[chgolatin2]

Honestly speaking how do you rate Jolida product and quality?  Cayin is another brand that I could think of.  Knowing that is not fully american made and that it doesnt cost thousands more compared to other American made tubes amp as well as other manufactures.

Any good price wise low budget integrated tube amps brand out there besides the "Shanling" products?

[2gumby2]

I purchased a new Jolida JD-1501RC integrated and I liked it very well until I hooked it up to some high efficiency speakers. Then I couldn't stand it. Same problem I've had with every tube preamplifier I've ever had in my system - hiss. I use only solid state preamplifiers these days and I'm quite happy.

[Niteshade]

Tube preamp hiss is created by poorly designed/matched gain stages.  It's a design flaw and does not reflect on preamp tubes in general. You had a string of bad experiences, but hopefully this is not the norm for tube pre's. Tube preamps & amps can be just as quiet as their solid state cousins.

I purchased a new Jolida JD-1501RC integrated and I liked it very well until I hooked it up to some high efficiency speakers. Then I couldn't stand it. Same problem I've had with every tube preamplifier I've ever had in my system - hiss. I use only solid state preamplifiers these days and I'm quite happy.

[Big Red Machine]

The Jolida 202 integrated I just sold was dead quiet on 95 db speakers.  A real nice unit.  I would own again for a small second system in a heartbeat.

[DARTH AUDIO]

I own the Jolida JD3000 200 watt monoblocs and the deHaviliand UltraVerve preamp. To hear the hiss I have to place my ear on my tweeter?? Could have been micro-phonic tubes causing the noise? I've had that problem in the past. Just switched out the tubes and no hiss. The Jolida JD3000's IMO are a real steal for the price. Didn't hear much better @ this years RMAF unless I wanted to spend $20k on amps.

[Phil A]

Honestly speaking how do you rate Jolida product and quality?  Cayin is another brand that I could think of.  Knowing that is not fully american made and that it doesnt cost thousands more compared to other American made tubes amp as well as other manufactures.

Any good price wise low budget integrated tube amps brand out there besides the "Shanling" products?

I visited where some of the assembly is done (United Home Audio I think it is called that is in business with Jolida and has a retail store at the same location ).  I have friends who have units.  I think they are good sounding for the money but so-so on quality control.  Personally I am not impressed (then again I've seen the operation first hand and from what I observed - I was able to walk around there boxing/assembly/office area for about a half an hour visiting the store before someone came out and I saw and heard things first hand) but they are good sounding values at their entry level price points.

[2gumby2]

Tube preamp hiss is created by poorly designed/matched gain stages.  It's a design flaw and does not reflect on preamp tubes in general. You had a string of bad experiences, but hopefully this is not the norm for tube pre's. Tube preamps & amps can be just as quiet as their solid state cousins.

I'm open minded enough that I don't mean to taint all tube preamps from all manufacturers, but my personal experience with tube preamps was so consistently bad that I don't give much thought to them anymore. I am confident that there are some manufacturers that may do a fine job with tube preamps. I had a Raptor tube headphone amp from Ray Samuels Audio and it was dead quiet so I'm confident that Ray Samuels probably has some very nice tube preamps, but I've never had the opportunity to try one.

[timind]

I picked up a 202A from a local seller a while ago as a starting point into tubes. The build quality was ok for the money, nothing to get excited about. The sound was underwhelming to my ear. The amp only stuck around for a month, so much for tubes in my system.

[Big Red Machine]

I picked up a 202A from a local seller a while ago as a starting point into tubes. The build quality was ok for the money, nothing to get excited about. The sound was underwhelming to my ear. The amp only stuck around for a month, so much for tubes in my system.

Could have been some underperforming tubes.  I put some KT66's from Gold Lion in mine.

[woodsyi]

I visited where some of the assembly is done (United Home Audio I think it is called that is in business with Jolida and has a retail store at the same location ).  I have friends who have units.  I think they are good sounding for the money but so-so on quality control.  Personally I am not impressed (then again I've seen the operation first hand and from what I observed - I was able to walk around there boxing/assembly/office area for about a half an hour visiting the store before someone came out and I saw and heard things first hand) but they are good sounding values at their entry level price points.

