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Recommended Component, Class A, 2024 – Stereophile
Editors’ Choice Award 2023 - The Absolute Sound
Best Monoblock Power Amplifier 2020 Award – Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
Exceptional Value Award – TONEaudio
Parasound's "Magnificent" New Ultra-High Performance Monoblock Amp
The JC 1+ is Parasound's new ultra-high performance mono power amplifier. Creating an amplifier capable of eliciting the very best performance from the finest loudspeakers and outperforming even the highest-priced competition, makes the JC 1+ Parasound's most ambitious product undertaking to date. The Parasound design team once again enlisted legendary audio designer, John Curl, the "JC" behind the company's critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning JC 1, JC 2BP, JC 3+, JC 3 Jr., and other no-compromise Halo components.
The JC 1+ is the culmination of five years of design, engineering, and rigorous testing. Significant innovations and advancements in the Halo JC 1+ make it superior to the JC 1 in every respect, and that's no small accomplishment, considering the fact that the JC 1 is among the most highly acclaimed and popular amplifiers in audio history. With a power delivery of 450 watts RMS into 8 ohms, 850 watts RMS into 4 ohms, and 1,300 watts RMS into 2 ohms, supported by a peak current capability of 180 amperes, the JC 1+ elicits magnificent performance from the finest speakers. The first 25+ watts in pure class A will truly make your speakers sing. In fact, you don’t know how good your speakers can sound...yet.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Halo JC 1+ by awarding it the magazine's coveted Class A Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "Bass guitar and kickdrum were reproduced with appropriate force and definition, felt JA, exclaiming, 'Low-frequency power and delicacy!' JA was also impressed by the pair of monoblocks' ability to differentiate soundstage depth and described the Parasound's high frequencies as sounding 'more like what I experience from a good tube amplifier.'"
Editors’ Choice Award 2023
"I consistently found that the Parasounds not only increased the dynamics of my overall system, but also the perceived sense of hall space. It’s been said, time and again, that subwoofers play a pivotal role in defining the soundstage dimensions of a recording, but it’s always a pleasure to hear the phenomenon vividly demo’d, as it was with the JC 1+,"notes Jacob Heilbrunn in The Absolute Sound, June 10, 2021, honoring the JC 1+with an Editors' Choice Award.
"The JC 1+ monoblocks come so darned close to the best, in so many categories, that for more than a few listeners it may seem an otiose pursuit to look elsewhere. Parasound and John Curl deserve a rousing round of applause for producing a real-world-priced amplifier that delivers otherworldly sound."
Best Product, Exceptional Value Awards
Parasound's Halo JC 1+ recently won the Best Monoblock Power Amplifier category in the Best Product 2020 Awards from Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. "Parasound has long been admired for their preamplifiers and power amplifiers. The JC 1+ monoblock power amplifier is their latest achievement, and it truly is an achievement to the highest degree," notes Editor-in-Chief John E. Johnson. "The sound is exemplary… Proof of Performance for the Parasound has been verified. They are worth the price."
"If someone whispered in my ear and said, 'You’re listening to a six-figure pair of amplifiers,' I would believe them. The JC 1+ monos are that good, that refined, that musical," reports Jeff Dorgay in TONEaudio, which honored the JC 1+ with an Exceptional Value Award. "I have yet to hear a pair of solid-state amplifiers that offer anywhere near this much sonic excellence and sheer power for anywhere near the asking price of these amplifiers."
"Well Done, Mr. Curl"
"The JC 1+ monoblocks come so darned close to the best, in so many categories, that for more than a few listeners it may seem an otiose pursuit to look elsewhere. Parasound and John Curl deserve a rousing round of applause for producing a real-world-priced amplifier that delivers otherworldly sound," raves Jacob Heilbrunn, The Absolute Sound, June 10, 2021.
