Need advice on my Parasound JC 1


Please everybody I need some help or rather some advice & feedback from all you JC 1 owners out there.

I bought my pair of JC1s in Feb 2004 & at that time I spoke to Bob (Mr. Crump) about the apparent lack of bass that I felt with these amps. Bob helped me out more than any one can ever ask for!
He explained that my 2 units were from the very 1st initial batch and 2 resistors on the output board for each amp needed to be swapped out. Bob even mailed out the 4 resistors to me in Calgary, Canada & they were replaced by me. Bob if you remember we exchanged many emails between us and thanks for all your advice & help. You are an awesome person to turn to for advice!

Now my system which comprises of the JC1 power amps, Moon P-5 pre-amp, Sony SCD-C555es SACD player & Energy Veritas 2.4 speakers (which are Canadian) still seem to lack bass at times.

Now only for the past 6 weeks I have been passing a signal from my tuner 24/7 thru these amps to burn them in. Since I bought them I have always had them on. However I read in these forums that in order to properly burn them in you have to feed them a signal 24/7 & merely keeping them on won’t burn them in. Is this true? As I have crossed 1400 hours quite sometime back but they were not fed a constant 24/7 signal.

Also I have a feeling that since these Energy Veritas 2.4 speakers have 6 ½ inch woofers (3 per side) & given the JC1s unusually high damping factor, the JC1s are over damping the bass from these speakers, I maybe wrong. What speakers are you guys using with your JC1s and do you think that the next speakers I buy should have 8 or 10 inch woofers. Also I want to get 2 new PC and a pair of new Balanced ICs between my Moon & JC1s, any suggestions. Should I change the Moon & go for a different pre-amp, what pre-amps are you people using?........I am really really confused? Most of my friends who come over seem to comment that the base is lacking, there seems to be no synergy in my system & that’s why I hardly listen to music anymore. Please this is driving me insane all help is welcome.

Also my bias is drifting & the amps are operating differently temperature wise. This has nothing to do with the bass problem as the bias issue is recent and I have always had the bass problem. However I am not happy at all with this bias issue & fail to understand why Parasound could not use better bias pots. I want to change out those bias pots & put better quality ones. Any ideas which make to buy & Bob can you please give me the values so I can adjust them.
jiya3600

Showing 3 responses by bpwalsh

John Curl informs me the resistors you spoke of were step down resistors used to drop the 115V from the driver stage to 15V for the servos, not feedback resistors.

Brian
Yes, the feedback resistors were changed from the first batch, but I don't think it is unrelated to bias issues. I had an early pair as well and didn't have any problems with bias. Parasound solved a few glitches in early units and reports excellent reliability in more recent production runs. I hope you're aware the ten years parts, five years labor warranty is valid only to the original purchaser and when purchased from an authorized Parasound Halo dealer This policy is pretty common in the industry - it is always advisable to call the manufacturer to ask, if considering purchasing used or from a non authorized seller.

You are correct, merely leaving the amps turned on isn't enough to break them in, you need to be running signal through them at all times. Knowing that, go ahead and break them in and see if you don't notice some dramatic improvements at around 1200 and 1400 hours. I agree with others suggesting there should be no lack of bass in your system when set up optimally.

Brian
If you are having an issue with bias I suggest you contact your dealer first - that's his job, as support doesn't end when the check clears. If you're not getting any satisfaction then contact Parasound service, 866-770-8324 toll free. I recommend having Parasound or an authorized representative do the work.