Pass labs krell parasound amps

JC5, have owned a number of good amps..... this is fantastic for the money,  slightly used. ...it can be had for $5k or less.  of course it doesn't have the "NAME" of PASS etc.   but I'm talking about bottom end "sound quality", controlled bass, imaging, etc.     and built VERY well indeed.   run it with REVEL's and it is awesome.

I went from Pass to Coda to Parasound and finally settled on the original Parasound A21 (better than A21+ BTW) as my preferred amp for my separates (I actually prefer a Yamaha integrated to all of them but that’s largely a speaker synergy thing).

The Pass I owned was the XA25. A very nice sounding amp but simply didn’t have enough juice for my stable of speakers.

Subsequent to the XA25, I tried the Coda No.8 V1. It’s also a nice amp—very quiet and resolving and a little all around superior to the XA25. It would’ve been perfect had it been able to give me the same “effortless” presentation the Parasound does.

The Parasound is the warmest of those 3, but still decently resolving and sounds the least taxed at spirited volumes. Pairing the original A21 with a highly transparent preamp and source goes a long way in offsetting its otherwise dark character.

If the JC5 merely sounds like a better A21 (though it is arguably inferior in bench tests), then I think it would be an excellent choice if the other sides of your chain are highly resolving, which your speakers are IME.

I haven’t heard the MC312 specifically, but if it sounds similar to other modern MACs, I would save some cash and simply opt for the JC5.

Perhaps a better option would be to get a Levinson amp to pair with your preamp and keep it in the Harman family.

i own the Krell Illusion pre along with the Krell Duo 300xd with the ibias tech

and the fans in the back never come on no matter how hard i am driving them

I usually listen to them at low volume with great reasults as they run Class A up trough there power curve due to the ibias tech I also use all Sil-tech cables for my interconnects and speakers I would think if you found a used Duo 300xd i would not pass it up 

All of the amps that you and others have mentioned are great choices. I’ve had Pass Labs and now I’m using Krell. The Krell that I’m currently using is the Evolution 302e. It sounds very different to the previous Krell’s, even different than the non “e” evo’s, and closer to the Pass X series that I’ve owned. Which is better? That’s a matter of taste as they’re all extremely capable amps. The newer Bryston amps like the 4B SST3 are also very good. I was actually surprised at how good it sounded as I had owned an SST which wasn’t as good as my old Aragon 4004mkii. You get that awesome Bryston warranty as well. I’ve seen lots of love for Coda but have yet to listen to one. I also have a First Watt F3 which is excellent but it tends to run out of juice (18w iirc) when I get the urge to rock out 

totally subjective but

when I look at Krell, i always think that they made it look so ugly ON PURPOSE  to challenge their buyers to get over the aesthetics and just focus on the sound.

It must sound incredible if people still buy them despite their looks.