"This is a superb-sounding amplifier that will get the best from every loudspeaker with which it is partnered. Well done, Mr. Curl," says John Atkinson, Stereophile, May 22, 2020.
"Go Give These New Over-Achievers a Listen"
"I've not heard any other monoblock entrant at or even close to this price that is able to recreate so many aspects of music with a more authentic voice. These amps are magnificent performers in nearly every regard," raves Greg Weaver in his review for Positive Feedback online magazine. "Honestly, I cannot think of a pair of monoblocks that offer a view anywhere near this close to the top of the heap for anywhere near their asking price."
Greg Weaver concludes, "I can tell you that if I were shopping for a pair of monoblocks under $25,000, the Parasound Halo JC 1+ would be my first choice. Go give these new over-achievers a listen and be prepared to be bowled over by what you will hear. Most enthusiastically recommended."
Even More Impressive Than Its Predecessor
The massively imposing original Parasound JC 1 is a behemoth of a no-nonsense, high-performance amplifier. The JC 1+ is even more impressive. Comparing the JC 1+ and the JC 1 by the numbers, the JC 1+ is 30% heavier, while its 2.1kVA main power transformer is 20% greater in weight, size, and electrical capacity. The main power supply filter capacity is 50% greater to support the most demanding music. And with 33% more Sanken 250V/15A/60Mz output transistors and 33% higher peak current, the JC 1+ reproduces music with unmatched authority.
In comparison to the JC 1, one attribute of the JC 1+ that you will notice immediately is its sonic refinement. While this isn't a quality that you can visualize with test equipment, your ears, mind, and emotions will recognize and appreciate it right away.
Unique Technology Delivers Enormous Competitive Advantages
Unique technology “firsts” endow the JC 1+ with enormous competitive advantages such as Bybee Music Rails™ in the input stage. Because even miniscule amounts of input stage noise will degrade sound quality, Curl specified the addition of Music Rails. These are sophisticated active B+ and B- high frequency filters that “scrub away” every last vestige of power supply noise. As a result, music reproduction is amazingly life-like and totally authentic to the source material.
The JC 1+'s input stage ± 112V power supply rails are totally independent from the main power supply. This banishes input stage distortion that occurs when the rail voltages sag. JC 1+ input stage voltage remains constant, no matter how hard its output stage is working. This averts a deficiency inherent in nearly every other amplifier. Additionally, the custom-built R-core transformer powering the input stage reduces pollution caused by noise carried on the AC power line.
No-Compromise Approach from Input to Output
No-compromise components have been used throughout the construction of the JC 1+. The JC 1+ is the first audio product to employ FR408, a superior circuit board material for optimum propagation of high frequencies for the most natural musical reproduction. Until now, FR408 was used primarily in super computers and aerospace electronics.
Furthering the outstanding sonic purity, the input-driver circuit board is well shielded from internal currents. Premium REL capacitors (now manufactured by Wilson Audio) use a proprietary design which “immunizes” them from micro vibrations that degrade the sound quality of other caps. The JC 1+ relies on 24k gold-on-gold internal connectors for the audio interconnects between the input/driver stage and output stage. This avoids oxidation, so that the audio signals remain pristine year after year.
Advanced Technology and Features
A new wider open loop gain cascode driver stage in the JC 1+ achieves greater linearity. A “fast start” bias circuit enables the JC 1+ to sound its best within minutes after turn-on, while a bias level selector switch enables the JC 1+ to run cooler with virtually no compromise in performance. A two-position gain switch selects 23dB or 29dB gain to optimize performance with high gain preamps and high sensitivity speakers. Staggered turn-on delays enable you to automatically power up multiple JC 1+s one at a time to prevent your lights from dimming!
Premium Neutrik 24k gold-plated balanced locking XLR and Vampire unbalanced RCA output connectors facilitate bi-wiring. Parasound-designed propeller speaker terminals accept spade lugs up to 16mm wide, banana plugs, and 5-AWG bare speaker wire.
