Parasound Halo - SimAudio Aurora or Bryston

Or the route I went with the better value of Selah Audio speakers and a Gemstone Amp... notice some similarities.

dna2505,

Both the Sims and the Brystons suffer from the typical solid state bugaboos. What they do well, they do VERY well indeed, but they rob the music of life by bleaching harmonic color. The JC-1s do this to a much smaller degree, to the point where it's only just noticeable. Oh, and by the way, the JC-1s have both RCA and balanced inputs.

Auditioned Brystons when I was using the JC-1s. The Parasounds proved to be the superior amps. If your looking for a VERY musical and still detailed SS amp. The Ayre V-1xe is better than both of them.

I auditioned the JC-1's and honestly wasn't very impressed... I've never been a fan of Bryston either - both are too aggressive up top to my ear.

Never heard the Sim so can't comment on that.

Good luck.

I prefer the Sim Audio and would point out the reason the gear sounds so good with Dynaudio etc. is that it doesn't bleach out the harmonics as a previous poster advised. My $0.02. If you want more tubelike harmonics you will need to throw in tubes in the chain. Sim gear is also fully balanced plus RCA's. PS I have had a Bryston 4Bsst and I use my Sim W5 and I7. I haven't used the Para gear.