Warning! Jolida JD50 not as advertised.

jswallac · « **on:** 1 Feb 2005, 12:59 am »

I have been a pretty strong fan of Jolida, however the following has seriously dimmed my view of them. The company recently introduced a passive preamp selling for a quite reasonable $250 (the JD50). According to their website the passive has inputs for 4 sources, has two outputs, and allows remote operation of volume and source switching. They even sent prototypes to some dealers with these capabilities. Seems things change. Will some things change. The units that have just starting shipping (including the one I purchased) no longer provide for remote source switching. In fact the unit does not even look the same as the one still on their web site. The web site still claims features that the shipped units do not offer. To make matters worse, they did not inform their resellers of these changes, so the resellers are making claims they believe to be true, but are not. What a way to do business.

I should also give a plug for Walter Liederman (aka Underwoodwally). He is taking the unit back, including all shipping costs. It does pay to buy from honest resellers.

Lord_Magnepan · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:23 am »

You should call Jolida and ask them for a statment. So far i have been impressed with my JD3000b, but the technical support reps knowledge is quite questionable.

Marbles · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:45 am »

Walter is a class act and a great guy to do business with.

jswallac · « **Reply #3 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:48 am »

Walter did call them. They told him that they did not like the sound of the unit with switching so they chose to modify things. No problem there. I just feel Jolida should not advertise something that is different from what they provide. More importantly, they should not leave their dealers hanging. All that would have been required would have been a simple change to their web site and a few phone calls to dealers. In the case of Walter, he had the unit sent to me thinking it was like the prototype he saw. When I called him claiming the unit would not remotely swith, he thought I was doing something wrong. It was not until he called Jolida that he realized I was not a complete idiot.

Marbles · « **Reply #4 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:55 am »

I wasn't making any claims for or against Jolida, just that Walter is a great guy to buy from because, as you found out, if there is a problem, he will take care of you.

I'm glad he is making things right including all shipping charges.

Royal_Highness_of_VMPS · « **Reply #5 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:59 am »

Maybe it just takes them a while to update their website. Isnt Jolida a small company?

John Casler · « **Reply #6 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:01 am »

I think I saw that Bill from Response posted that he had received the new version and that it "did not" have the swtiching, originally thought to be in the design.

Aside from that, I wonder just how clean it is as a "passive" attenuating device?

Royal_Highness_of_VMPS · « **Reply #7 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 03:16 am »

Hey John !! I am biting my nails already

of anticipation. Sorry i woke ja up

jswallac · « **Reply #8 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 06:09 am »

Yes, Walter is very much a class act. So is Bill at Response Audio. That is why I am a little miffed at Jolida. Yes they are small, and perhaps they are a little slow at updating their web site. But they should, at a minimum, let their dealers know what is going on. Walter did not know until I told him (he had the unit sent directly from Jolida and did not see the unit himself). Looks like Bill did not find out about it until he received one and played with it. Plus I would have to assume that Jolida knew about the changes some time before they were shipping. Production in China then shipping here is not instant. Wouldn't you want to take misleading information off your site before it gets into the hands of customers?

So again, I learned a couple of things, but the important one is buy from a class guy like Walter or Bill. Just a shame that Jolida put him in this position.

Rocket · « **Reply #9 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 09:01 am »

Hi Guys,

Walter from Underwood Hifi is a class Act AFAIK. I bought a perpetual technologies p3a dac from him in 2002 over at audiogon.

I have just ordered a ps audio hca - 2 amplifier from him. It is scary buying over the internet, especially when you live in a different country.

Btw has anyone heard one of these amplifiers?

Regards

Rod

JoshK · « **Reply #10 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 01:52 pm »

Its too bad about this Jolida product. IMO this is what the market really wants, not just another passive pre with remote volume. Everyone has remote volume but remote switching is rare or expensive.

I have a theory about this and why Jolida choose not to include remote switching. Its is well known in the DIY world that cheap relays can muck up the signal pretty quick (sonically) but quality relays can sound very transparent (the goal). However, quality relays are typically hard to source and expensive. My guess is that Jolida built a prototype based off some good but reasonable priced relays but when it came time to manufacturer they lost their source for the relays or their source couldn't provide the quantity they needed. The excuse we are hearing is just likely marketing spin.

Florian · « **Reply #11 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 02:18 pm »

Thats an interesting theory. Have you called Jolida and asked them if that is true?

doug s. · « **Reply #12 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 09:14 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

Its too bad about this Jolida product. IMO this is what the market really wants, not just another passive pre with remote volume. Everyone has remote volume but remote switching is rare or expensive.

