BTW if you have Qobuz, it's here Qobuz (Decca Vivaldi Gloria referenced above) ... I need to listen ... later ... work calls ...
I believe you will enjoy the Decca recording of Vivaldi's Gloria....I found it to be wonderful... Glad you ordered it!! Best wishes
That was part of some posts RE: my Hint 6 remote and experiences I had with it. Please start with post 1858 and followed by 1862,c1863, 1864 and 1865. Hopefully it makes sense now.
I had a fun Friday thanks to my new Parasound gear. My record store dealer has become a good friend almost ever since we met 5 years ago. He has wanted to come over and hear my new gear since the day I got it 5 months ago. He had heard my system before, just not with the new JC5, JC2BP and JC3+. When we first met 5 years ago, I was the first customer of his really into audiophile records. I had asked him about the various audiophile labels like Analogue Production and MoFi and whether he carried them. He side he occasionally got MoFi titles, but they were very unpredictable. I have always asked him if he is getting various audiophile LPs before ordering online. I would rather support local brick and mortar stores. He loves Jazz himself and I always ask him first if he can get this or that LP without jumping through hoops. If not, I get it online. But we regularly talk or text about various LPs whether or not I got them from him. Also he tips me off to finds of his. Fast forward to last Friday. When he came over we both had gifts for each other-more on that later. I had a group of LPs picked for the occasion based on both the sound quality and the performance. After my first two picks, I segued into particular favorite artists of his. He is always getting me great big band titles. Although this is not a favorite of his, he has an appreciation of the genre. I led off with this because the Big Band Spectacular is an absolutely breathtaking Direct to Disc recording of an actively performing big band. They come out of the gate SWINGING and don't stop. My Klaudio UCM and Sugar Cube helped render every disc dead quiet and click free. This allowed all of the detail brought out by the Parasound gear to shine through and be clearly heard. At the end of our session he said he never thought records could be this quiet. He always figured that was just one of the minor prices to pay for the great analog sound. He instantly noted you could hear all of the instruments playing in the orchestra and where they were in space. He also kept noting throughout our session all of the fine detail you could hear: the clicks of the valves on the trumpets, the breathing of the musicians, the brushes on the drums, the percussive sound when the mallets struck the keys of the vibes, the sounds the reeds made when played softly, and the plucking sounds you could often hear from the guitars and the upright bass. He constantly commented about the realistic sound of the cymbals. The shimmer and how you could easily tell what part of the cymbal was being struck. He also noted how instruments decayed into absolute silence instead of just fading out a bit and vanishing. The music on some of these sides were 70 years old and they still sounded amazing. The sound stage blew him away. On some of the cuts, the sound stage extended beyond the walls of the room in all directions. He was particularly blown away by some cuts from Surfer Girl which has truly amazing sound and soundstage. In general he noted how the vocals often sounded like the singers were in the room, independent of the speakers. The way my new gear sounded totally blew him away. He said: "You've told me about some of these albums and the amazing sound. I believed you... but until you hear it yourself, it is hard to imagine." His final comment as he got up to go was a joking: "Damn you, hearing these LPs is gonna cost me money". To which I showed zero sympathy and replied: "You know a record store owner, you can probably get a discount!" Here is the list of LPs I played different cuts from. If you like the particular genre they are from, you will love these LPs for both sound and more importantly performance. The Syd Lawrence Orchestra – Big Band Spectacular ! (Chasing The Dragon Records) Louis Armstrong – Satchmo Plays King Oliver, (Analogue Productions, Audio Fidelity) Barney Wilen – Un temoin dans la ville (Fontana, Sam Records) Arne Domnérus, Bengt Hallberg, Georg Riedel, Egil Johansen + Lars Erstrand – Jazz At The Pawnshop (2xHD) Various Artists – The Birth Of Bop (Craft Recording, Savoy Records) Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis with Shirley Scott – Cookin' With Jaws And The Queen: The Legendary Prestige Cookbook Albums (Craft Recordings) Various Artists – Bossa Nova At Carnegie Hall (Liberation Hall ) The Beach Boys – Surfer Girl (Analogue Productions, Capitol Records) America – Live At Goodbye Summer Festival ‘71 (Morgan Blue Town Records Ltd.) America – Alternates & Rarities (Rhino Records) Beatles - Revolver 50th Anniversary Box Set (Apple) Now for the fun part. I mentioned we each had gifts for each other. I gave him the Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Olympia Concert on Sam Records. I had ordered it twice two months apart, forgot about it and now couldn't return either copy. I gave it to him and he loved it after hearing the Sam record I played for him Friday. His gift blew me away: nine audiophile or super high quality pressings from a big collection he just bought. The was a Sheffield Lab D to D, a Reference Recordings D to D, my first Classic Records LP, 3 late 50's Columbia Masterworks LP's, 2 Mercury Living Presence LPs from 1958 and an RCA Living Stereo LP. A couple of these were records I was keeping an eye out for already. My dealer said: "These titles would just sit around at the store for months or years. You will actually play them". These LPs were very well treated. This was an amazing day and this is one of the best and most rewarding things about this hobby: Sharing good music and good times with others.
This week I took delivery of a Parasound JC5 to replace my three year old Parasound A21+. Thankfully I was able to score a very nice deal from Safe and Sound HQ on an open box JC5 so the step up price wise wasn't that bad. I debated long and hard about making this amp move as my speakers (Revel F226Be) are pretty efficient and I wasn't sure if I'd hear much of a difference. On Friday a buddy helped me get the JC5 into my AV rack (not an easy task even for two people) and I spent most of last night putting the new amp through its paces. Holy cow this thing sounds amazing! Just a new level of detail and effortlessness when playing music, especially at spirited levels. I've also noticed that at low volume listening music sounds fuller than with my A21+. Though this comes in the same chassis as the A21+ there is something very different (and improved) going on with the JC5. I'm excited to keep putting it through its paces in the coming weeks.
