Jolida

[Bigmoney]

Hello, I am set on buying a tube integrated and furthermore have decided on jolida to be the manufacturer. Can anyone reccommend a jolida model that is best under a grand used or new. I will use this to power my b and w dm 602's and possible another undetermined speaker I replace them with. I am seeling my rotel amp, mint condition, owned less than 3 months for 700 dollars, and my preamp also mint and of the same age for 350, and will sell them as the pair for 975 plus shipping. If interested let me know. What do you think about jolida integrateds and the options I have.

[blackraven]

Here's a link to some jolida equiment http://responseaudio.com click on retail product line

If your looking at hybrids, you should consider the Vincent Audio hybrid power amp and keep your preamp. The vincent amp has gotten great reviews and is supposed to give a nice analog sound.

[blackraven]

Here's a link to the Vincent Hybrid amp http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=VISP331

I have been considering this amp.

[Feanor]

Here's a link to the Vincent Hybrid amp http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=VISP331

I have been considering this amp.

I must say, that does sound kickass, blackraven.

And their SA-31 preamp could be a good match, especially at the price.

[Bigmoney]

I have to say I am pretty much set on buying an integrated, as I think they are the better value and the need for space. I think because of a single chassis and common ground and also a single power cord and pair of interconnects needed it is the best way to go. I am strongly considering the shanling a300, which I know brett owns and loves. I elieve it has a tube pre section and runs in dual mono at 200 watts. Also good deals can be found on this amp for around a thousand new! It is hard to find reviews on this integrated but it looks and seems awesome on paper. Any other reccommendations for 1000 dollar integrated tube, or very warm sounding SS.

[Feanor]

I have to say I am pretty much set on buying an integrated, as I think they are the better value and the need for space. I think because of a single chassis and common ground and also a single power cord and pair of interconnects needed it is the best way to go. I am strongly considering the shanling a300, which I know brett owns and loves. I elieve it has a tube pre section and runs in dual mono at 200 watts. Also good deals can be found on this amp for around a thousand new! It is hard to find reviews on this integrated but it looks and seems awesome on paper. Any other reccommendations for 1000 dollar integrated tube, or very warm sounding SS.

If you can get an A3000 (which I think you mean) for $1000 from a reputable source, maybe you should go for it. The going online price seems to be $1700.

Personally I have found that it's true about the tube sound, and a hybrid design is an effective tube/solid state compromise. The Shanling uses 6922 tubes and the are lots of varieties of this specification; this allows for lots of fun tube rolling -- and different tubes do make a difference, (more so than interconnects in my experience).
...

[Bigmoney]

Any warm tube or ss integrateds you can reccommend in my price range. Go to nysound.com and ull see the shanling for 900 bucks. Funny, you reccomended the vincent for me because thats my name haha.

[daviethek]

I must say, that does sound kickass, blackraven.

And their SA-31 preamp could be a good match, especially at the price.

I had this pre amp for a while and I question if it is a good match with anything. The low price tag was tempting and led me to the purchase but in time I was dissapointed with its somewhat muddled mid-range and to a lesser degree but noticeable lack of detail. I hear very good things about the power amp though.

[basite]

I had this pre amp for a while and I question if it is a good match with anything. The low price tag was tempting and led me to the purchase but in time I was dissapointed with its somewhat muddled mid-range and to a lesser degree but noticeable lack of detail. I hear very good things about the power amp though.

I have heard good things about the amp too, but after having heard most of their gear, I kinda lost interest...
meaning they didn't sound that good...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

[audio amateur]

If it's just for the amp, I don't think high pass filtering will make a heck of a difference. On top of that you'll need the sub, which you also have to pay for.

[Bigmoney]

As I mentioned earlier I would be willing to buy a subwoofer. All in all I just want a warm musical integrated for unde ra thousand, that being the reason I thought a integrated might suit my needs. I would be open to ss integrateds but it needs to be warmer sounding and muscial. I thought the shanling would be a good compromise betweeen solidstate and tube but I was kinda turned off by what rga had to say about style over substance, after all I want my moneys worth in quality. I am getting rid of the rotels because they are to harsh and analytical for my tastes plus I will be in college next year and would rather and all in one component for space.