I have a theory about this and why Jolida choose not to include remote switching. Its is well known in the DIY world that cheap relays can muck up the signal pretty quick (sonically) but quality relays can sound very transparent (the goal). However, quality relays are typically hard to source and expen ...

hi josh,

have ya ever tried the creek obh-12? (new model - obh-22). quite transparent, imo, and allows remote switching of three sources. not too spendy, either. i like to use one for blind direct a-b of tuna. my melos pre, tho remote wolume, is not remote source, so i plug two tunas into the creek, & plug the creek into a line in of the melos. wirtually no sonic signature from the creek whatsoever...

doug s.

JoshK · « **Reply #13 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 09:16 pm »

I owned the creek OBH12 SE and thought it was at best OK and I definitely could hear the sonic effect. Most likely due to low quality relays the OBH12 uses. Thanks for the thought though.

doug s. · « **Reply #14 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 09:51 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

I owned the creek OBH12 SE and thought it was at best OK and I definitely could hear the sonic effect. Most likely due to low quality relays the OBH12 uses. Thanks for the thought though.

i do not see how the creek's relays could affect the sonics, as they're outta the loop after the source has been selected. in fact, the creek will play one source w/o any power hooked up to it at all.

in any ewent, i have found i get the best results by setting my melos pre to a wolume level that has the creek pretty-much max'd out for optimum listening level. in this set-up, it's pretty transparent.

you also may wanna try an audio alchemy dlc. i have one of these powering a korsun integrated for its remote capability, & it seems to be good, but i haven't done any critical listening to judge its ultimate transparency. one of the guys i know on the tuna forum, tho, uses the dlc & he sez it's extremely transparent. based upon my gut feeling of using the creek and the dlc as the *only* preamp between source & amp, i do think it is at least as transparent as the creek. but, it may be its sonic signature, as it is an active digital piece, not passive...

doug s.

Occam · « **Reply #15 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 09:55 pm »

Quote from: JoshK

I have a theory about this and why Jolida choose not to include remote switching. Its is well known in the DIY world that cheap relays can muck up the signal pretty quick (sonically) but quality relays can sound very transparent (the goal). However, quality relays are typically hard to source and expensive. My guess is that Jolida built a prototype based off some good but reasonable priced relays but when it came time to manufacturer they lost their source for the relays or their source couldn't provide the quantity they needed. The excuse we are hearing is just likely marketing spin.

That would depend on what you call expensive, or quality. If you're talking Pickering mecury whetted relays, yup, $30 a pop is quite spendy. But no audio vendor uses them to my knowledge. But if you're talking very, very good Aromat/Nais DS4E signal relays (I'm specifying 4PDT, as they're even better if you paralell contacts) you're talking about $3ea for quantities of 500+. Heck, I can source them as many DS4E-M-DC5 relays as they'd like for $2ea....

Then again, a $3 relay might well be over their budget for that functionality.

JoshK · « **Reply #16 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 10:03 pm »

I have heard of the Aromat/Nais and that they were good and reasonably priced, but thought they were hard to source....maybe just for the DIYer who doesn't want to buy 500. Anywho, not sure if $3 is too much or not for this ap, it was just a theory.

Occam · « **Reply #17 on:** 1 Feb 2005, 10:25 pm »

Well heck Josh, iff'n I'd know it was for your own DIY I wouldn't have jacked the price up to $2ea. Decide how many or few you want. I'll give you a call tonight (about other matters, no obligation to buy relays)

Bill Baker · « **Reply #18 on:** 2 Feb 2005, 01:45 am »

In regard to the Jolida JD50, this was big surprise when I opened the first box. Luckily I did so before shipping any pieces out to customers. When I saw what this piece really was, I called my customers (I did not presell too many as I did not know how long the ETA would be on these) and also directed them to the new picture as posted on my website, the same picture I posted here.
I offered them refunds under the circumstances, one customer took the offer and no questions were asked. I fully understood. The others still wanted the unit and all is good.

I am not personally concerned about remote switching but realize that it could be a nice feature. Besides, this is not the point at this time. We move on.

I did not read thorugh all of these post but from what I understand, Walter sent pieces out prior to any knowledge of the actual production design? I have only spoken with Walter on one or two occasions and agree with everyone here that he is a standup type person.

Obviously, these were events out of our control and I can only speak for myself in apologizing for any inconvienence this may have caused. The good news is the JD9 phono stage is everything it was made out to be. I have not yet heard the DVD player.

JoshK · « **Reply #19 on:** 2 Feb 2005, 03:12 am »

Bill Baker, obvious you are an upstanding guy and did the right thing. I think your reputation speaks very well of your good customer service.

Bill/Upscale - Yeah you are most likely right, not too far off of my theory, except for the blame I guess.