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Does anyone here own a Jolida 202/302/502 amp

I bought my first tube amplifier 7 months ago. A MiniWatt N3
direct from the Manufacturer. I rolled the tubes with a Tung-Sol 12AX7 / ECC803-S Gold and a matched pair of Prefered Series 7189 from tubestore.com. The little amp powers a pair of Energy CB-20 speakers. Everything sounds incredible. The amp is in the master bedroom and that's what turned me on the tubeaudio hifi.

Now my old 26 year old Kenwwood 100 watt KR 920 is getting
to the point where the electrolytic caps need replacing, mids and highs are distorted, volume potentiometer is getting noisy. So I figured I'd upgrade to a Jolida JD202s.
So I can get a good idea of well a stock Jolida 202s compares to a MiniWatt N3 I just swapped it out and hooked the Jolida 202s to my CB-320 speakers. The chinese 12AT7
flashed once like the old Mullards did at power on. I noticed one filament on the left 12AX7A glowing twice as bright as all the other preamp tubes. After warmup there appeared to be a very low 60hz hum in the left channel. This hum is not effected by the volume control so I think the hum is due to a bad tube and what I am hearing is signal from the AC heater line on the left side.
I started out by listening to Bruce Springsteen "10th Avenue Freeze Out". Horn section sounded amazing and I at first I was excited at how loud this little amp can drive my speakers.... next some Pink Floyd "The Great Gig In The Sky"... My little MiniWatt really delivers on the one.. The stock Jolida has poor imaging, the sound isn't warm for a tube amp. I'm hoping it's the Chinese tubes. Not enough Depth, and when the highs hit hard there's no headroom.
So, I've got an expensive amp that I have to tube Roll. I expected to tubroll my $189.00 MiniWatt amp. I did not expect to tube roll my $599.00 Jolida. So here what I have comming in. I figured the preamp tubes are where the tube imaging is lacking so I found a set of matched NOS Sylvania 12AX7 tubes. For the driver tube I decided to go with a set of GE 5965 tubes. it's compatible with the 12A7 but it has a slightly lower mu. I'm hoping to achieve more headroom from the lower gain.

I ordered a quad of cryo treated elecrto harmonix 6AC97 fat bottles to replace the EL34B tubes. I'm hoping this combination will sweeten the sound and get me a richer fuller sound.

Don't get me wrong, the amplifier still sounds better than my old Kenwood. But My little single ended 3.5wpc Miniwatt
demonstrated what tube hifi can sound like. I'm trying to get that sound quality, plus a little more power for my family room.

My question to the forum is is there anyone here that has experience with Jolida Amplifiers ? Did you do tube rolling and are you satisfied with the results you got.
jerrynsr
jerrynsr OP
14 posts
 
Thanks for the reply.
I should have waited because the tubes are starting to sound great.
After 70hrs of using the amp the sound improved big time! Even the soundstage opened up! While I was working out I cranked up some grunge from The Todies and the frequency response was great! Even the bass got deeper and louder! Later on I listened to "Great Gig In The Sky" and it sounded like it should. You can hear all the sounds that you would hear as if you were listening to the song on good headphones. The soundstage was great. Tonight the Jolida 202 amp sounds better than my Miniwatt N3.

Now my wife and I are listening to Train. She "gets it" now.

At first the amp did sound lifeless as timrhu said. It took some time for the tubes to burn in. I pulled the trigger too early on buying the upgrade tubes. I think all I really needed to do is upgrade the 12ax7as. Oh well now I have some spares.. I told marc at Jolida that if they burn in the tubes for at least 40hrs before shipment they will get their customers to go WOW instead of initial disappointment.
jerrynsr OP
14 posts
 
btw jolida also shipped me a replacement tube sine a 12ax7a was defective. That's where the 60hz hum was coming from. I think the filament was damaged.
jerrynsr OP
14 posts
 
Thanks for the reply.
I should have waited because the tubes are starting to sound great.
After 70hrs of using the amp the sound improved big time! Even the soundstage opened up! While I was working out I cranked up some grunge from The Todies and the frequency response was great! Even the bass got deeper and louder! Later on I listened to "Great Gig In The Sky" and it sounded like it should. You can hear all the sounds that you would hear as if you were listening to the song on good headphones. The soundstage was great. Tonight the Jolida 202 amp sounds better than my Miniwatt N3.

Now my wife and I are listening to Train. She "gets it" now.

At first the amp did sound lifeless as timrhu said. It took some time for the tubes to burn in. I pulled the trigger too early on buying the upgrade tubes. I think all I really needed to do is upgrade the 12ax7as. Oh well now I have some spares.. I told marc at Jolida that if they burn in the tubes for at least 40hrs before shipment they will get their customers to go WOW instead of initial disappointment.
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
Glad to hear things are improved. I should have noted my experience with the Jolida took place in August. Walking into a hot room to listen was a major turn off for me and could have affected my opinion.
komet1965
1 posts
 
Hello,
I've owned a Jolida 202 for about 9 years now (in and out of different systems)and have never really liked until about 6 months ago when my local dealer suggested I change out the stock tubes. Also he suggested I drive it with a preamp, using it as a stand alone amp with the volume control turned all the way up.
I thought to myself I already have couple of nice preamps so I'll try that first before I dump a bunch of money on new tubes.
So upon arriving back at home I immediately connected it to my McIntosh C-45 preamp and boy what a surprise.....this combination made my Snell E-IIIs sing like they never sung before. Suddenly the little Jolida had some bass slam, smoother midrange, crisp highs, and imaging up the you know what! On some recordings the instruments seemed to float in space between the two speakers. In comparison driving these speakers directly with the Jolida using the same sources (Denon DP-62L/DL-160MC & Marantz CD-5001 CD player) the sound was harsher and lifeless with no bass definition. Believe it or not this was with the original stock tubes!
Unfortunately my Jolida is afflicted with the same 60cycle hum (mine is in the right channel) that you were experiencing and I have since pulled it lest risking any further damage. I tried switching tubes around but the problem stayed in the R ch.. Researching around the internet and talking to my dealer I understand the stock 202s use cheesy rectifier diodes and standard (cheep) filter caps. I suspect my issue with the 60 cycle hum is coming from the power supply section. One of these days I 'll dig into it and see what I find.
So that's my Jolida 202 story....try a preamp, you won't be sorry!
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