Jolida JD1501 Valve Hybrid Integrated (with LV's)

taff

Wammer
Wammer
Feb 20, 2013
653
4
0
South Wales & Lo
Thought I'd just write a little review up here, as I couldn't find much out about this amp or any of the Jolida Amps for that matter!

I've been looking for an amp to partner my LV's for as long as I've had them, and I've had a few through here in recent months. Without boring you with all the details, the highlights have been the Unison Unico (the original) hybrid integrated and the AN Zero Pre with the Edison Aria 12 EL84 Power amp. The AN Zero Pre with the Mullard 3-3's were also very good, and with another few watts would have been perfect.

My listening room is about 4.5 x 5 metres with a lot of hard surfaces. I listen to every genre of music, probably with the exception of Jazz and big band sort or stuff. The hifi is used for everything; the TV goes through it and it gets used for TV and films and of course the majority of time when we're in the house it's playing music, from Annie Mac on radio one on a friday night when the missus has finished working (works from home) to some late night classical.

I know the speakers are good - when I picked them up from Definitive Audio, Kevin demoed my units with a Kondo/ Canary setup that was mind blowing. My problem is getting the best out of them on a slightly lesser budget! With most amps, I've found that it's easy to get the things I love most out of the LV's - sound stage and sense of space, the fantastic mid and top end detail with the right tone and texture of voices and instruments. LV's are not renowned for their bottom end, but they can have a very nice even tonal delivery when partnered with the right amps. I'm not talking sofa shaking, but kick drums, Bass guitars, Cellos etc are all presented as equally in the music as they were recorded, no more or less. This latter part I've found more difficut to reproduce in my room. The best at it were actually the 3-3 monos, but they just lacked the power to do it at higher volumes without distortion, which is a real shame. I'm sure the edison would have been good with some NOS valves in, but it dropped a channel before I had time to find out!

Thanks for sticking with me through that ramble.. the point is coming, but I wanted to set the stage first! Having now had over 12 hours with the Jolida on, I think I can let you know where it fits into the background I've outlined.

It's worth reading the HiFi choice review:

http://www.hifichoice.co.uk/news/article/jolida-jd1501brc--pound;1050/10183

As I agree with the main point - Hybrids have their own sound, and it is different to a Valve or S/S Sound - and in the majority of ways the best of both in the case of the Jolida. I don't agree with the build quality comments though. No scratchy volume pot or resonant casing on mine!

The main thing I wanted from it (and that I'd had trouble finding) was to have that bottom end definition without sacrificing the lovely open top end and musical texture that the LV's have. The Jolida ticks this box - the Bass is not overblown or boomy, the best description I can think of is that the instruments I want to hear are 'there' - a lot of tracks on Carole King's Tapestry have a soft bass drum that drives the rhythm of the track along. The Jolida presents it very well, it's there - but in proportion to the rest of the instruments. Importantly it does this whilst keeping the soundstage intact and instruments/ artists separated (placed) nicely.

The other Hybrid I've had here - the Unison Unico didn't do this as well. The top end and sound stage was excellent, and it's not an amp that usually gets called bass light - and I'm not saying that, however, my experience is that in my room (which I think is difficult) with these speakers it struggled to present the lower octaves as well as the Jolida did. When I demoed it at another wammers house with some ATC's it had excellent bass.. but I'm a strong believer in the room/ speaker interaction is the dominating factor to the sound signature of a system.

So all good so far! In order to be balanced, I will say that on some recordings the treble can have a bit of an edge. Whether this is a negative or not I'm not sure - It can be tamed with the different filters on the M DAC, in fact one other thing I've noticed is that with the Jolida I can hear more of a difference with the filters on the DAC - previously they have all sounded much of a muchness. So I would say the amp is less tolerant of 'bad' recordings, whether this is because it is more transparent or the all valve setups I've listened to lately are smoother is difficult to say.

So, the Jolida is staying.. for a while at least - I've been very tempted by Steves Trafomatic this week, and I'm not sure how long I can resist some glowing bottles on show. To this end though, I discussed the Jolida all valve integrateds with Rob yesterday and I'm looking forward to hearing them. The 302 and the 502 (EL34 and 6550's respectively) look very interesting, and a remote all valve integrated at this price point is something I've been looking to try for a while!

Thanks for reading my musings this far.. here's some pictures! (Sorry about the phone quality of them!)

20140427_111614.jpg


20140427_111654.jpg


20140427_111731.jpg


20140427_111858.jpg


All the comments above apply with the standard valves - I have some telefunkens (I think!) from Rob which I will also try and update with my findings. Big thanks to Rob at Aired Audio for his usual quietly confident 'try it and let me know' sales attitude as well.

Cheers! James

 
B

BD Audio

Guest
Glad you found something to tick the boxes in the end, looks a nice system too. :^

 

Bourney

Wammer
Wammer
Sep 28, 2006
8,007
490
128
stoke on trent
AKA
Steve
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
Good news :) have you tried a heavy toe in with the LVs yet, further apart than you'd expect and crossing in front of you, so you can slightly see the outer cheeks. Totally transform their bass and imaging in my experience.

I'm still arsing about....

 

taff

Wammer
Wammer
Feb 20, 2013
653
4
0
South Wales & Lo
Thanks guys. Steve - yes I have - tried every variation of toe and I find that pointed directly at me (can't see either cheek) works best for me. Hows the Trafo Sounding? I'm very keen to hear some 6550's behind my LV's after chasing that one!

 

taff

Wammer
Wammer
Feb 20, 2013
653
4
0
South Wales & Lo
Glad you got a benefit from my ramblings! Have just put some mundorf supremes in so will update in a while, but they appear to have taken it a step higher!

 

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