Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?

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stevecuss

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Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?
« on: 20 Feb 2018, 07:37 pm »
Hi Friends,

Jolida is blowing out their tube preamp with built in DAC and bluetooth unit at a pretty nice price and I'm tempted to buy one to use instead of my old AV receiver. My receiver currently acts only as a preamp for an EL34 power amp I run.

Anyway, I don't know much about DACs and can't find any reviews on the quality of the DAC part of the unit. Does anyone have an opinion on the current Jolida DAC quality? Or is this the right circle to ask?

thanks much

JLM

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Re: Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?
« Reply #1 on: 21 Feb 2018, 01:35 pm »
Don't know anything about this unit, but Jolida is known for using tubes in mid-fi gear.  The brand was more popular 10 years ago.

Yeah, couldn't find any reviews (not a good sign).

The features/specifications seems quite out of date.  Is the bluetooth digital connection something you're interested in?  XLR input/output is nice, but pretty pointless if the unit isn't inherently balanced design (doubtful and couldn't find any information on that).  Bypass feature could be helpful if part of a HT system, but no remote control indicated and no separate subwoofer output.

Overall reminds me of stuff that was available 5 years ago (the DAC would be a dinosaur now-a-days).

For DAC/preamp reviews look at audiostream.com.

stevecuss

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Re: Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?
« Reply #2 on: 21 Feb 2018, 07:10 pm »
Great, thank you very much - it was the DAC I needed most advice on. I'll likely keep DAC and Pre separate for obsolescence issues, but at the price Jolida is clearing them out for, its a mighty tempting piece of kit.

And bluetooth would be nice for the kids, but not essential by any means. We do most of our music streaming over Airport Wifi through a Digital Optical into the receiver's built in DAC

JLM

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Re: Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?
« Reply #3 on: 22 Feb 2018, 11:13 am »
I use a $1200/$800 street DSPeaker Anti-Mode 2.0 Dual Core (big name, small unit).  It serves as my DAC, preamp, and bass DSP.  Good sound, crummy physical design (connections are very tight and remote is super cheap but have gotten used to it).  I had Schiit Freya (balanced tube preamp with NOS tubes) and Gungnir Multi-Bit (R2R DAC) in house last spring that made 10% of my iTunes ripped CD library sound better, but 30% sound worse compared to the DSPeaker, so I sent them back ($2,200 total invested). 

Before the DSPeaker I had a $500 Emotiva DC-1 (another half width component, that I got a $50 show discount on) that was a DAC, preamp, and headphone amp.  Decent sound (a bit harsh/mechanical) but seemingly much better built than the DSPeaker.  Both units have single ended (RCA) and balanced (XLR) outputs (am a balanced design fan).

Note I'm big into the importance of the listening room and have a dedicated study, shaped as per Cardas Golden Cuboid, listen near-field, room is well isolated with good electrical service, and also have six GIK 244 panels in use.  (Created the room when we built the house, so it was free - really Cheap and Cheerful.)  So the DSP is truly the (appropriate) icing on the cake.  The DSPeaker allows for four settings, which is perfect for me as I have two pair of speakers and a subwoofer so I have settings for each pair with and without the sub.

stevecuss

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Re: Quality of Jolida DAC in the Fusion Pre/Dac?
« Reply #4 on: 22 Feb 2018, 03:15 pm »
Thanks again for this detailed info. I hear you on the room treatment - I recorded an acoustic guitar album at home and a huge component of the sound quality was room treatment before recording. Our church also does extensive room treatment and DSP work.

Part of my dilema at home is family life and sound compromise. Our family room and kitchen are an open floor plan, so the kitchen sink is the central listening location :)

I think I'll chase an affordable tube preamp and a separate DAC and go from there. I like the Mapletree, the Rogue Audio and the Abacus as possible preamps and I may chase one of the derivatives of the Valab or chinese tube DACs. The main attraction of the Jolida is price for what it is and the big question is if it is a noticeable step up from my Arcam AVR350. This series of Arcam are supposedly famous for their stereo reproduction.

cheers