Phono Preamplifiers

There’s some contrast between the established £3999 Parasound JC3+ and this new £2299 JC3 Junior. The difference is immediately obvious in the casings – the latter feels slimmer and lighter and doesn’t have individual load selection for each channel on the rear panel. Take the case top off and you’ll see that the JC3+ is busier inside with two mono RIAA modules and an R-core transformer, while the Junior has one stereo module and a single toroidal [see picture, p46]. Parasound’s Richard Schram says their respective circuitry is ‘more similar than different’, with both using active/passive RIAA equalisation. He adds that the Junior benefits from lessons learned with the JC3+, so a middle gain option has been fitted to maximise input headroom and optimise output level, limiting the chance of overloading the input stages of certain preamps and integrated amps [see PM’s Lab Report]. Aside from topology and a superior PSU, the JC3+’s other key advantage lies in its ‘highly effective’ AC mains line filter, notes Schram.