Tubes,tubes,tubes,classic tube signature with more base than expected from a inexpensive tube amp.

Upgrade from the stock tubes to KT would improve sound in the lower regions

Sterophile class C
Absolute Sound recommened list.
Enough said............

Similar Products Used:

Bryston,Sonic Frontier.

Realistic soundstaging,bloom around instrumental enviroment,good extensions on the upper highs,lows are tight but not deep.

Chinese tubes,has this edgy presence that subtracts away from some string recordings.

One stop shopping for a complete better than average tube intergrated amp.Very listenable and extremely enjoyable tube amp,vocals is the strong suit for this amp,and can to some extent be used for home theater via a DVD source.Price is also a strong selling point.Must audition.

Similar Products Used:

Cary,Golden tube,Creek

Midrange magic,very smooth presentation,intergrated,low noise floor for a tube amp.

Dealer support,could comestically improved chassis.

Owned the Amp2 for almost a year,then when I went to my local Audio store I was blown away by music with openess and depth I've have not heard on my Amp2.The track was a well known audiophile cd(Mrs Barber) which I owned and her "there" quality was so much real than the Sonic Frontier.I talked to Stan(dealer) and we had a long discussion relating to the Jolida 502a and he too was impress with the product lines.I played my favorite CD for hours inside the show room and I was convinced that this is the amp I needed.Amp 2 is history and now I'm a very happy music lover with a amp which I can live with for a very long time.Dollar for dollar there no tube amp that can touch this product.Hands down winner.

Similar Products Used:

Sonic Frontier amp2...

Midrange cohension,excellent sound staging,controled base,price

Bass is tight but not deep,upper range is rolled off too quickly.

The quality of this amp is quite amazing considering the list price,does well with all music platform except pop,soundstaging surpasses the Bryston B60 and the Creek 4330,and is very close to the Audio Research VT 100 in midrange stablility.Vocal sound very real and Jazz assembles has excellent presence.If your in the market for a excellent intergated amp below $2000us this piece is it.Highly recommended....

Similar Products Used:

Pass,Jeff Rowland,Bryston.

Price; Tonal Accuracy; Soundstaging; Imaging; Dynamic Range; Smoothness; Detail.

Suffers only slightly from build quality (simple, no fancy face plate, knobs etc.). Doesn't have that high end look, but then the high end look does nothing for sound quality!

I just picked up this amp used last week for a great price and I was floored at the sound when I first hooked it up. I'm not sure about the year either as I picked it up used. I did come with the tuner input jack hanging out of the unit thank to UPS's shipping qualities. Before I even listened to it I replaced the stock chinese small signal tubes with a pair of Brimar 6060 in the 12AT7 position and GE long plate 12AX7's in the 12AX7 position. The power tubes are still the stock 6550 A-R Ruby tubes which could stand to be replaced as well with a better tube, but there not that bad. I am also using a LAT power cord which gives a slight improvement as well.

After listening to several solid state pieces I couldn't help but notice an edge and a thinness with most of the amps I listened to. Obviously the more expensive the amp the less this was present but non-the-less it existed.

When I began using the 502 my soundstage opened up and for the first time & it extended beyond the speakers. The detail was amazing. I am hearing things I have not heard before and with a clarity I've not heard before. The overall imaging was improved and the tonal accuracy seems quite remarkable for an integrated at this price point. The piano, which I enjoy listening to and acoustic guitar sound very real and are a pleasure to listen too. Voices tend to sound more natural as well. Another quality I noticed was the improvement of the dynamic range. There seemed to be a more realistic difference in SPL's between different instruments across the soundstage.

Overall for the budget conscious audio person this amp is truly remarkable. If you have thousands of dollars to spend and money is no object I am sure there are better amps on the market. If you are like me an try to spend only a small amount to get great sound this is an amp to consider. I applaud Jolida for truly giving a taste of high end audio to the budget conscious consumer. My rating is based on sound quality only as that is why I bought the amp. I would have to take a half point off if I included asthetics because its not anything fancy to look at but it's not that bad either. The tubes put in the unit aren't the best either. Obviously they would have to charge a little more to put better tubes in so I can understand the rationale based on the price why they use the tubes they do. I would rather give it a 4.5 overall but that isn't an option.