It's an interesting combination of Jolida and UHA in one building.  Greg at UHA has one of the fanciest and expensive audio gear on hand.  Then you have tons of Jolida tube gears just burning back in the warehouse.  I had a chance to chat with the gentleman in charge of Jolida and I was assured that they go though extensive burning in and checking of quality for Jolida gears when they arrive.  I believe it as I saw rows of amps with glowing tubes in the back room.  I haven't used Jolida but I believe I can trust it more than direct market China products from e-bay.  Plus, the customer service is provided state-side for Jolida which makes a world of difference to me.  I will say that customer service on Greg's part with Aesthetix and MBL gears were exemplary. 

P.S.  Anecdotally, the Jolida gentleman lamented on the hack jobs he gets back for repairs.  He says that so many people feel free to "upgrade" the Jolida gear and really end up frying them.  Better parts with wrong spec is 10000X worse than the cheaper but correct parts, so I was told.

[Niteshade]

People like to get their fingers into things and mess around when they shouldn't. It's fine as long as it's on their own dime and don't blame the company for whatever happens. If mods/repairs are done under the warranty period by unauthorized personnel...bye bye warranty!

I visited where some of the assembly is done (United Home Audio I think it is called that is in business with Jolida and has a retail store at the same location ).  I have friends who have units.  I think they are good sounding for the money but so-so on quality control.  Personally I am not impressed (then again I've seen the operation first hand and from what I observed - I was able to walk around there boxing/assembly/office area for about a half an hour visiting the store before someone came out and I saw and heard things first hand) but they are good sounding values at their entry level price points.

It's an interesting combination of Jolida and UHA in one building.  Greg at UHA has one of the fanciest and expensive audio gear on hand.  Then you have tons of Jolida tube gears just burning back in the warehouse.  I had a chance to chat with the gentleman in charge of Jolida and I was assured that they go though extensive burning in and checking of quality for Jolida gears when they arrive.  I believe it as I saw rows of amps with glowing tubes in the back room.  I haven't used Jolida but I believe I can trust it more than direct market China products from e-bay.  Plus, the customer service is provided state-side for Jolida which makes a world of difference to me.  I will say that customer service on Greg's part with Aesthetix and MBL gears were exemplary. 

P.S.  Anecdotally, the Jolida gentleman lamented on the hack jobs he gets back for repairs.  He says that so many people feel free to "upgrade" the Jolida gear and really end up frying them.  Better parts with wrong spec is 10000X worse than the cheaper but correct parts, so I was told.

[Phil A]

When I walked into the store/assembly place of business there is an infrared detector that sends a loud message that someone came in the front door.  I walked around the audio showrooms of United Home Audio first a few times.  There were a couple of sick kids (I guess the owner's?) sitting one the floor of one of them watching a movie sitting on blankets.  When I finally asked they pointed to the Jolida assembly area as the place to get help.  Walked all around there - was not impressed and probably a product I would stay away from.  I have a workshop and have seen others (factories/assembly lines).  I saw the process with someone doing the work.  I came to see United Home Audio to see what they had (and it was almost an hour and a half ride).  After doing everything but throwing something at the person assembling Jolida (which was being done so in a manner that I feel sorry for whoever bought the products - same model - nothing consistent, he pointed to an an area where apparently the owner of United Home Audio was in an office handling customer issues related to Jolida).  I listened to that for about 15 minutes (trying to politely get his attention that I'll wait in the United Home Audio showroom).  There was a bunch of printed sheets on instructions on how to handle Jolida customer complaints on quality sitting all over the room.  Basically step by step instructions that seemed to be designed due to complaints received and how to tell the customer he or she is an idiot.  When I was finally noticed, he was not happy.  When he came back to the United Home Audio showroom it kind of reminded me of the scene from Police Academy when they move the portable toilet in the middle of the stadium during the national anthem with the police chief in it.  Definitely caught with their pants down.  A friend who bought one of his amps (from his house as apparently while the store is in the boonies of Maryland he advertises on Audiogon from Northern Virginia) could not even get the time of day to get the manual or 2 minutes of his time to set the bias and he got instructions from another dealer (after numerous tries to Jolida and United Home Audio) and we went to Harbor Freight Tools where he picked up a meter on sale and I helped him set it.  So I have nothing against the product or how it sounds at its price point.  I am less than impressed with the quality of assembly and customer service I have seen first hand.  That was like 5 years back.  They may have changed but it was not a good impression and I feel bad for the way they treat customers which I've also seen first hand. 

