Parasound Halo JC-1 -VS- Bryston 7B-ST?

What is better depends a lot on the rest of the system. My buddy had a pair of well worn in JC-1 amps into a pair of Dunlavy speakers fronted by a Sony SACD player and a Sim P-5 preamp (if memory serves me right). He wasn't happy with the sound finding it thin. Dealer advised that the units were used by a good client of his and that break-in should no longer be an issue. Still there was no real life to them. My friend asked me to bring over my 4B-SST and the Bryston was a much better match. Nothing against the JC-1 amps - they are much lauded by many people but to say that even stock they are better is a blanket statement that pertains to one man's opinion. Steve, this is not a knock against you personally but your statement. As I also have heard both manufacturer's amps and came to a very different conclusion. Synergy is the key...

I have not heard the 7B-ST however have recently heard at home the 7B-SST and JC-1's. Bass was similar, probably the JC-1's more powerful but both excellent bass. I found the Bryston a little more musical and a little more lifelike in the upper frequencies. They were used in both balanced and se mode.
Overall the Bryston was in my system better enough for me to cross the JC-1's off the short list. The JC-1's just sounded boring in my system.
please note the JC-1's had not done their 1400 minimum break in time, only 4-500 hours.

Downunder, at 4-500 hours the JC-1s will sound as you described...at about 1000 hours things dramatically improve, becoming quite lively and involving, at 1200 hours even more so.

By the way, I looked at your system. Have you checked which is the left speaker and which is right? Judging by the photo captions you have them reversed. Violins should be on your left :)

I just want to concur with Essentialaudio that at 500 hours the JC1-1's are quite boring. I had been "piece mealing" the break-in time and keeping track of the hours. I knew about the long break-in time, but was becoming impatient. So I wrote to Crump and told him of my concerns and he talked me into leaving these bad boys powered-up 24/7 with signal. I didn't want to do it, but I promised myself that I wouldn't prematurely cut my loses and sell these amps until they were fully broken-in. Also. I wasn't looking forward to the power bill, but at least it wasn't summer (Arizona) and it wasn't that bad after all. My amps now have well over 2000 hours and they continue to blow my mind. And they took another quantum leap forward after I put aftermarket pc's on them. This may seem like an extreme and an exorbitant amount of time to break in a pair of amps, and perhaps it is. But the returns are well worth it. But I could totally understand someone taking a pass on JC1's for this reason. Also, I'm convinced that many people prematurely sell these amps, unsatisfied with their sound, prior to being fully broken-in. I posted to this thread because I also had 7b-sst mono's on my shortlist of amps at the time. I couldn't audition either amp, so I did a lot of research and homework. Which included talking to owners of both amps and speaking to people in the industry. Also one of the things that really bugged me about the sst's were that they didn't have dual binding posts, something I just can't understand in today's market. So, in the end, I ordered a brand new pair of JC1's and have never looked back (well, at least after the break-in:).

Brian. thanks for noticing my typo :). I will blame Elvis! Yes speaker is now left and right is right.

Unfortunately the dealer and I could not wait the 1200 hours for the JC's to sound good. In fact they rate the SIM amps a lot more than the parasounds. Way too much of a risk down in Sydney where re-sale is more difficult. That is why I added the disclaimer.

I am more than happy with the cj prem350 and I got it cheaper than the JC-1's which was a bonus. One advantage of buying from the distributor rather than distributor / dealer network