Jolida audio

Hi folks.

I would like to have opinion from good people here while I know this add should be post in the tubes section. However, I do thrust many good members here more than anywhere.
I am seeking some good advice about Jolida product specially the 502BCR integrated amplifier. It seems to have very good review and this one would be to replace my Nad C356BEE amplifier. Good move? This would be from second hand which gives me a very good deal on the device. I miss tubes you know… Here some info from what seem a very good guy.

Heavily factory modified Jolida 502 BRC (Black) for sale.
Unit was bought 1 year ago and sent to Jolida for modifications by Jerreed, the head Jolida engineer. New caps, internal point to point wiring, RCA inputs and volume pot installed.
Unit comes with all original tubes, packaging and manuals as well as high-end replacement NOS tubes from Siemens, Mullard, Amperex and EI.
I will also include Herbie's tube dampers for all tubes in the sale

We can also talk about Jolida products at large. Thank you

Phil

I've got a standard Jolida JD 502BRC I used bought here on AK - it is not modded.
I have rolled in JAN Philips preamp tubes- and run a quad of EH 6550 tubes in them.

I mostly run a customized pair of JBL L200Bs I converted to 3 ways with it, (pretty darned efficient speakers) and also a pair of KEF 104.5s.
In the past I have run that amp with a pair of Ruark Talisman II speakers, some Vandersteen 2CIs, and recently, a pair of Magnepan Tympani 1D panel speakers - tho I think I'd prefer much more power with the maggies.

Mine does have some kind of silicon tube dampers on the 4 smaller, low level tubes ... I'm not sure the power tubes would need them.

I guess when you say the one you are considering is modded, I would wonder in what direction? Cap Replacements? Higher power tube capable? Separating Preamp and Poweramp stages? Think I've heard all are possible mods available.

But mine seems great for 60w/ch with 85watt peaks ...
good quality at a very reasonable price-point.

This is my third Jolida ... After a bad adventure with a rebuilt Stromberg-Carlson amp,
I got a 102 used from a local friend. Decided I wanted more power, so when I got a tax return a few years ago
I bought a 302BRC direct from the distributor in MD. That was what my budget allowed - then 6 months later,
I saw a more powerful 502BRC here in Bartertown, so I bought it, liked the improved power, and sold the 302.

I've been VERY happy with it for nearly 2 years now. Love the remote control, too!

I'd stick with what you have and if you want to move back to valves wait for a better amp. That's just me, of course.

I ran the Jolida 202BRC for about a year and I kick myself for selling it. I picked up the matching Jolida phono pre and it was a stellar system for the price. I upgraded the preamp tubes to NOS Tele's and the outputs to new stock Gold Lion El-34's. I have to say the EH tubes that came with it were pretty good, once everything broke in properly. The upgraded tubes gave it a very sweet midrange. I ran the Jolida with Paradigm S4's, Altec 14's and Klipsch Heresy's. I really liked the Heresy combo with a sub. I wrote the factory and for $150 I could have turned one of the inputs to a line level output to feed the sub. I am currently running Quicksilver V4's and I have a vintage set of McIntosh M75's, that Jolida was not a bad amplifier at all.

The reason I let it go, as you might guess was that I needed more power to really get the "party started". I wish now I would have put the Jolida system in the study for low to moderate volume listening. The build quality seemed excellent and the sound was very lush. I think it would be a great move. One cool thing is the 502 has pre outs so you could use a sub with it and/or use it as a preamp if you want to go back to SS amplification down the road. The 6550's should give it a bit more kick than my El-34's - you might be surprised. If I get the chance, I'll probably pickup a 502BRC down the road just to play with. I love the fact that it has pre outs.

SPEC2man said:

One cool thing is the 502 has pre outs so you could use a sub with it and/or use it as a preamp if you want to go back to SS amplification down the road. The 6550's should give it a bit more kick than my El-34's - you might be surprised. If I get the chance, I'll probably pickup a 502BRC down the road just to play with. I love the fact that it has pre outs.

Click to expand...

If I had a choice, I'd like to have preamp to Power amp jumpers,
so I could use it either as a standalone preamp, or as a poweramp.

Art K. said:

I'd stick with what you have and if you want to move back to valves wait for a better amp. That's just me, of course.

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What you have in mind ?

It should be pointed out that there is some "bias" by a few members against Chinese tube amps on this site and that one should be aware of that in responses that you may get.

Are there better tube amps than Jolida? Sure, but you'll have to spend two to three or four times for what you'll get with a good Jolida amp. And once you roll the tubes the Jolida will match "anything" twice its price.

It's really a question of "budget" and some snobbishness. If you think Chinese stuff is sub-standard you're wrong! If you have an unlimited budget, and you can drop thousands, then by all means do so!

Lots of these Chinese designs are based on proven Euro-American designs that would cost many more times to manufacture in the U.S.

BTW, I do hope someone chimes in about "how bad" these amps are! I've been to the manufacturing plants in China, speak the language and have spent several years living and conducting research in the country.

Enough about me. Let the "hate" begin! See ya'all, I outta here!


cnh2

komoyuki said:

What you have in mind ?

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Line Magnetic, perhaps.

I have a Jolida Maryland 502BRC - absolutely love it. Jolida made some factory mods which dropped the noise floor tremendously. On one circuit I also had the wiring replaced with a very high spec wire they use on their higher end line. I use that circuit for my phono section - my primary system. The noise floor dropped to almost NIL - at nearly the highest volume setting. There is no distortion or concern about hurting the speakers at the amp's highest setting. I get just pure, clear sound.

The amp was very good before the mods. For around $700 in upgrades (my total cost is still less than the MSRP of a new one) I have a clear sounding amp that easily drives my large floor standing speakers. I would recommend Jolida Maryland products to anyone.