[timind]

I picked up a 202A from a local seller a while ago as a starting point into tubes. The build quality was ok for the money, nothing to get excited about. The sound was underwhelming to my ear. The amp only stuck around for a month, so much for tubes in my system.

Could have been some underperforming tubes.  I put some KT66's from Gold Lion in mine.

To be fair, I was comparing the Jolida to approx $4,500 worth of ss amplification. Still, unimpressive is unimpressive.

[twitch54]

To be fair, I was comparing the Jolida to approx $4,500 worth of ss amplification. Still, unimpressive is unimpressive.

as I could compare 4.5k worth of SS gear to 50k worth of amplification !

Regardless I've owned a Jolida 302b in a secondary system of mine and feel it to be a worthy performer for the $$ spent. FWIW, for $$ spent I really love American made....Rogue Audio, I've got a pair of M-150's powering my main rig.

[ltr317]

I picked up a 202A from a local seller a while ago as a starting point into tubes. The build quality was ok for the money, nothing to get excited about. The sound was underwhelming to my ear. The amp only stuck around for a month, so much for tubes in my system.

Could have been some underperforming tubes.  I put some KT66's from Gold Lion in mine.

To be fair, I was comparing the Jolida to approx $4,500 worth of ss amplification. Still, unimpressive is unimpressive.

I've compared a $300 Yamaha receiver to a $25 table radio, and was unimpressed with the latter.  So, if I should compare the Yamaha with say, a $10,000 amp and find that the Yamaha is unimpressive, does that mean the Yamaha was not impressive before?  But the Yamaha was impressive compared with the table radio.  Your analogy is not logical. 

[maxwalrath]

As is true with a lot of tube gear, you can improve performance by leaps and bounds by investing some cash in upgraded tubes. 

[chgolatin2]

I've had a number of issues with my amp, has been sent to Jolida 3 times already and counting,hopefully now something will get done and done right.  Apparently the company that modded my 1000RC did a mistake with one of the caps.  To be honest, I am not very happy with Jolida products, their customer service and the amount of money I have spent sending my unit back and forth. 

Frustrating because I spent quite a bit of money on this amp, I am not an audio guru rich audiophile type of guy but I do try to get the best for what I can afford, well, needless to say that so far my experience with the Jolida team has not been the greatest but that's just me, dont know about anybody else...

[twitch54]

I've had a number of issues with my amp, has been sent to Jolida 3 times already and counting,hopefully now something will get done and done right.  Apparently the company that modded my 1000RC did a mistake with one of the caps.  To be honest, I am not very happy with Jolida products, their customer service and the amount of money I have spent sending my unit back and forth. 

Wait...let me get this straight.... "some other company" modded your unit, you don't send it to 'them' for repair and your not happy with Jolida ????? oh...now that makes alot of sense...duh...

[doug s.]

I've had a number of issues with my amp, has been sent to Jolida 3 times already and counting,hopefully now something will get done and done right.  Apparently the company that modded my 1000RC did a mistake with one of the caps.  To be honest, I am not very happy with Jolida products, their customer service and the amount of money I have spent sending my unit back and forth. 

Wait...let me get this straight.... "some other company" modded your unit, you don't send it to 'them' for repair and your not happy with Jolida ????? oh...now that makes alot of sense...duh...

+1

doug s.

[Phil A]

I've had a number of issues with my amp, has been sent to Jolida 3 times already and counting,hopefully now something will get done and done right.  Apparently the company that modded my 1000RC did a mistake with one of the caps.  To be honest, I am not very happy with Jolida products, their customer service and the amount of money I have spent sending my unit back and forth. 

Wait...let me get this straight.... "some other company" modded your unit, you don't send it to 'them' for repair and your not happy with Jolida ????? oh...now that makes alot of sense...duh...

I don't see how anyone cannot agree with the above.  While it is possible they were not as helpful as they could be, most anything you mod is not the responsibility of the manufacturer.