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Parasound JC-1 Heat Dissipation

I am looking at purchasing a pair of Parasound JC-1 monoblocks based on the excellent feedback both here and other places. After a flurry of upgrades this year, the power amplifier is the next piece of equipment to upgrade. I have made the decision to stick with solid state since I like keeping my system powered up at all times and the Wilson Benesch loudspeakers like lots of power.

My current system:
- TRL Marantz SA-14 SACD player
- Conrad-Johnson 17LS tube preamplifier, Amperex Holland 60s tubes
- Rotel RMB-1095 5X200W multichannel power amplifier
- Wilson Benesch Discovery loudspeakers

My only concern with the JC-1s is the amount of heat generated since they run the first 25/10 watts in Class A mode and consume 250W in idle mode. This is of concern especially during the summer months.

My audio room is sealed, 16.5ft X 12.5ft X 8ft, and is located on the main floor of my house.

Also wondering if I can reduce heat dissipation if I set the bias switch to low (10W Class A) and only switch it to high during listening sessions. If I do this, does it take time to warm up to fully take advantage of 25W potential?

Also if I have a fan blowing on the power amplifiers outside of listening sessions, is this of any use?

Any feedback from others who have a pair of JC-1s in a similar room is appreciated.

Also the match between the JC-1s and the C-J preamplifier which only has unbalanced output.
shuang
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
I can only comment on one thing. The fan will blow the heat around in a sealed room, keeping the amps slightly cooler and the room slightly warmer. I would imagine that with bias set lower then the heat dissipation btwn listening would be lower but not sure about warm up to the full 25w. My GUESS is that there would not be much of a warm up time, but then again I am not so sure about leaving a Class A amp on all the time, since it not only is expensive (6 kwh per day per amp at idle) and uncomfortable, but would surely result in faster degradation of internal parts due to constant high heat envt. Just my $0.02. YMMV
rhyno's avatar
rhyno
649 posts
 
my room is slightly smaller than yours, and you'll likely find as i that any amp that throws off heat (the JC1s do, esp in high bias) will heat up the room to an uncomfortable degree in the summer.

JC1s are very nice amps as well, and i could live with them if i could live w/ the heat---low bias might work, but i wasn't about to try and fail.

solution i arrived at: macintosh 501s. ice cold 24/7 and great sound.

rhyno
porziob
316 posts
 
Get a life or a different amp. You should know what to expect with a class A amp. You`re a tiresome whiner. If rain water was wine, you`d still find reason to whine.
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dlshifi
41 posts
 
I owned the JC-1 monos for one summer and used them in a room 16x26x8 (a bit more than twice the volume of yours). Left them on all the time, in the lower bias setting. They sounded great, but I couldn't live with the heat. I even bought a cheap air conditioner to cool the room when I wasn't around, but that only added to the inconvenience. It only took a short time (10 min to an hour, depending on my imagination that day) to hear the effects of the higher bias setting, but I rarely used it because of the added heat. I wanted to keep them to use as winter amps, but I found that the Belles 350A monos did a nice job and ran cool to the touch. Different sound, though. If you want the warm transparency (not an easy-to-find combination) of the JC-1 monos in a smallish, sealed room, plan on listening in your underwear.
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