I know man... the amp section has been pretty dry lately.
As you know Nuck, I'm really liking the tube stuff. I've always like the warm, smooth sound so tubes I guess was always something I would naturally gravitate to. I do find it takes some time for the music to really start sounding good, I guess while the amp and the tubes warm up.
A lot of people tend to knock Jolida as cheap Chinese junk, but I'm seriously impressed with the build quality and the sound. The idea of tube rolling in the future appeals to me.
umm, I have a krell ksa-200 and an aragon 8008BB I'm not really sure what to tellyou about them though. I like them both.
tube amps are alright I suppose, but I've never been a huge fan. "warm" is nice, but it's colored, and I like SSA for their accuracy and clarity. I also like a solid state amp with a masive power supply that can handle difficult loads. I'm driving one set of speakers that tend to drop to below 1 ohm at high frequencies, and need an amp that can handle very demanding speakers. I just don't feel tubes do that as well, but they are nice for smaller bookshelf type speakers.
granted, a lot of how the amp responds depends more on it's individual design, more so than it's topography.
I think that the reputation that Jolida had is difficult to overcome but the more folks buy it and enjoy it the better the chances are that they will become a top "go to" brand for high quality at reasonable cost.
I think you're right Art. I read an article recently on how the owner of Jolida made some changes on how the amps were manufactured (changing to a different factory where the employees were paid better, etc). I think the products they are offer now are much different than the ones that earned them dubious rep.
GW, not all tube amps are warm. Seems that all amps are colored...just a matter of choosing your favorite color. The tube amp I have my eye on is the Mastersound Due Venti. One of the best bargains in hifi IMO. Not warm at all, clean and transparent with excellent tonality.
Well, we are absolutely delighted with what the Rogue tube pre-amp has done to our music. It seems to be the perfect fit for our Xindak monos and has actually turned our Rega Saturn into a Rega Saturn - if you get my drift.
As far as build quality goes, all pieces I believe are excellent. However, if I had to make a call on which component was the better built, I'd have to go with the Xindak monos. That's a rare pat on the back for chinese made products on this forum. Having said that, they don't have the knobs and switches like the others.
Soundwise, I guess I'd say it is very transparent, if not leaning ever so slightly to the warmer side of neutral. The detail is amazing - even the minutae - but not in your face and the pace and timing is another quality that's been retained. Vocals seem beautifuly projected. The soundstage appears broader and more open than previously and the music sounds so very clean. There are inky black silences, a defined separation of instruments, and the bass is as big or as delicately controlled as the musician dictates. The only drawback on this system is bad recordings sound bad - duh!
For the first time since I have gotten serious about music, there is absolutely nothing I feel I need to change. The music is alive (stress alive) and well. Even the Quads are sounding like a million bucks - except I don't doubt higher end speakers would be a better match with the rest of the system.
The tube pre with the Class A monos seems like it's the way things should be. Although making myself a target once more I'll say it anyway - the music sounds real.
I have tubes running my Gallos and could not be happier. With MACs you get a similar sound whether it is tube or SS. I find more control and tonal balance with the tubes. The MC-240s seem to get deeper into the music than my MC-7300 did.
Moving from my SS pre-amp to my Rogue Audio tube amp when I was running SS amplification was a beautiful thing. In retrospect there as a lot of harshness in my system that I did not realize until I moved the Rogue in.
Moving a MAC amp into my system proved to be equally gratifying for me in terms of getting closer to what my sense of what music is supposed to sound like.
Standard mail service has all but disappeared, I think. Paying extra for speed now seems the norm. My assistant sent mail to Nick, in a real town 3 hours away, and it took a solid week, LOL!
Stuie, I hope you shipped to Bryston more directly.
It had to go to Canada for the upgrades. I shipped it to the Vermont service center who forwarded it to Peterborough, ON. It got to VT on a Friday evening, then it got sent to ON on Monday.
Customs is on their own schedule, not anyone else's. Its expected in Petersborough this afternoon.
Possibly, Chris. I think they'll play it for a while then bench test it and give a spec sheet. At least that's what they do when they're new. From Bryston's webpage -
UNIQUE BURN-IN PROCEDURE
Each and every Bryston audio product undergoes an extensive quality control "burn-in" procedure. Following a complete oper-ational checkout, every unit is placed on a test-bench and run for 100 hours. This extremely rigorous burn-in quickly "matures" components and weeds out any potential premature failures. The result is reliable trouble-free performance for many years.
The RWA integrated and I are going to be friends for a long time Stu. At some point in the future I may add the Isabella, which would get me an extraordinary preamp (and allow multiple sources) and DAC in one tidy combination. But I'm in no hurry. I was listening to Michael Kaeshammer last night, and I've never heard his piano sound so good. And piano is really a tough thing to get right. You want that percussive impact (especially with the right hand) but it can get ruined if there is any brightness or hardness to it. The RWA and Ling combination is a real treat.
I used to be a die-hard SS fan but one fling with tubes changed all that. My Pride and joy is the Jadis Orchestra Reference with KT90 tubes. Had the first opportunity to listen to then in Thailand a couple of years ago and had been smitten since. Managed to finally put together a dream system last year consisting of Proacs, Naim and a Jadis. Here is a pic attached.
SYSTEM: Proac D18 Jadis Orchestra reference Naim cd5XS Shunyata PowerCables and power conditioner Proac spkeaer cable Transparent Audio IC
hey,a new member to this site,some great input,the pics are also great! presently own a denon poa-2200,alotta sack.my primary pwr amp is a rotel rb-1080,witha rotel rc-1070 pre.rega table/rb-300 w sumiko blue pt.vandersteen 1-c spkrs.can anyone recommend a new cartridge for the rega? ( rega elys,sumiko bp-2?)thanks
What cartridge will work best depends to your phono stage and budget. Do you have the option of MC? I really like the Dynavector 10x5. It's a high output MC, which may work well with most MM settings. I think the price is currently $430 or somewhere near there. Far better than anything I've heard near it's price. Not many blind recommendations in audio, but I think the 10x5 is about as close as if gets to one.
What turntable do you have? I'm assuming a Rega P3 due to the RB300 arm, but a lot of people have that arm on other decks. The 10x5 works very well with that arm.
