Switch from Parasound JC-1 to Bel Canto Ref 1000?

I see this discussion has new life. I never did get the bel cantos. What I did do was buy an Innersound ref 500 amp for a great deal. It's a cool running class A/B amp that gives 500 watts into 8 ohms in a single chassis that idles cool. Exactly what I wanted so I can leave the stereo on all the time. I even bought the matching Innersound ref preamp. I spent a good deal of time comparing these to the parasound jc1s and the Ayre k1x. I had these all on hand for a few months so I really got to live with them before deciding what I liked best. I ended up keeping the full Innersound rig and selling the jc1s and k1x. The Innersound amp had a little quicker attack and punch the jc1s were a little rounded sounding still good I could live with either but the Innersound amp doesn't heat the whole room so that is important and really I like the sound of the Innersound amp better with the dynaudio C4s though the JC1s are certainly not bad. The preamp I clearly like the Innersound ref better than the Ayre k1x. Granted the price on the Innersound gear was very high when originally sold (25k for the set) I paid less than what I sold the other combo for so it was a good deal and I got what I was looking for. After hearing how good a cool running high powered solid state amp can sound I don't think the marginal improvements to big hot mono blocks will sway me. I've owned a bunch of amps VTL 450 BAT 150 SE Ayre v5xe pass labs simaudio so I've had a fair share of experience.

Adjusting for inflation the facts are correct. The sources are listed for your reference. I listened to the Devialet and this thing goes for 15K. SOUND isn't the "main" issue (although such HUGE variations in opinions of the same amp should give you pause!). My opinion, which most should care less about, is that the mids were great, but the bass and treble were pushed back. The imaging was one size too small compared to AB amplifiers, but very precise. It was a usable performance, but not to the level I'm after.

Few vendors (ANTHEM being one) can design, build, and absorb the R&D costs to market a class D pulse supply with the majority licenses a major market block and add little else. And, making one isn't the solution. It has to be good. Few engineers really understand CLASS D like they will going forward. We went to the moon, but we made a ton of mistakes along the way.

I'd love to think that in just two years a totally new technology with tremendously varied negative attributes relative to linear amps could be oh so perfect in such few design attempts. This isn't TV, we all aren't 28 year old geniuses.

I find it curious that people can decide their choices are perfection only to dump them a year or two later. Prior to the abandonment of their old technology, anybody that made comment towards it's merits on price or performance is a "blowhard". Ya, we'll learn a lot thinking like that.

The market will take from you what you allow. Get educated.

The pursuit of CLASS D amps is to achieve superior size, weight, and cost advantages over the same linear parts. It is MUCH more electrically complex, however. That complexity has been mitigated over a wide audience (for audio anyway) to leverage the R&D costs across a larger universe of users. But, the cost advantage has been absorbed by the manufacturers at this point, and not passed on to the consumer. The designs are better, but the lessons are still pages deep on this technology.

I would wait a few more years before I plunked down 8K for a CLASS D amp for hi-end audio. My opinion, lightly blown in your direction.

The Devialet is a built in ONE BOX for DAC/DSP/Media Streamer AND CLASS D amp.

It's not a good comparison saying it costs 15k when it's not comparing like for like.

You can't take Devialet apart, so you’re stuck with 15K. That's as simple as it gets. So for what it's worth, you pay 15K to listen to the amp, so to speak. You can't get it any other way.

I will wait a few years on pulse power supplies to mature. Early fuel injection progressed for five or more years. It's great now. Manifold injection, Port injection, multi-port spray injection and then direct. Each step was much better than the last. To think a few generations of CLASS D is "done" is probably premature. The ANTHEM may be the "newest" take on overall design.

But, new / early adopters are free to go for it. Just don't marry your decisions as "pure" and complete and slam any comments to the contrary, then dump the technology and do it over with the next best thing. After all, why did you leave your last decision if the product was "perfect"?

I'm talking about maturity, not brainless new love lust. Nothing is more perfect than the first ten minutes of a relationship. But give it awhile...

One last point, fuel injection is dirt cheap at a high comparable level of performance, too, and at every market sector...it is much more broadly distributed at the markets low-end as R&D expenses are asymptotically small. With CLASS D, that's not the case...yet. That tells you R&D is an expensive part of the equation to bring the best to you.

I think that for what it packages, the Devialet is a very impressive deal. You can even cascade two units for monoblock power.

It's a bit like the Ayon CD5S. Expensive for a CDP but considering it has a CD Pro2 and has a great tube preamp and PCM1704 quad stacked DAC, I think it's great value. Just because someone may prefer multiple boxes but if it fits your purpose, it's a great deal.