Parasound JC-1 still one of the leaders?

Newer isn't always better, I would take it over any of the others you named.

I would choose the JC's as well, without question.

No disrespect to either Stanwal or Jdub39, however when I auditioned the JC-1 against the Pass Labs XA series amps in my system the Parasound amp did not compete with the XA-100's. Now with the new XA.5 series the lag is very wide indeed when it comes to the sonics of these amps. As always personnal taste and system synergy is most important, so do some home auditions.

Taste and synergy rule as always. Hard to ignore the rave reviews but I had JC-1's and sold them to go back to my trusty Rotel RB-1090 and was much happier (and had another three grand to play with). Now using class D Wyred 4 Sound STI-500 integrated. I'm so happy with the W4S that I'm contemplating a post proclaiming something dumb like "I'm done searching for the perfect amp". A pair of JC-1's weigh well over a hundred pounds, take up a lot of real estate, use a buncha AC, and heat your room whether you like it or not. The W4S is light, small, "green", cool, and my system sounds better to me than ever before by a healthy margin. My wife said it was money well spent. Wow.

I also was not impressed with the JC-1's. To me, they sounded somewhat dull and lifeless compared to the other amps I was playing with at the time: VTL tube amps, Bel Canto, even Bryston...

But Stereophile says they are wonderful sounding class A amps.

GO read the reviews and pull the wax out of your ears all you that are not impressed. =8^D

If you want to hear one of the best kept secrets in a world class amplifier, you give the Sanders Sound Systems Magtech amps a listen. Incredibly powerful, relatively lightweight and sound to die for and it runs cool. Don't know how they do it, but really worth a listen. Also has a lifetime warranty.