Phono Preamp Reviews

The Sound of Jazz (CS 8040), a 1958 Columbia “6-Eye” recorded live in late 1957 in astonishing stereo at Columbia’s 30th Street studio (a former church) the day before the live television show of the same name presents a great phono preamp challenge in terms of 3 dimensional space reproduction, dynamic swings, transient speed and clarity and timbral accuracy.

The recording is bathed in room reverb with perhaps some echo chamber enhancement. The record expresses a huge three-dimensional space in which are placed equally three-dimensional images arrayed front to back and side to side. Instrumental transparency is astonishing as is the transient clarity.

It’s got Billie Holiday, “Red” Allen, Coleman Hawkins, The Count Basie All Stars (including Lester Young, Doc Cheatham, Jo Jones, etc.), Jimmy Giuffre and many others rehearsing for a one hour television special presented live the next day, Sunday, December 8th 1957. I can imagine how some younger folks reading this are thinking “1957? That’s gotta sound like warmed over, old fashioned crap!” These traditional jazz/big band performances are explosive compared to the cool of Kind of Blue, recorded in the same space very closely spaced in time. No one needs to make apologies for that recording either!

Because of contract issues some who were on TV like Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan are not on the record but its an all-star cast on vinyl nonetheless.

The JC3+ handled this record well. It couldn’t produce the enormity of the space or fully express the low end transient impact but just above what was missing was a fully formed, credible rendering of the recording with just a well-balanced overall “nip and tuck”: a global act of omission.

The JC3+’s top end was well extended enough to suggest the room ambience plus the reverb’s airiness, but not all of it. Pull back a bit everywhere and you still have excellent overall balance that produces a refreshing lack of character.

The further into the background a phono preamplifier or any piece of electronics can fade, the more fully a recording can express its character and the less likely you are to hear an identifiable sameness creeping into every record you play.

The JC3+’s midrange neutrality and transient cleanliness and its lack of grit, hyper edge definition or on the other side of that divide, softness, challenge the performance of far more expensive preamplifiers.

About the original JC3 I wrote “…(a) remarkably fine phono preamp that easily held its own against far more expensive competition. Its minor shortcomings were at the extremes of frequency response, dynamics and timbral verisimilitude. The “center” held completely.

“In other words, unless you’re running full range, ultra-dynamic speakers you won’t miss what that JC3 hasn’t got to give and even then I can confidently say that the JC3 now represents the best value in a phono preamp that I know of—as long as you can abide by the 100ohm/47kOhm loading limitation.”

Now you no longer have to abide by that limitation. On the other hand since then in an increasingly hot vinyl market other manufacturers are stepping up to the plate with similarly priced competition, for instance the well-engineered and fine sounding $2500 LKV Research Phono 2 SB, which I did not have on hand to make a direct comparison.

The "all business" (read: "homely") LKV (made in U.S.A.) doesn’t offer the Parasound’s chassis solidity or satiny face plate but it does have a substantial outboard power supply as well as both balanced XLR inputs and outputs and single-ended ones as well. It too is impressively quiet. However its overall presentation was somewhat more clinical, a bit leaner in the midbass and its harmonic development somewhat less generous overall. Its “leanness” and “cleanliness” reminded me somewhat of the old (and I mean old) PS Audio sound of the late 1980s, which I for one absolutely loved especially into two-way, limited range, spatially coherent speakers like the Spica TC-50s I owned. The combination produced a lot to look at as well as hear. Lots of fine detail too.

The JC3+’s overall sound is somewhat more fully fleshed out and “meaty” in the midrange, the images it produces larger and more filled in. I’m somewhat exaggerating the differences here to make the point.

My original JC3 review compared it to far more expensive phono preamps including the Pass XP25, the Ypsilon VPS100 and one from Allnic. I did so because I felt it was good enough to play on the same field. I concluded “The JC3 tucks it in ever so slightly on both ends, losing some shimmer on top and punch on bottom.” That’s how the JC3+ performed as well compared to other way more expensive phono preamps.

Considering the price differentials, I again came away impressed by the JC3+. It does everything well and its minor acts of omission will not be noticed or missed on the kinds of systems in which it’s likely to be used. In real world priced systems it’s likely to max-out vinyl performance and keep you locked in to listening for years to come.

If you go from one of the modest priced phono preamps analogplanet.com surveyed last year to the JC3+, you’ll have no trouble hearing the sonic improvement. And as you upgrade cartridge and turntable the JC3+ will comfortably go along for the ride…..at least until you hit the lottery!