My equpment is:
Adcom GCD 700
Jolida SJ 502A
Phase Tech PC 10.5's
Nordost Flatline Speaker Cable
Nordost Blue Heaven Interconnects
LAT Power Cord

Similar Products Used:

Jolida JD 1501; ATI 1505; Marantz MA 500's

Very good at reproduction of small ensemble. Fairly good
voice reproduction and better than average bass production

Bit bright on the high end (for tube).
as Parasound, NAD. Bass is not as tight as NAD.

So far I am not really impressed overall.
But I have to try rolling tubes see if that changes
the overall tone. Currently using KT-90's. The sound
on vocals does not seems to improve much from
NAD, parasound, carver. (have also tried Yamaha, Crest).
There is definite roll off of low and high ends.
The midrange is good but I have heard better.
But for a cheap amplifier, it is pretty good.
The 70 Watts of power is not really enough to drive
a big size room (18x30) room a musical level.

So far, nothing special about the tube sound across the
board. I prefer Jolida in some material over SS.
And in some recording I prefer SS gear. For symphonic
presentations Jolida just do not cut it. Maybe its
designed for jazz production. I am using 90db/w/m
rated speaker. Don't believe that tube watt is
twice the SS watt; it simple does not seem to be true.

Could it be over rated? I have listened to MacIntosh
tube amps which sounded good in just about all material
but we are talking about different tier of product, so
it is not fair. So far I have not heard that overwhelmingly
superior sound that people have posted.

I will repost after rolling tubes to Kt-88 and 6550.

Similar Products Used:

First tube amp. SS gears such as Carver, Nad, Parasound.

Sound
Looks
Build like a tank
Inexpensive

Can heat up your room (can be a blessing in the winter)
Maby remote...NOT

The Jolida 502A is my first tube amp and it like my dream comes true, I could not afford a tube amp due to family, kids-wife if was not the affordable Jolida.

There is a say that beauty is on the eye of the beholder; and that absolutely true. It is also divided sharply between men an women, men loves it wile women things it's the ugliest things they ever saw. Myself I just love it, I think it better looking then the 502B, actually it took me some time to find one since I didn't like 502B design. The dark gloss metallic color and mine have gold knobs just looks beautiful. The three massive transformers are extremely heavy and well build.

My 502A comes with the Russian Svetlana 6550C power tubes and Sino (Chinese) pre and pre power tubes. I upgraded the pre 12AX7 with Ei 12AX7 but after 3 weeks I went back to the original tubes. The Ei were smooth and the bass was tight, but to laid back, too much roll off the high frequency. I will try some others just for the fun of it. It is really cool that you can change the sound characteristics of your audio just by changing tubes. (Try to do it with SS gear)

Just out of the box , not break-in with the Jolida 603a tube CD player as companion to 502A, the sound was just breath taking. In my mind I was prepared to be disappointed I thought the bass will be slow or non existed and the high not there... NO WAY to my pleasantly surprise it sound like an high end solid state amp with great low punch all the way up with silky smooth mid. Maybe it's because I have the Russian 6550C (the C is the latest 6550 design) instead of the Chinese power tubes that others got with their amps; I don't know but mine SING. After a month of break-in the sound of the Jolida just got better.

I was a bit worry about my speakers low efficiency, I drive a pair of Magnepan MMG speaker which are power hungry, with quite success, I do not listen in extreme high volume (my wife say I do) so I almost never cross the 12 o'clock mark.

I'm highly recommend this great integrated amp for music lovers, It is the cheapest way to have an analog sound out of a digital media.

Don't get me wrong there are better sounding tube amps out there but not at Jolida's price range.

Happy listening

Similar Products Used:

Conrad Johnson Int. Amps and some kits

The tubes sound is magical.

No output RCA

Why would anyone want to own this tube marvelous, if the sound is astonished? The price below the $2000 of this product for a high end tube amplifier, it's buget. Sound as silky, smooth, great sound presence, crystal clear, dynamic bottom end and awesome. My model is: JD-502B integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier.

Regards.

Similar Products Used:

McIntosh, pre & amplifier