I am picking the Pass X350.5 up tommorrow and will have it over the weekend.
I will give an update after that |
Bob. What is the difference between high and low bias on a practical and sound quality level?.
thanks Shane |
Break in time. Bob I am going to have listen one more time to a pair of JC-1's in the next couple of weeks.
What is the minimum play time until these amps will show most of what they are worth and sound pretty nice.
I had a listen to a pair 6 months ago and frankly was underwelmed - they had about 100-150 hours on them and I ran them in for another 50 of so. The dealer in total has probably only put about 300 hours max even now. He much prefers the sound of the moon W5 and has dismissed the JC-1's as he believes the long play time as garbage.
Bear in mind that the dealer is not going to let me play these amps for 1500 hours, and I am not going to buy anything on the promise of fundamental changes in sound at a later stage.
I would appreciate your honest oipen opinion as always.
cheers Shane |
Muralman, that is good that the cables are quiet.
Reason for my question is that sometimes with more treble extension there is more noise. That is important to me as I primarily listen to vinyl which is noisier than CD from a background noise level. |
The sorry facts regarding the JC-1 is that they don't sound good unless you have 1200 - 1400 hours of play time on them. I heard a pair last year and frankly was underwelmed to say the least. They had a total of about 200 hours.
I would hope they sound great after 1400 hours, but me ( living in Australia) I am not going buy something I don't like the sound of, on the promise that it will dramtically change after 60 -90 days. If there was a money back guarantee - perhaps. I checked with the dealer today and the amps still only have 300 hours on them and they much prefer the W-5's. They thought I was mad stating that the designer asks you to put 90 days straight for it to sound decent.
To me Parasound should change the caps so anyone can hear 90% of what the amp is capable of after 200 hours of so.
Anyway I have given up on the JC-1 and will listen to a Pass X350.5 next week.
Anyway, my rant is over. |
Denf, Zormi. For what it is worth I have now listended to the Pass X350.5's, JC1's one more time, bryston 7bsst and the cj premier 350.
In my system, the cj prem 350 sounds overall the best. It has the tightest (jc1 was pretty tight as well) and most natural bass out of all of the amps. the bass with the pass was just a little loose. mofsets vs bipolar??. The high end has a degree of dynamic top to bottom life that the others don't have. Musically they are the most satisfying.
The Pass X350.5 sounds good, but in my system the bass was a little overwelming and seemed not to have the speed in the top end the cj has.
Bryston sounded very controlled, but lacking a little dynamic life and extension in the high's.
JC-1's sounded a bit gray and lacking in dynamics unless you really cranked up the volume. Micro dynamics were not as good as the Pass of cj. My personal opinion is that sound wise it was on par with the Rotel 1090, which for its price sounded great.
anyway, I am buying the cj prem350 to mate with my Vienna mahlers. |
Zormi. I really wanted to like the JC-1's. The bass was definately better the second time round, but it had no life in the upper mids and top end. Just plain boring. I really think parasound need to change there caps as no one in their right mind can expect to wait 1200 hours for the amp to sound better.
The Mac 501's and Pass 350.5 sounded good after 50 hours, Krell 300cx was starting to sound better after 150 hours but still a little strident in the highs for my taste. cj after 120 hours, still improving. All these amps sounded at 95% plus at these hours, which is what high end hi fi should be like.
Interesting the low or no feedback designs ( prem 350, Pass 350.5, Sim W5) were to my ear the better sounding amps compared to their high feedback cousins like Parasound, Mac and Bryston. It was if the high feedback amps had a limiter on the expressiveness and natural tones in the upper mids/and treble. The high feedback amps had arguably the bigger bass thou. But it is top to bottom conherence and musicality that rule the day with my listening biases. |
Sean, absolutely agree with you. The mahlers do have a rounded big bass. That was the biggest difference between the Pass X350.5 and cj prem 350. Bass was a lot tighter and more musical on the cj. Someone who owns a speaker with leaner sounding bass may prefer the Pass X350.5.
Re speaker cables. I used transparent ref XL, harmonic pro9 and borrowed some Kimber 3035 for most of the listening. All great insanely expensive cables. The transparent was clearly the least suited to my system sounding warm and bloated with little extension - this all relative compared to the harmonic and kimber.
The transparents can sound wonderful in say a Wilson or brightish sounding system. Any way I have sold them now to someone who will be able to appreciate them better than I.
I have Nordost Valhalla cables from TT to phono, phono to pre and pre to power. Most people think these sound lean or bright. yes they certainly have sounded like that to me as well. However in my current config they sound warm, transparent and focused, which pretty much matches the sound of my components.
If the valhalla's sound bright, it is one of your components that is making the brightness, not the cable.
anyway, happy listening |
Sean. You seem to be getting a little technical for me at least.
Not sure how you know that Nordost have an impedance of over 100+ ohms. The only technical information on thye Nordost or Harmonic technology site ie resistance of approx 0.002 ohms per ft.
BTW, I do not have Nordost speaker cables, only their interconnects.
Interestingly a lot of users and reviewers use Nordost speraker cable on a lot more than "fat" sounding speakers. I guess they must have something else fat or dull sounding in their system to compensate - yes??
First time I have ever heard cj referred to as lean sounding, but I guess you have heard the new prem 350 as well as the Valhalla speaker cables which are not part of my system, but are contributing to my balancing act of my fat speakers. doh!
Rather than come up with quite interesting technical stories, why not give some examples of the low impedance cables you so strongly recommend.
cheers |
Sean, I agreed with you re the Vienna's leaning towards the fat spectrum v the lean side. that is why I bought them.
there are not many neutral products, just someone's own version of neutral - which is a legitimate reason.
Muralman - Yes all the way downunder in Sydney. I sold the transparent and went back to the old harmonic's as they sounded better with current config.
Even thou I am not looking for speaker cables - I had a quick look at the anticable web site and iven the pricing of the anti cables it would seem a cheap option to try them out. Even all the way down in Sydney.
Are these cables quiet?.
I bought some local cable from radio shack type place a mnth or so ago to try. nice extenstion and transparancy, but huge amounts of noise.
cheers Shane |
I can only report on how the JC-1's sounded in my system when I listened to them twice over a 6 mnth period.the second time last week the amps had done approx 500 hours - that should be plenty for any amp to show 95% of what it can do. Both times they were left on for several days, not hours. Standard power cords were replaced with Valhalla cords.
In my system the JC-1's were still towards the bottom of the list with the cj prem 350 just better at sounding more alive and musical compared to any of the bunch. I almost exclusively listen to vinyl, so if you listen to CD that would probably make the JC-1's sound a little more alive in the top end.
This does not discount that they sound great in your system - that is great that you are happy. variety is the spice.
Dalton / audio girl - approx how long before you found the jc-1's sounded getting towards their best?.
Me, living down in Australia can not afford to buy something on the hope that it will get better, you can only buy what sounds better at time of listening. In the US it is a little easier to swap gear if you are not happy via audiogon etc. |
Lanny. Yeah, we live a little too far to swap equipment - at least amps :).
1400 hours is a little too long for anyone to be expected to wait, unless you have all ready put down the mula.
time to put on some more music |
