Parasound Halo - SimAudio Aurora or Bryston

dna2505,

Both the Sims and the Brystons suffer from the typical solid state bugaboos. What they do well, they do VERY well indeed, but they rob the music of life by bleaching harmonic color. The JC-1s do this to a much smaller degree, to the point where it's only just noticeable. Oh, and by the way, the JC-1s have both RCA and balanced inputs.

Auditioned Brystons when I was using the JC-1s. The Parasounds proved to be the superior amps. If your looking for a VERY musical and still detailed SS amp. The Ayre V-1xe is better than both of them.

I auditioned the JC-1's and honestly wasn't very impressed... I've never been a fan of Bryston either - both are too aggressive up top to my ear.

Never heard the Sim so can't comment on that.

Good luck.

I prefer the Sim Audio and would point out the reason the gear sounds so good with Dynaudio etc. is that it doesn't bleach out the harmonics as a previous poster advised. My $0.02. If you want more tubelike harmonics you will need to throw in tubes in the chain. Sim gear is also fully balanced plus RCA's. PS I have had a Bryston 4Bsst and I use my Sim W5 and I7. I haven't used the Para gear.

No direct experience with either Sim or Bryston but I will say that after trying at least a dozen different amps (tube and ss) with my Duntech Princess (Dynaudio tweeter and woofers) I bought JC-1s a year ago and my search has ended. They offer detail and control without typical ss hardness or glare - highly musical.