[audio amateur]

As I mentioned earlier I would be willing to buy a subwoofer. All in all I just want a warm musical integrated for unde ra thousand, that being the reason I thought a integrated might suit my needs. I would be open to ss integrateds but it needs to be warmer sounding and muscial. I thought the shanling would be a good compromise betweeen solidstate and tube but I was kinda turned off by what rga had to say about style over substance, after all I want my moneys worth in quality. I am getting rid of the rotels because they are to harsh and analytical for my tastes plus I will be in college next year and would rather and all in one component for space.

If you're getting rid of the rotels because of their sound, don't take our word on these amps, you should go listen to some in-store.

[audio amateur]

I agree with you both, but I think power is good for headroom. I also feel that in some cases amplifiers with minimal power do not help the speaker to 'blossom' if you like

[blackraven]

Plinius makes great equipment, I've heard one of their highend amps with some thiels but I cant remember the model.

Why dont you keep your Rotel amp and buy a Tube preamp. I think that a tube or hybrid preamp will give your the sound your looking for and therefore wont have to worry about power.

Another option for a warmer more analog sound would be to go with the Marantz 8001 SACDP.
It has a nice warm analog sound and would be much better than your 5001.
Your rotel equipment is very good and the 8001 should match very well with the rotels.

[Bigmoney]

Issue is that I will be going away to college this coming year and do not want to have separates for the sake of space. I like the idea of a single pair of interconnects as well. As for the8001 that would require me keeping my equipment which I need to finance my next purchase. Although I am against keeping my separates are you convinced my amp and a tube pre would be sonically beter and resolve my issue. The idea I like about intgrates is that I dont have to worry about matching amp and pre where as synergy could an issue in pick a tube pre amp. Real quick question I wanted o throw out there, how much better are the b and w 685's than the previous 602s

[blackraven]

I think you will have alot more versatility with a separate amp and pre amp. I think that a nice warm sounding preamp will give you the warm sound that you are looking for without having to replace your amp.

As far as the 685's vs the 602's. There a many people that think the earlier series sounded better. I bought a pair of 602's for rear channel and loved the sound, more so that the 686 and 685's. I ended up returning them because I decided to go without rear speakers, but I wish I had kept them for my bedroom.

[RGA]

The others are correct about versatility - the problem is all tube amp set-ups SOUND better than hybrids specially in this kind of price range.

You have to listen. The AQ 1003 DT has more than enough power for the 602S3 and the AQ is 30 watts.

Heaven people are running 10 watt amps with 4 ohm 85db Totems and raving about the results. More power always comes at the expensive of sound quality - UHF in one of their books recommended not buying amplifiers with a damping factor over 40 due to the higher negative feedback - that pretty much means all SS amp over 70 watts.

30 watts is not low powered - it is deemed that due to marketing and ONLY marketing. They sure have conned a lot of people because this comes up far too often.

It's a shame you're not in BC. because you could listen to the B&W with Jolida, ASL, Rotel and Bryston then you'd know that the power numbers are largely irrelevant. People like the big power amps that add a bunch of treble grain so they can run around calling the spittle ssssshhh noise air around instruments. A sound that the amp is bringing that has no relationship to real music or the sound of a live event in any way shape or form.

There is one downside to tubes and that is that they blow. I turned on my amp today and crackle pop from the right channel - dead tube or tubes - hopefully not worse. But that's the price you pay. I don't regret it one bit.

i could have for the same money purchased a separate preamp and power amp from Bryston with a 20 year warranty. The price you pay for tubes is that they go and you have to sit without your music system until I get it serviced etc. They're a big pain in the arse - but the sound is so vastly better than solid state that I will put up with this.

At least all of the amps you're looking at have easy to access tubes. My amp has some weird screw and I have no screwdriver to match - damn Brits and their weird screws. I'll probably have to bring the whole thing in and have all ten tubes replaced. OTOH now is the time to make the tube upgrade I've been wanting to make.

