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An all Parasound system - Good idea?

My brother- in- law visited last weekend and heard my 2 channel system for the first time.  Slightly ocd, he spent much time online and emailed me last night to say he was going to put his own system together and was planning to buy all of his components from Parasound, in part because he thinks a single brand will optimze performance and compatability, and because he is enamored by the John Curl connection. To that end, he plans to buy  a JC2 Preamp, A21 Amp and JC3+ phono amp.

I have told him focus on  speakers first, then source components. That notwithstanding, is the "All Parasound " a good idea to avoid the possibility of components not playing nice together or should he not focus on brand loyalty and shop for "best in class" components instead?

sjtm

Showing 1 response by dhl93449

dhl93449
455 posts
 
I have JC1s (two) and the JC2 preamp. I would not recommend the JC3 phono as I prefer discrete Class A circuit topography for the phono pre-amp (as does John Curl, BTW). The JC3 uses IC op-amps not Class A discrete designs. I think you will find that JC has commented that the JC3 was a compromise he was not that happy about, but had to live with due to Parasound upper management insistence and the fact that low noise discrete JFETS were getting hard to find and expensive. I myself am using a modified Spectral DMC-10 phono stage from the mid-80's.

To counter some comments above, I find the JC-2 have very good imaging and three dimensionality. It is also very smooth and non-fatiguing. I have used it with both outputs from a Bryston BDP/BDA combo and the phono output from the Spectral DMC-10.  
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