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Parasound Halo JC1s

Hello Guys,

Finally I have at home the two monos Parasound Halo JC1 and they are singing from last monday
Well , I have been really surprised about their sound
Since the first sight they look like two tanks , heavy silver big boxes .. emanating brute power
No way! They sound completely different from thei look
When they sound they remind you to the tubes but good tubes!
Not 6550 and not KT88 but I mean the old triodes with high frequencies very wide and extencive but always refined and thin , absolutely no grainy and with an incredible thickness like you're listening a tiny triode and not a brute SS
Bass is very tight , tuneful and deep , the control of my Thiel 2.4 is perfect
The marriage with my Pass Labs X1 is perfect too and its incredible amount of detail at low level is shown by the Halos without losing one note
Now I have only to work to find a good balanced cable to connect the X1 to JC1s .. by now I'm using my old Transparent Music Link Reference RCA but I think a good balanced cable would work better than the RCA on these monos.
The only problem I'm having is the enormus amount of heat the JC1 exhale , and now in Italy we are running our normal 35/38 C° , surely the JC1s are a good choice in winter as additional radiators in the living room

My cent!

Curio
128x128curio
tboooe's avatar
tboooe
1,009 posts
 
The JC1 is a great amp but you are right about the heat! I used to own the Pass Labs XA160 which runs only in pure class a mode. Needless to say my room got very hot!!! Eventually I had to replace them with something that allows me to listen to my stereo during the summer.

Good luck!
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,370 posts
 
Congratulations on the new amps, sounds like you made a good choice.

I have the same amps and you are right in thinking to run them balanced. They are meant to be run balanced.

And yes they are hot. I tune the bias down in the summer and I turn them off when I am not going to be listening to them soon. The only problem is they take a while when turning on from cold before they sound really good. In the winter I put the bias back on high and leave them on all the time. They double as room heaters.
bpwalsh
1,202 posts
 
If you listen a lot, leaving them on can eliminate warm-up time. I suggest switching them to low bias mode when not listening, which will reduce power consumption and heat. Otherwise you might want to switch them off between listening sessions. They can sound a bit better using the balanced inputs, but it's not critical.
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