Parasound to Pass Upgrade

Lots of talk about “heat” and “warm”. Really?… Decent amps have heat and if you don’t think they do then they’re junk. Anyway I’ve had Parasound amps and love them.  They’re warm and quite subtle but consistent and priced well below their potential… 

To: @taylorro Have you thought about pairing up a really good TUBE preamp with your existing JC-1 monos?

Maybe trying this first as a go-between option.  Apparently not uncommon for people to do with JC-1s.   I use a tube preamp with my Pass/Forte' Class A amp, and would not have it any other way. 

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tube-preamp-recommendations-please-to-partner-with-parasound-jc-1-s

I had an XA25 which is class A and it sounded amazing and it ran hot, not warm. 

jh

@reg19 thanks for that clarification. I was referring to the specs and I guess they don’t tell the full story. 
 

@ghdprentice my listening room is in the basement. Lots of trees around the house that create good amounts of shade. I never needed an AC in this room with the XA30.8 and the X250.5 that I owned in the past. I think the X260.8 amps will get hotter than my XA30.8 but I doubt it will be unbearable here. I don’t plan to keep the amps on 24/7. 

@decooney 

Re: tube preamps, there are still levels.

I have two tube preamps at home.

With Audio Research REF6, JC1+ sound 'average', restrained. With the same preamp, the Pass X260.8 sound magical.

Re: heat, there is not much difference between how warm JC1+ get vs X260.8. Perhaps, X260.8 gets 3-5 deg warmer. Never hot though.