McIntosh MC611 vs Parasound JC5

Hey ToothDoc!

Well,  for my money you are going in a particular direction and without meaning to offend, to me has too much treble information.  The Mc goes that way as well.

So personally, I'd stick with JC amps... but if you honestly want MORE of what you have then Mc is the way to go IMHO.

Always make your own ears happy, that's the only way to justify the money. :)

Really hope you find this useful, and that I want you to be personally happy with your choices.

Best,

E

I have been mulling mono blocks over my current class D amp as winter creeps in and my basement listening room requires some heat.

The JC5 - an amplifier that is engineered as "dual mono" but can be bridged to feed one speaker seems a bit redundant to me. Was it engineered to be a dual mono amp, or engineered to be a dual mono channel amp that secretly sounds better as a mono-block? Nice that it is versatile, but, wait, what? Stymied is what I get out of it. While the topology may just be my issue, the heat one puts out vs. the other would be, I dunno, maybe not even an issue either. But it is most likely that you will love the mono-blocks but they produce enough heat that you consider keeping the JC5 around for the summer months. Hope you can give yourself a monetary buyout in best/worst case scenarios.

My interest in running mono blocks (Schiit Tyr just dropped in price) would be to push (energize) my Wharfedale's that I purchased some months ago. The probability of some added clarity in definition (class D to class A/B) is another selling point.

Considering the quality of your newly purchased B&W's, however, I would have already pulled the trigger on MC mono-blocks if I had recently acquired such a beast. You must be itching to see what they are capable of and I would think that is what you had in mind when you bought them - to mono block them with a vengeance!  

I'd stay Parasound, but instead of another JC5 I'd look for a pair of JC1 Mono's.  They are excellent amplifiers.

Fellow tooth doc here. I went from JC5 to mc611’s. The 611’s are better. 

TLDR - I would stick to your single JC5 and enjoy the music.

I'm currently running a JC5 and A21 with an external Bryston 10B electronic crossover, JC2 Preamp and JC3+ Phono.  I have the JC5 in use with Mids and Highs and the A21 for Lows below 300hz.  I did this because I built some charge-coupled Internal crossovers for the mids/highs of some big vintage JBL 4343 speakers, so I require biamp with an external crossover if I want to use them.  Otherwise I would stick with the simplicity of a single JC5.  Every extra device and interconnect is asking for more hassle, cost and source of noise or point of failure.  Money and energy better spent on sources and vinyl ;)

The dual mono JC5 and BP2 crossover deliver the blackest blacks I've ever heard when there is no input or if the music is quiet.  Something I never really understood to be desirable until I experienced it and was like, wow, so that's what they're talking about.  Cross-talk of the 2 mono block amps in 1 chassis aren't a problem that needs to be solved, IMO.  But some people simply want the absolute theoretical best which separate monos would in theory be more separated because they are.  Monos of different topology, lower power and strained transformers would make sense, but with the JC5 it's simply not an issue.  There are JC1's available if you must monoblock.

The point from another poster above about leaning treble direction is one to pay attention to.  When you have highly accurate top end from speakers like KEF and B&W (which I used for years) you have to be very careful about some amps, gear and sources getting to brittle/shrill/harsh sounding up top which can bring on listening fatigue in my case.  For me, speakers that use titanium tweeters are a no-go with many common amps that others like in different systems. 

This top end fatigue and problems are precisely why I went Parasound over Mc.  The JC5 was designed by John Curl to be more tube-like without tube-problems and obviously gobs of additional power to drive anything.  You'd think you would be missing detail but that is simply not the case. The JC5 is truly a unicorn and paired with the JC2 preamp, you have something truly special.

I would only consider a second JC5 if you are trying to stay in class A, which you probably are already staying in at your listening levels and setup.  That amp delivers 12 Watts of pure class A, which I doubt you're getting out of.  Then in an exceptional execution of class AB, you have 400W into 8ohms and is stable down to 2ohms, so there is more power than you will ever need on tap. 

I would only consider Mc if you simply must have those blue meters or are going after a known-good, specific setup.  Nothing wrong with that and McIntosh makes amazing gear, I just outgrew the need to have the meters and am very happy with my Parasound JC system.  

@toothdoc

I had the JC5 amp for a while and while it was super powerful and had authoritative bass, my cherished midrange seemed to be lost in the mix compared to my reference Pass Labs XA25.  

Fast forward to my current, final amplifier the McIntosh MC312 a newer Mac with 300 conservative watts / channel.  

The Mac loses just a touch of the JC5s bass authority but it is still substantial.  Treble is a positive and is very clean, sweet and grain free.  Surprisingly the midrange is the star of this Mac's show, soaring, separated and blooming.  I cannot tell you how much I love this amplifier.

If you value midrange like I do, the MC611 monos would get my vote, especially with the synergy of your B&W speakers which could use a little midrange presence.  The JC5 seems like it would have less than ideal synergy with your speakers.  

I had the A21 amp and it did add some chestiness to Leonard Cohen's voice. ffw several components and the mc611's are driving a pair of KEF Blades. As always I have to recommend getting a demo with the intended speakers, but I'm into my 3rd year with this system and still can't imagine replacing anything that could make an improvement.