[Haoleb]

It was a bit of an impulse purchase. Mainly because I was not in the market for new amps and this isint going to replace the Odyssey monoblocks I already have but I couldnt pass it up. I came here to ask because I know Bill probably knows these amps inside and out better than anyone.

Paid $300 for it from craigslist. Got it playing right now sounds great, And is really very quiet. Idle its actually quieter than my bottlehead foreplay and odyssey's. Wasnt expecting that. Came with matched Ruby tubes and some svetlana 12ax7's the other tubes I dont know what brand they are. Cosmetically its ok. Theres a spot of rust next to one of the EL34's    and some spots on it where it looks like a gecko pooped on it that I cant wipe off. So I dont think I got a fantastic deal but when you consider what $300 will buy now days Id say its pretty nice But anyway what I really wanted to ask was about the biasing. I see it has test points but there is no where to bias it. I took it all apart and cleaned it and found nothing. Its an older version than what Jolida is currently selling. Has the champagne faceplate. Jolidas website says it has bias adjustment controls on the top so am i just missing something? It still has those "warning warranty void if removed" stickers covering what I imagine are just screws. Also Is there something that plugs into the test point jack?

Also does anyone know where I can find a manual that I can download for this.

The guy I bought it from wasnt the original owner, But from what I can tell the guy who owned it before and actually used it took pretty good care of his stuff because the person I bought it from said that he had only taken the plastic film off the faceplate a couple months ago. I dont even think he had used it.

[Haoleb]

Found the Bias pots! Took off the goofy stickers and there they are.  Makes me wonder how long the original guy had these things is he hadnt even taken off the plastic on the faceplate or ever biased them. I dont have any instructions on how its supposed to be done but ive biased enough amps to take an educated guess so I went ahead and rebiased them by placing my negative lead on the 0 point and measuring the bias for each tube. They were all around 25-28mv and I turned them all up to 40. Hopefully thats ok!  What are your reccomended bias settings for this amp Bill? I see the standard is 40mv so thats what i used.

[Haoleb]

sat down for a bit more listening after rebiasing the tubes. Off the bat it seems like its a bit more edgy sounding, Dare I say harsher than my bottlehead and odyssey's. Between tracks I noticed a whistling type sound which i have heard before from my bottlehead but it wasnt coming from the speakers like I had heard before. It was coming from the amp itself. When I got up close to it I also noticed some areas of blue plasma type stuff on a couple of the tubes. The blue Im not worried about because ive read its somewhat normal but the whistling sound has be a bit puzzled. 

[twitch54]

They were all around 25-28mv and I turned them all up to 40. Hopefully thats ok!  What are your reccomended bias settings for this amp Bill? I see the standard is 40mv so thats what i used.

That is correct, I too love my little 302B and bias to the same point, as per the manual.

[Bill Baker]

Hello Haoleb,
 Sorry for the delay but I actually took some time away from the computer this weekend to get some chores done around the house.

 Anyway, if you want a general manual for the amp, you can use the same manual written for my Signature 3205 amplifiers. Just keep in mind that the 302 uses EL34 tubes when looking at the recommended bias settings. I prefer 35mV-40mV
http://www.bellaextreme.com/3205%20manual.htm

 As far as your noise is concerned, I can't say for sure. I would intially guess the bias was too high causing the transformers to hum. An inout signal that is too high would do the same thing but with an integrated unit, this should be of no concern. Maybe a few more details on this noise?

 The thing that has me curious is the stickers that were conering the bias pots. I don't know where these came from as they are not installed by Jolida. The bias pots are the trim pots located on the top of the chassis nextto corrosponding power tubes. The only thing I can think of is that someone wanted to protect themselves when selling a unit that had features they didn't understand??

 For what it's worth, $300 is a great deal on this no matter what the age as long as it is working properly. I have seen the original "A" series units go for $600-$700.

[Haoleb]

Hi Bill

The whistling type sound was a bit like the howl I have heard before from certain 12AU7's in my other preamp. Its isint making that sound since I turned it off yesterday I'll have to see if it comes back again. Maybe it was the sound of all those extra electrons banging into the glass envelope making those cool blue spots.  So far it seems to work flawlessly. And Ive only burned myself a couple of times  I didnt realize how hot those big power tubes get compared to the little 12au7's im used to.

Here are a couple of pics of the stickers that were covering the pots. From what I understand the guy who originally had it sold it to some friends who didnt really know much about it so maybe he put those stickers and turned down the bias so the tubes would last longer for them  As you can see the cosmetics arent fantastic. Perhaps I'll repaint the chassis and do a few mods like the ones you perform.

[Bill Baker]

Interesting, It does appear he put the stickers on for someone who was not familiar with tube amps and was not capable of making his own adjustments.

 By the way, just to confirm positioning of tubes, you shoud be running the 12AX7 tubes in the center-most positions and the 12AT7's at the two outer positions.

 It also looks like he had this amp in a very humid area for some time. I have never seen a "B" series amp rust like that. The drawback of that particular finish was that it was impossible to clean.

 Still not a bad deal for a functioning tube amp.

[Haoleb]

When I first hooked up the amp I was powering my speakers off it alone. Right now ive got them Biamped using the jolida for the midrange and tweeters and the odysseys for bass. Is the Jolida phase inverting? First I had it hooked up with everything normally and the bass seemed a bit off, Reversed the speaker leads on the jolida and it sounds more like it did with just the odysseys powering the speakers. The Jury is still out though as to how the amp sounds in my system. Of course, It sounds quite good but Ive not decided if I like it as much as the solid state. I thought I would hear a much bigger difference between the odysseys and this as I have never used a tube amplifier before. I hope I dont have dreaded Tin Ears. There wouldnt be much of a reason to drool over other gear if it all sounded the same