Why all these JC-1's for sale?

Brian, there were only twelve units that got out the door with the incorrect parts......Six to reviewers and six to yours truly. The remainder of the first run of a hundred units were pulled and the parts changed out in November 02. The review units were updated in December and January and the last set, my demos, were updated in January 03 before they went to live in Chicago. Other than the twelve mentioned all units were corrected prior to being sent to dealers......My demos were shipped all over the map and did not have the revisions until they returned and were the ones we used to good effect at the CES in 1/03.

To some of you audiogoners out there who have sold their JC-1's:
Since they are sold now:
Could you tell us in all honesty why you sold them?
What did you not like sonically or ergonomically, etc., about them?
Thanks for your responses.

I had a pair of the JC-1's for about 2 months and left them on from day one. I used a pair of 20 amp dedicated lines in a dedicated sound room with Vandersteen 3a Signatures using an Audible Illusions L-2 and a Sony xa777es. I played them long enough to kill my Sony! Seems it didn't like being on 24/7 I used a Rotel until the Sony returned which I must say was good service in a one week turnaround with a complete new laser assembly.
As for the JC-1's, I tried my best to like them. I did think they were neutral to just a hair sterile in the lower mids but the soundstaging depth was at issue. This was my one BIG quival. It was certainly not as good as my Belles 350a nor the Ayre V5x I bought after I sold them. They sure had plenty of power and viceral impact. However, I'm a midrange and soundstaging freak. I could never warm up to them. They never sounded quite as musical as the other two amps.
It sad to see they take such a long time to break-in. I was unaware of this(I did hear it took a few months) and maybe I didn't give them enough time.
The other 2 issues with the amps was one of them had a transformer that hummed a little more than I thought was reasonable. I disconnected everything and turned it back on own and it continued. After calling Parasound about this, they said it was pretty normal and the other amp was just unsually quiet. Well, you know what I thought about that BS. Anyway, the bottom line was if I sent it back at my expense, they would put a new transformer in it. I felt that a little much for a 1 week old amp that I had waited 2 months for!
The same amp also liked to disconnect the speaker relay for no reason. It would be playing very softly and you would hear it click off and within a minute, click back on. I again disconnected everything except the speakers thinking it might be something triggering it from up the line. Not so. Finally, after about a week, it decided to quit it and functioned fine after that(other than the hum which got a little better---still very audible however)
So, that's my story for what its worth.

5) The amps aren't performing up to snuff due to a lack of available current i.e. each should have their own 20 amp AC line. As such, they blame the amp when there are other problems.

I have not had any problems with dynamics running a single 20-amp service shared with all components and the two monoblocks.

6) The heat and power consumption of these amps are more than they bargained for.

This is a function of the biasing. If it is not adjusted correctly, one amp can get a lot hotter than the other. When I mod these, I adjust the biasing to be matched. This can cause one amp to buzz louder than the other. Once adjusted, they dont get very hot at all. You can put your hand on the heatsink continuously. As for musicality, these dropped from being my references after I modded another amp which outperformed them. However, this summer, I found the time to mod the JC-1's and they have regained the reference status. Have not heard a better amp, anywhere.

Steve Nugent
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer

Steve, all amps in a run (100 units) are pulled when they arrive at Parasound and are checked for a number of parameters including bias......You stated elsewhere here it took a month to break these in and others have reported it took almost two months for them to open up.....The thin sound goes away at a month and you think there are done as they won't be ready for prime time for another month......