Soundscape Product Listing

PARASOUND Halo JC-1 AMPLIFIER

PARASOUND: Since 1981 our name has been synonymous with rock-solid reliability, amazing sound quality and unequaled value. Building on this reputation Parasound has created an ambitious new line of components, HALO by Parasound. This exciting series brings you the highest level of refinement, performance, and distinctive design.

Halo components have earned the highest praise from top magazine reviewers and critics across the globe. The striking industrial design of these products was given the prestigious Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum, and our remarkable JC 1 power amplifier was crowned Amplifier of the Year by Stereophile magazine - a significant honor which until now was bestowed only upon products at vastly higher prices.

Every review has praised Halo's unprecedented level of accuracy, solid performance, flexibility, ease of operation, and exceptional value. The reviews affirm one of our fundamental objectives: to give you more for your money than any other product available.

Please take your time and learn about each of these exciting models. This website will be updated from time to time, and when there is new information about Halo developments - and honors - it will be available here first.

The JC 1 Monaural Amplifier might possibly be the world’s finest power amplifier. Parasound, John Curl and CTC Builders collaborated in the design of this amplifier to create a new standard for elegance, sonic precision and value. The JC 1 provides 400 watts into 8 ohms with 135 amps of peak current. Its 25 watts of pure Class A power is user-switchable to 10 watts of Class A power when heat dissipation is a concern. Other features include balanced XLR or unbalanced RCA connectors, a 12v trigger, an audio sensitivity trigger, adjustable turn-on delay, and a ground lift switch. Advanced circuitry, premier parts selection, unequaled sound quality, and stunning design are bound to make this amplifier a legend in its own time.

Reviews

December Stereophile raves about the JC 1 Michael Fremer’s review of the Bryston 7B SST monoblocks is in The December Stereophile.

His speakers are the impressive new Wilson MAXX Series 3. During the course of this review John Atkinson brought over his personal pair of Halo JC 1s for comparison.
Here is what Michael Fremer wrote:
“The Parasounds couldn’t have sounded more different. Their bass was deeper, tighter, and better controlled, yet not overdamped, so that textures were fully resolved, and rhythm’n’pacing were far more nimble. Image specificity was greater, and dimensionality was more fully expressed. Transients were faster and more effervescent while being free of artificial etch. Reverb was expressed as genuine depth where appropriate, dropping way down in level into the noise floor before dissipating. Images leapt from the speakers and floated more freely in a huge three-dimensional space-but most noticeable, and almost immediately, was the delicacy, resolution, and coherence of the reverb’s decay.

Neither pair of Brystons matched Parasound’s low-level resolution and microdynamic delicacy. With the much nimbler, more holographic-sounding Parasounds there was more musical information to consider and more musical pleasure to be had. Detractors might say the Halos’ top end was brash, but I counter that that was the fault of the recordings, not the amps, which had a sweet top end despite all their resolution and transparency.”

The Absolute Sound, October 2004

Editor’s Choice Recommended Product - Power Amplifier $5,000 to $10,000

Stereophile, October 2004 Class A Recommended Component - "...the sound wasn’t strained in any way, and there was an overall sense of ease. Dynamic ease. Listening ease. Just ease." "Tonally, the Parasounds were magnificent... with no trace of solid state hardness."

Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, August 2004 "The bass on the JC 1s is state of the art, riveting, jaw dropping." "Listening to the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks is a thrilling experience. I could go on for days praising their bass slam, transparency, immediacy, and brilliance." "In three words: they are fabulous." - Jason Victor Serinus

That’s Life! Entertainment Magazine, August 2004 "The JC 1’s have an uncanny ability to reach out an touch you with their sound while at the same time enveloping you in a sense of the recording space." - Joe Shanaphy

2003 Amplifier of the Year, Stereophile

HiFi News (UK), January 2004 "...incredibly effortless and natural." "This amplifier certainly held me captivated and entertained, drawing me into the music." "If you want to lose yourself in the music, there are precious few components as good as the JC 1." - David Allcock

Stereophile, December 2003 Sam's Product of the Year "Before you blow $10k-$20k or more on some amps that were recommended by a reviewer who didn't buy them, give a listen to the Parasounds, which this reviewer did purchase." "Don't buy an amp without hearing these, even if you can't afford them." - Sam Tellig

EnjoytheMusic.com, November 2003 "Beautiful Brutes." "The JC 1s rank with the best amplifiers I have heard in recreating a multideminsional sound field." "They pump out seemingly effortless power no matter how insanely loud I push them, with never any sense of strain such as you hear when an amplifier is running out of gas." "The JC 1s are also capable of wondrous delicacy, and the kind of transparency that makes you feel that you're hearing every instrument, every voice, but never at the expense of the musical whole." "To be able to buy these robust, delicate, emotionally involving, brilliantly conceived and executed music recreators for $6,000 seems to me little short of a miracle." - Wayne Donnelly

Positive Feedback, August 2003 "...Parasound's Halo JC 1 amplifier, is among the most precisely nuanced amplifiers I know, able to draw the slightest and most delicate of musical expressions, to make the subtlest distinctions. It can also rock you, like your back ain't got no bone, 'cuz it's a brute. It is the amp for all seasons." "It has the ability to produce a believable facsimile of spaciousness, that 3-D sound-staging that makes the illusion of space between the instruments nearly tangible; the ability to produce timbral, harmonic, and dynamic accuracy that results in what we call 'inner detail'; the ability to produce delicate refined purity of tone one moment, and then bowl you over with A BIG WALL OF SOUND the next." "...these amps are truly outstanding, among the best I've ever heard, and the best I've had in my system." - Max Dudious

The Absolute Sound, June 2003 "...I was impressed with the remarkable speed, clarity, transparency, and focus of these amps straight out of the box." "The high frequencies were to-die-for silky smooth, crystal clear, and abundantly detailed. The kind you could listen to all day long without fatigue." "There wasn't anything that didn't sound great on the JC 1." "I was left with an ear-to-ear grin on my face that lasted the rest of the week." - Sue Kraft

Fidelity (Norway), May 2003 Stereophile, April 2003 Class A Recommended Component - "...ultra-wide bandwidth, high-current capability, low, low noise, a high S/N ratio, and a fast slew rate, among many other indicators of outstanding amplifier performance." "There was an honesty to the overall tonal and harmonic presentation that transcended technological stereotypes." "The Halo JC 1 is not only the best amplifier to come from Parasound, it ranks up there with the best high-end heavyweights." "Rocks for sure."

Stereophile, February 2003 "It took but a few seconds for me to absolutely fall in love with the Halo JC 1." "Powerful, refined, smooth, organized, dynamic, transparent, and rhythmically supple, the JC 1 offered a combination of attributes that added up to many weeks of listening pleasure. I'd be happy to have it go on indefinitely - as, no doubt, will many of you." - Michael Fremer Bound for Sound, #149 "Clean, clean, clean." " I've heard $30,000 power amps not sound so nearly perfect." - Martin DeWulf

Halo Amps

Classic Amps