Jolida has introduced a higher quality line of products - the amp starts at around $14k - that are doing very well at shows. They put the same concepts and quality in their factory upgrades.

Jolida I think is a good choice to get back into tubes. Is that one better than your NAD, not sure I suspect two very different sounds.
Maybe one of the Vincent hybrid tube amps, but not sure if that exceeds your budget...Vincent is one I would like to try one day, SV-237.

Yeah Byron swears by Vincent stuff and they indeed look great. However nor that I hate my NAD, I will keep it anyway for a second system. At this time I would like to try something else. Line Magnetic would be great for sure but out of my price range here in Canada. Grant Fidelity had some very nice tubes amp but Oh well, you know what’s going on there, it’s sad.

I have a Jolida 102b that is 5 years old works great....speaker selection is important. The only negative is a scratchy volume knob but no big deal.

A NAD might sound better though. My 7155 sounds great.

Depends on many variables.

Catcher10 said:

Jolida I think is a good choice to get back into tubes. Is that one better than your NAD, not sure I suspect two very different sounds.
Maybe one of the Vincent hybrid tube amps, but not sure if that exceeds your budget...Vincent is one I would like to try one day, SV-237.

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Its funny you should mention the SV-237. In the next two weeks, I will have one in my room to play with. I can't wait! It may exceed his budget at $2400. I've never heard a Jolida but its seems like a quality amp from what I've read.

I have a Jolida 302CRC and have had it probably a year or so. I've had no problems at all and it sounds very nice. Like everyone has said, there are better amps out there, but I've been happy with mine for the price.

There's always something better

Its all about the price point -
figuring how much you want to spend to get the sound you like ...

I have finally decided to pass about this integrated. I still looking for something else and I have a few one in mind on the market at the moment from the same price range +/- 200$ difference.

Musical Fidelity A3.5
Musical Fidelity M3i
Naim Nait 5i-2
Classé CAP-151
Teac AI-2000 (This one brand new)
Rega Brio R (Cost most less than the others)

Now you figure none of them are tubes... well there isn't much out there for sell and available that I would like to get honnestly, or out of price range. ON that list however, I wonder if any of them would be an upgrade over the C356BEE, or simply something different.

I'll jump in here and highly recommend the Vincent Audio gear as well - I had a Vincent Audio SV236MKII and absolutely loved it. I may get in trouble for saying that here so frequently There is a guy in Canada on AudiogoN that must be a dealer that posts gently used Vincent gear at very nice prices once and awhile. I regret selling my SV236 and will own one again someday. In my opinion, for the $1200ish they go for on the used market, they're a bargain. Check out the link in my signature if you want to read a bit more about my journey with the Vincent gear.

As you can see by my signature, I currently have a McIntosh MAC6700, but I won't be able to keep it for long because I chose to sell off my rig in order to put the money towards a new home for my family. I mention that because it means that I, too, will be rebuilding a new system soon - only this time, it will be on a much smaller budget. The Rega Brio-R and Vincent Audio SV236MK are currently my top 2 choices. While I'll miss the all in one audio bliss and beauty the McIntosh has to offer, I will welcome the Vincent sound back with open arms if the opportunity knocks - I think that is saying a lot given the MAC6700 is nearly 3 times the cost!

Best of luck in your search - I will be following

slippers-on said:

Its funny you should mention the SV-237. In the next two weeks, I will have one in my room to play with. I can't wait! It may exceed his budget at $2400. I've never heard a Jolida but its seems like a quality amp from what I've read.

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An SV-237 in the house!!!

(I hate you..)

Catcher10 said:

An SV-237 in the house!!!

(I hate you..)

Click to expand...

Just to play with! Should be fun.

The design of the amp is different from the SV-237. But the main reason I want to hear it, is because the amp was designed by a cat over in Germany who has design this amp and preamp for Thorens. http://hifiheaven.net/store/Thorens-TEM-3200-Monoblock-Power-Amplifier?filter_name=Thorens&page=2 Now that price is for 1 mono block

Preamp...http://hifiheaven.net/store/Thorens-TEP-3800-Preamplifier?filter_name=Thorens&page=2 Also Check out the price of the preamp.

Yes the same guy... Frank Blöhbaum; also designed the new Vincent SV 237
Read this review and Frank talks about it on page 5 I believe.

http://www.i-fidelity.net/en/test-reports/high-end/vincent-sv-237/vincent-sv-237.html

Most of the guys here on these board don't consider Vincent products. But they aren't knowing the value they are missing out on. The SV 236 as well as the new SV 237 are outstanding performance products, giving you much more than you pay for....just as the amp and preamp I have. Neither are cheap amps, nor out of reach for some guys... but for the price you pay for them, you get much more value and performance than one would expect at their price points. The SV-236 MK when in production and the new SV 237 integrated amps are worth more in performance than their $2500 price tag. Just as my amp/preamp together retailed for $4250 but performs like much more than that. My buddy's Pass Labs amp/preamp retails for around $10-$11k alone...well my Vincent gear is about that same league performance wise. So its a real bargain.

The biggest complaint I have about Vincent is the remote. Yes its a very nice remote....heavy, metal, feels good in your hands, but its not a step remote....meaning it will over shoot to much, rather than being a step by step remote...one click at a time. Other than that, they are wonderful amps that will rival any in its class as well as many above its class as well. You don't have to worry about it being bright...its not a sleep time amp, meaning not boring. Its named after Vincent Van Gogh. If you've seen his painting then you'd know they pop with vibrant colors. The Vincent is sorta like that with sound... its fast and emotional, yet clear and transparent....dynamic and yes, sweet without being boring...bass is pulsating as well. Huge bargain in my book.