Surfmuz
I owned a Parasound JC2 for several months. I kept it long enough to make sure it was completely broken in. I couldn’t wait to terget rid of it. I found it to be just mediocre at best. Very polite and very boring.
With regard to your question about a hybrid design, the reason BHK designed it like that is it’s quieter. You still get the tonal color and accurate timbre from a tube design but because it only uses 2 tubes, there is much less noise (tube rush). Best of both worlds. You have to remember, BHK has been designing preamps for 50 years!
I bought the BHK preamp and it just blew away the JC2 even with the factory tubes. After about six months I decided to try some nos Telefunkens 12au7’s from the early 1960’s and those tubes elevated it to a whole new level. Those vintage tubes made a world of difference to the point of it was almost unrecognizable. I’ve had the BHK for over two years now and the more I improve my system, the more I appreciate how good that preamp is. For $5995.00, I don’t know what would beat it. They come up on Audiogon every once in a while for $3000 - $3500.00. Get one and get some old nos tubes from Mullard, Telefunken, Amperex, Siemens, just make sure the tubes are from the 1950’s to the 1960’s and you will be amazed. Good luck.
Scot
I owned a Parasound JC2 for several months. I kept it long enough to make sure it was completely broken in. I couldn’t wait to terget rid of it. I found it to be just mediocre at best. Very polite and very boring.
With regard to your question about a hybrid design, the reason BHK designed it like that is it’s quieter. You still get the tonal color and accurate timbre from a tube design but because it only uses 2 tubes, there is much less noise (tube rush). Best of both worlds. You have to remember, BHK has been designing preamps for 50 years!
I bought the BHK preamp and it just blew away the JC2 even with the factory tubes. After about six months I decided to try some nos Telefunkens 12au7’s from the early 1960’s and those tubes elevated it to a whole new level. Those vintage tubes made a world of difference to the point of it was almost unrecognizable. I’ve had the BHK for over two years now and the more I improve my system, the more I appreciate how good that preamp is. For $5995.00, I don’t know what would beat it. They come up on Audiogon every once in a while for $3000 - $3500.00. Get one and get some old nos tubes from Mullard, Telefunken, Amperex, Siemens, just make sure the tubes are from the 1950’s to the 1960’s and you will be amazed. Good luck.
Scot