Couldn't load pickup availability
Parasound's JC 5 delivers a whopping 400 watts per channel, and it's stable enough to drive just about any speakers you might care to hook up. In bridged mode, this amp really turns on the juice, putting out an amazing 1,200 watts into a single channel. All that power comes from a beefy toroidal transformer and a high-bias Class A/AB amplifier design that help your system reproduce music with stunning clarity and accuracy. The "JC" designation — and the signature on the front and back panels — lets you know it was designed by the company's audio design guru John Curl.
Engineers and audiophiles generally agree that Class A designs offer the purest sound, but they tend to run hot and take up a lot of space. As a result, home audio amplifiers often use a compromise known as Class AB, which hands off part of the audio signal to a different set of output transistors at high power levels. AB can sacrifice a bit of signal purity, but it lets the amp run cooler and more efficiently.
So this Class A/AB amp operates in pure Class A mode up to a higher power level than most other amplifiers in its price category, before the second set of transistors kick in. The result is a sound that's smoother, less fatiguing, and more natural.
Profoundly Powerful, Supremely Musical
The Parasound Halo JC 5 stereo amplifier is profoundly powerful and supremely musical. High bias class A/AB provides 12-watts-per-channel pure class A power and class AB effortlessly to its 400 watts per channel 8 ohm rating. The output stage employs 24 beta-matched, 15 ampere, 60 MHz bipolar transistors to deliver a formidable peak current of 90 amperes.
The power supply employs a 1.7 kVA shielded toroid power transformer with a premium H18 grade steel core. It has independent secondary windings for its dual-mono power supply. As with the JC 1, the input stage B+/B- rails are 10 V above the output stage rails to eliminate any chance of distortion caused by voltage sagging when the amp is under load. Independent power supplies for left and right channels input stages employ filter caps totaling 8,880 F. Driver and output stages employ massive Rubycon filter caps totaling 132,000 F.
On the back panel are balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs for each channel, and each has its own individual gain control knob and loop output. There are also binding posts for connecting a pair of speakers. The amp can be rack mounted using the included ears.
400 watts x 2, 8 Ohm
600 watts x 2, 4 Ohm
Power Output Bridged Mode
1200 watts x 1, 8 Ohm
Bridged 4 operation is not recommended
Power measurement parameters are at 120 VAC:
0.05% THD, RMS continuous power,
full audio band (20 Hz - 20 kHz)
Current Capacity
90 amps peak, per channel
Slew Rate
> 130 volts per microsecond
Frequency Response
5 Hz - 100 kHz, +0/-3 dB
20 Hz - 20 kHz, +0/-0.25 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
< 0.05 % at full power
< 0.03 % at typical listening levels
IM Distortion
< 0.04 %
TIM
Unmeasurable
Inter-channel Crosstalk
> 87 dB at 1 kHz
> 72 dB at 20 kHz
Input Impedance
Unbalanced: 33 k oHM
Balanced: 66 k Ohm ,(33 k Ohm per leg)
Total Gain
29 dB
Input Sensitivity for 28.28 V Output into 8
Unbalanced: 1 V
Balanced: 1 V per leg
S/N Ratio
> 116 dB, input shorted, IHF A-weighted
> 111 dB, input shorted, unweighted
Damping Factor
> 1200 at 20 k Hz
DC Trigger Requirements
+9 Vdc to +12 Vdc, 5 mA
Audio Trigger Requirements
2 mV - 10 mV
XLR Pin Identification
1 = Ground (Shield)
2 = Positive
3 = Negative (Return)
Dimensions
Width: 17-5/8" (448 mm)
Height without feet: 7-1/8" (181 mm)
Height with feet: 7-3/4" " (197 mm)
Depth: 20" (508 mm)
Depth with cables: 21-1/2" (546 mm)
Net Weight
73 lb. (33.1 kg)
Shipping Weight
90 lb. (40.8 kg)
Power Requirement
Standby: 1 Watt
Idle (no music playing): 225 Watts
Typical listening levels: 400 Watts
Maximum: 1500 Watts