[Bigmoney]

I have nearly decidedon going with a tube integrated. To me, I gather that most people findthem delightful and those who don't tend to have different tastes than I do for my system. Ih have been looking at the primaluna prologue two or one or the joilda 302b or502b. From what I can tell the biggest difference between the jolida 302b and 502 b is power, do you think the additional 10 watts is worth the cost?My biggest concern though is maintenance. I don't want to have to repair the thing all the time and constantly fall victim to the expense of new tubes. How often do you have to replacee tubes on average and do you think tubes on average come with a high maintenance expense if take care of properly?

[Bigmoney]

I failed to mention my other concern about tubes. All things in life usually involve compromise, with tubes and ss it seems like quality versus quantity. While I do hold quality far higher than quantity on imprtance I would still like to be able to crank up the volume if I desire. Can a tube handle high volume well, or am I sadly out of luck.

[Feanor]

I failed to mention my other concern about tubes. All things in life usually involve compromise, with tubes and ss it seems like quality versus quantity. While I do hold quality far higher than quantity on imprtance I would still like to be able to crank up the volume if I desire. Can a tube handle high volume well, or am I sadly out of luck.

Do tubes give a "higher quality" sound. Personally I haven't really decided myself, although I am a tube user; (I have a tube preamp).

Tubes might well yield a more pleasant, even more life-like, but not necessarily a more accurate sound. I suspect there is a valid analogy is to retouching a photograph.

When you retouch a photograph you do so for two reasons:

1. Dust, lens flair, or some other imperfection in the photography process has cause an imperfection that you want to correct for;
2. You photographic subject has imperfections, e.g. wrinkles, that you want to hide.

By removing imperfections of either type are you creating a more "accurate" photograph? No, but you might end up with a much more agreeable one.

Tubes are fine amplification devices especially, (as I understand), for voltage amplification, but not so much for current amplicition. However tubes are also tend to produce more distortion than solid state devices. Especially they produce so-called low-order and even-order harmonic distortion. This sort of distortion is pleasant sounding, creating an impression of "fullness", "bloom", or "warmth". By contrast, solid state designs, especially those that use a lot of negative feed back to reduce overall harmonic distortion, at the same time create a lot of high- and odd-order harmonics that is are unpleasant sounding.

My guess, (though I don't know and can't prove it), is that tubes mainly work by insinuating pleasant distortion. The pleasant distortion also disguises unpleasant distortion created at other, solid state stages of the amplification chain. Thus I suspect is strong analogy to photographic retouching.

Of course there people who disagree, maintaining that the tubes are better amplification devices, period.

[Ajani]

BM, have you had a chance to listen to a tube Integrated yet? I strongly suggest that you audition one before spending your money. The only way to find audio products that really will satisfy you is to audition for yourself.

[blackraven]

BM, listen to Ajani! I auditioned some paradigm S6's and Studio100's a few months ago with a jolida amp and I still thought that the paradigms sounded too bright.

If you go with a tube amp of 40wpc it will be more than enough to power your speakers.
I still believe that a tube preamp is the way to go.

[Bigmoney]

No I haven't heard a tube amp before, but have read many reviews. I unserstand though that experiencing something for yourself is the best way to make a decision. Reason, is that I have not found the opportunity, my b and w dealer, the only dealer I am aware of around here carries nothing but marantz, rotel, and krell. Dont really know where I could go for an audition. I went to jolidas website but they have no link to find the nearest dealer. Same goes for primalunas site. What does one do if they cannot demo equipment?

[audio amateur]

No I haven't heard a tube amp before, but have read many reviews. I unserstand though that experiencing something for yourself is the best way to make a decision. Reason, is that I have not found the opportunity, my b and w dealer, the only dealer I am aware of around here carries nothing but marantz, rotel, and krell. Dont really know where I could go for an audition. I went to jolidas website but they have no link to find the nearest dealer. Same goes for primalunas site. What does one do if they cannot demo equipment?

What I meant about not listening to the others, was, rather than solely taking their advise (which i'm sure is good), you should also listen to some stuff in-store (tube stuff aswell, now that we're at it), as Ajani has recommended.

[blackraven]

Keep the rotel equipment, sell the speakers and cd/dvd player and buy the 8001 SACDP and speakers that sound good to you! Your rotel equipment is not the problem, its your speakers and source.