Teaming Audio Research pre with Parasound JC5??

Sorry to disagree John, the older ARC amps tend to spotlight the top end a bit which may lead to a bit of additonal brightness with the 803D.

Also the Ref 150 amps even used are way more expensive and then you have the issues of tube life, heat, and lack of bass control.

The ARC amps are very good amplifiers, the combination of a tube preamp coupled with a powerful solid state amplifier has been the best of both world's for many years, you get the superior bass control and dynamics of the solid state amplifier, lack of noise, and zero cost to replace tubes, furthermore, you get piece of mind without having the failures of a big tube amplifier.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Coda dealers

According to a seller on US Audio Mart there is now a .8 version 2 with even more power, although I do not see it on the Coda website.  He says "This is the V2 version with 250W/ch into 8 ohm,500W/ch into 4 ohms with the first 12 watts being pure class A."

Jetter,  it is the same ampliifer.

You can order the Coda .8 with 400 watts with 6 watts Class A
                                                   250 watts with 12 watts Class A
                                                   150 watts with 18 watts Class A

It all depends on how the Bias is set. The mains transformer is a massive 3kv transfomer, so the amplifier has way more power on tap then is required. 

The .8 amplifier is based on new output devices, from the older Coda amplifiers as well as a few other changes. 

One terrific high power amplifier, beats most $10k amplifiers the sound stage is positively gigantic, midrange is warm, the amp has great information retrival with a tight yet slighly warm bass.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Coda dealers

(((may lead to a bit of additonal brightness with the 803D.)))Guaranteed speculation on your part.You know you never tried his speakers the latest 803/ ARC Ref 6 /ARC 150 together I have and its music. When listening to his Ref 6 optimized with stealth Caps, finessed out design we are dealing with an ideal 300 K input impedance ARC power amps again stealth caps, gain matched together work like magic. Why put a Ferrari up against a 25 k per leg load tow truck. Let us help the guy instead of trying to sell him a non-optimized boat anchor.
 Best JohnnyR

I am using a REF5 with the JC5 powering Harbeth's 40.1 speakers. Absolutely magical combination. Bass is puncy, Midrange is incredibly smooth and high end is very sparkly. I was using the Ref150 that a lot of people suggested before and i can say that i prefer the JC5. Difficult for me to say because the amp is not manufactured in the States and Parasound may not have the prestige as Audio Research. Fully convinced after giving it a try.