Parasound Halo JC5 Stereo Power Amplifier

A 400 W, ultra-high-bias class A and AB amp designed by John Curl. Can be bridged to 1,200 W

With circuitry designed by the legendary John Curl, the flagship Parasound Halo JC5 is a world-class reference quality power amp. It offers 12 W of class-A power before switching into class AB operation.

The Upscale View

Parasound is one of the industry's low-key, high-return brands. It's not always the first name on a customer's lips, yet is a hugely respected and loved brand by people who work in high-end audio. This isn't just because of the legendary John Curl who is behind most of its top-flight designs, but also because Parasound uses such expensive and solid engineering, yet is able to price its products so reasonably. Parasound is the brand of choice for someone who really knows good sound, but doesn't have the budget for audio jewellery.

The JC series of amps are extra special because they use John Curl's innovative designs that offer elaborate noise control and protection, but are extremely straightforward from the signal's point of view. The result is dynamic, high power with grace, musicality, detail, and ease. This is extremely difficult to pull off, but John Curl and Parasound have done it.

A John Curl Classic

Dual mono input stages use 110 V DC rails, and the 8,880 uF Nichicon Gold Tune filter capacitors are independent of the main power supply. There are massive 132,000 uF Rubycon filter capacitors for the output stage.

The direct coupled signal path means no capacitors or inductors get in the way of great sound. The JFET input stage is connected to a MOSFET driver stage, and the amp uses 24 beta-matched 15 ampere, 60 MHz bipolar output transistors. The 73 lb. amp uses a 1.7 kVA shielded toroidal transformer with independent windings for each channel. There are independent power supplies for the input, driver, and output stages. Harris hyper-fast soft-recovery bridge diode rectifiers continue the theme of expensive, overspecified design that results in a sound with huge power and headroom. Full power is rated all the way down to 5 Hz for unrestricted low-end bass.

Features

• DC Servo and relay protection circuits
• AC turn-on inrush surge protection with relay bypass
• Automatic turn-on by 12 V trigger or audio sensing
• 4 rack space chassis with rear carry handles
• Rack mount hardware included

Specifications

Power Output (8, 4 Ohm): 400 W, 600 W

Inputs: Stereo RCA, stereo XLR, DC trigger

Input Impedance (Bal., SE): 66 kΩ, 33 kΩ

Gain: 29 dB

Dimensions (WHD): 17.63" x 7.13" x 20" (448 x 181 x 508 mm)

Weight: 73 lb. (33.1 kg)