The American company Parasound has improved the successful flagship power amplifier Halo JC 1, designed by John Curl and released almost 20 years ago. After five years of effort, John Curl and Parasound presented its updated version – the Parasound Halo JC 1+. It delivers 450 watts into 8 ohms and even 1,300 watts into 2 ohms with a peak current of 180 A. Parasound said the JC 1+ can easily handle systems whose impedance drops to 1 ohm. The new product operates in pure class A up to a power of 25 W, then moving to class AB.
The new product has become 30% heavier than its predecessor. This is natural, since it contains a power transformer with increased power by 20%, and the capacity of the battery of power supplies has been increased from 132 to 198 Farads. The monoblock contains 24 Sanken output transistors, delivering up to 15 A (previously there were 18). Now the peak output current has increased by 33%. Additionally, according to the company, the Parasound JC 1+ is the first commercial product to utilize open-loop cascade active high-pass noise filtering with higher bandwidth and improved linearity using Bybee Music Rails technology.
Particular attention is paid to the input stages, which for the first time in the Parasound JC 1+ are mounted on a printed circuit board made of FR-408, a material used in supercomputer and aerospace systems. This part of the circuit received its own power source. It is based on an R-shaped transformer that cuts off high-frequency noise from the AC power supply. The power supply uses low-noise high-speed diodes and capacitive filters on Premium Wilson Audio REL vibration-proof capacitors with a total capacity of 22,400 uF. The result is bipolar 112 VDC power with minimal noise.
The Parasound JC 1+ amplifier has an XLR Loop Out, a 12V trigger, and a turn-on delay. All this is said to improve the possibilities for use in bandpass audio connection options. A bias level switch provides reduced heat generation with virtually no impact on sound. Depending on the input signal source and speaker sensitivity, you can select a gain of 23 or 29 dB.
Parasound’s CHK Infinium speaker cable terminals accept up to 16mm spade lugs, banana lugs, or stripped cables up to 5AWG. Parasound JC 1+ power amplifier in black or silver finish.
Characteristics of Parasound JC 1+
Output power in class “A”: 25 W (high bias, 8 Ohms), 10 W (low bias, 8 Ohms)
Line inputs 1 stereo RCA, 1 stereo XL
Power per channel at 4 Ohms 850 W ( 20 Hz – 20 kHz)
Power per channel at 8 ohms 450 W (20 Hz – 20 kHz)
Power per channel at 2 ohms 1300 W (20 Hz – 20 kHz)
Peak output current swing 135 A
Slew rate 130 V/ms
Ratio damping > 1200 at 20 Hz
Total harmonic distortion <0.15% (at full power)
Input impedance 100 kΩ
Signal-to-noise ratio 120 dB (high offset), 122 dB (low offset)
Power consumption 400 W (no load), 1500 W (at full load, 4 Ohm)
Indication of power, channel status and overheating Yes
Gain class A/AB
Dimensions (WxHxD) 438 x 197 x 508 mm
Weight 37.6 kg