Congrats on your new JC5.....if you haven't yet just hop over to the Parasound site and see what is inside your JC5....quite a step up from an A21+ As time goes by your JC5 will just get better!! Model Halo JC 5 « Parasound https://parasound.com/pdfs/jc5-brochure-web.pdf Best wishes
Speaking of the JC5, UPS delivered the package with one side fully soaked. Thankfully the water didn't make it to the inner boxing but the outer JC5 box is pretty much toast. Has anyone ordered a replacement amp box from Parasound and if so any insight to the costs?
While I have not had that issue with my JC5 shipping carton..... I know Safe and Sound audio is highly regarded and would probably be happy to assist you in acquiring a new shipping box.... Tell them what happened ...they might could get you a new box free of charge. It would seem UPS is responsible for such damage. Best wishes
Big congrats! and that's a bummer on the outer box , Safe and Sound does an fantastic boxing job and this was pure UPS someone slacking and not doing due diligence . Your in for a treat exploring your collection again.
Congratulations on your new JC5!! I know exactly what you are experiencing, my JC5 was delivered last December 20. As has been said: It will only improve with some break in time. You are right about the amazing level of detail you can hear, thanks in part to the quietness of the JC5. One of my favorite things about the JC5 is when you listen at lower volumes you still feel like you are hearing all the details. Thanks to the Class A goodness you get when driving it with less that 12 wpc., you don't feel like you are missing out and will have to listen to the LP again at louder volumes to get the full effect.Of course it is always fun to let it rip too! Win, win. Enjoy!
I've often wondered whether the "high bias" class AB is such a good thing. It might be better to get the crossover to AB out of the way at a lower wattage/lower sound level, where the transition would be less audible. I had that experience with Conrad Johnson's first solid-state amps, the MF80 in the MF200. You could almost hear the MF200 shift gears when it went into Class AB, because the transition occurred right in the heart of the normal listening range with my fairly inefficient KEF 103.2. That didn't happen with the MF 80. I still have my MF 80, and every once in a while I plug it in with my Harbeth 30s, and it still sounds great.
Well the high bias Class A part is a big thing in the sq of my JC5....which is why I traded up my A21 at 8 watts Class A to the JC5 as it has a higher bias of 12 watts Class A....and for those of us with JC5's is the reason as well. The transition point from Class A to Class AB is so smooth it is imperceptible....it is that good.... in my case with my Aria 948s at 92db/watt sesnsitivity ...I have seldom gone beyond 87 spl db. Using the full 12 watts of Class A would bring the spl to about 92.6 ish.....way too loud for me. I have played into the upper 90 db range and there didn't appear any crossing over to the Class AB amplification.. Again ymmv depending on your system. Best wishes
The JC5 is unquestionably a superb amplifier. I was asking more of a theoretical design question. The Conrad Johnson designs I referred to are from the mid-1980s. There have probably been a lot of advances since then. I certainly have not noticed an issue with my present Conrad Johnson 250 WPC solid-state amp, although I do not know how long it stays Class A. That might be a valuable spec for amplifier manufacturers to point on their spec sheets.
Safe and Sound was great, they weren't able to get me a new carton but did refund me a small amount of the purchase price which I was then able to use with Parasound to order the new carton. They did offer to let me return it for a different unit but that seemed wasteful given my JC5 sounds amazing and is already mounted in my rack, which was a two person job.
Another great JC5 review from Positive Feedback Parasound HALO JC 5 Amplifier Parasound HALO JC 5 Amplifier - Positive Feedback Enjoy Best wishes
Okay so here is the latest on David Scheriff on Parasound's new direction: Parasound CEO Sheriff Presents His Plan to Dealers; Some Won't Be Around to Benefit Best wishes
thanks for sharing, an interesting read even if I had varying positive and negative reactions to various parts of it. Certainly doesn't read as if a "fan" bought the company, but rather a business-focused owner cleaning up some things that he sees as needing to be modernized and enhanced to survive in the decades to come, which certainly are different than the decades past. I love, love my A21+. Will I buy another Parasound amp when I build system 2? I guess we'll see.
Well, I've appreciated my JC3+ for probably four plus years now.......... but recently, it's started delivering a semi-frequent, audible "pop" through the chain and to the speakers. Note I run multiple phono pre's and TT's, and I'm 100% certain it's the JC3+.... spent enough time diagnosing to be sure. I bought it from TMR, it was an "open box" as they had purchased a bunch of liquidated Parasound stock from a dealer that went out of business, and I got a great price on it, so I jumped. It's been great... but knowing the Parasound "warranty for original owner only" policy and the new ownership, probably no chance of getting it addressed? I guess I could try... <just popped again as I was typing - seems every 10 min or so, whether there is music playing or not. I can make it stop by shutting off the JC3+. And yes, tried two different TT's and cartridges with it, no change. So it's not the TT, it's originating from the JC3+.>
What did everyone dump their Parasound gear? Not even so much as a "yeah, you're up **** creek" Maybe I should crack it open and see if any visible signs of a failed / failing cap, etc.... especially in the power area.... these things can be tough to diagnose.
Seems an obvious route.... I will... as I stated "guess I could try" Probably the best advice I'll get. Taking a shot someone might know from a past similar experience, though probably 1 in a 1000
