the Anthem P2 power amp, once you listen to the Anthem P2 you will hear the difference and switch to the Anthem.They are both priced around the same amount, plus the Anthem does not even get warm while playing at full power and can go down below 2 ohm loads if needed, so it's able to drive any speaker out there.

Alucard,   that funny you said that..  the JC-5 replaced Anthem STR.
And now the Luxman L509x replaced the both of them...  and I think it might be the end gamer.   for now.  LOL