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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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: Phil A on 6 Nov 2009, 12:28 pmI 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.
Quote from: timind on 7 Nov 2009, 01:18 pmI 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.
Quote from: Big Red Machine on 7 Nov 2009, 01:23 pmQuote from: timind on 7 Nov 2009, 01:18 pmI 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 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.
Quote from: chgolatin2 on 7 Nov 2009, 11:49 pmI'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...