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Parasound JC-1 power amplifier

According to John Curl the Parasound JC-1 power amplifier cannot be improved, because it is already at the pinnacle of solid state circuit design. Of course I could not disagree with John, afterall he is the solid state guru...
But I would address the following (and I hope I will not offend anyone): Parasound is not an ultra high end brand like Mark Levinson, Krell, Accuphase or Boulder. It is rather a mid-fi to lower high end company where cost restrictions are very strong (because otherwise they wouldn't sell their products to the consumers). Because of this cost restrictions they simply could not build the world's best amplifier, even if John is designing some nice circuit for them. For example the parts quality is not very good, because they use cheap off the shelf parts. So in fact is the JC-1 IMHO a very compromised product. John could say that it is the best amplifier money can buy, but because of this cost restrictions it is only part of the truth.

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 1 response by likecoiledsteel

likecoiledsteel
33 posts
 
Sounds like Kool Aide. So you are basically saying that no Parasound amp can ever best a Krell, Boulder amp, because of their marketing and pricing? As ssaid, the exact same amp would be 4x the price with a Krell stamp on it. There is also a ponit of diminshing returns. If all of the components in the Krell were "better" what does that mean? Would it sound better? Would they last longer? My Krell amp has been back to the factory twice in 5 years, while my cheapo Adcom remains strong after 14 years of use. Go figure.
Steel
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