Jadis amps and pre-amps still competitive?

I just dusted off and retubed my Jadis Orchestra Reference two weeks ago with a quad of JJ E34L tubes. The stock tubes are Ei KT90.

Oh my goodness! With the front end and cables that I didn't have a few years ago, the sound through my Coincidents was better than my Granites or AtmaSpheres. I mean, it was incredible. The notes were more tonally right than I have ever heard. It was perfect!

Fernando, not Jadis related, but if we are talking of biasing in general, I have always found that my preference is strongly towards running tubes at the higher end of a manufacturer's biasing recommendations. To my ears, the sound takes on a warmer, richer tone. This is but one man's opinion.

It will be interesting to hear what your friend says. Though, the DA5 is the power amp section of the DA30 integrated, which I remember both being autobias.

And, Denis, despite my preference, as you saw in the pictures, I biased your amp dead on at 110 mV (Jadis recommendations: 95 - 120 mV, preferably 110 mv).

Pierre, thank you for the clarification.

As you can see, Russ (Rcprince) and I are two of the bigger fans of Jadis here on Audiogon. Will you be reestablishing a dealer network in the USA? And, if so, we are in the Northeast (he in NYC and me in Philadelphia), is there any plans for a dealership in this region?

Thank you,
Joe

So, Pierre, inquiring minds WANT to know.

Aside from the press release, is there a dealership potentially on the way in the NYC, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware area in the near term???

Eps, to be truthful, when would I bias my Jadis Orchestra
Reference, it never needed as much adjustment as I expected.

In fact, I just switched from Ei KT90 to JJ E34L, and despite the monumental difference in tubes, I was astonished about how close to being in the new tubes actually were. They were just outside of spec (89 mV, range is 95 - 120 mV, preferably 110 mv), which is probably not that big a deal.

Hopefully, Pierre will chime in on biasing.

I would like to offer that if the DA5 uses the same procedure as the JOR, I have created a document, complete with pictures (because they are truly worth a thousand words) on the bias procedure. It's probably six pages, with maybe 8 or so pictures. I would be more than happy to publish it here on Audiogon.

I had received a document from Jadis, but it was not very intuitive. Because I was selling the amp to Springbok10, I wanted to be sure that the procedure was crystal clear (and again, a picture is worth a thousand words).

In my opinion, the biasing itself, once learned (not at all intuitive), is incredibly easy (the pictures make it easy, even for a first timer). The difficulty lies in that you must remove the bottom and sides with the JOR. It's the reassembly that I HATED! Knowing what I know now, I would drill holes (there are already a lot of holes there already) that line up with the resistors and potentiometers, making it a simple, 3 minute procedure. No muss, no fuss.

Are the KT88 tubes that most of the Jadis amps seem to be using these days, JJ KT88?

In my own Jadis, the KT90 were stock. But, now I see that they come with KT88. I believe the reason is the lack of KT90 availability after the Ei factory was destroyed by NATO. However, now ElectroHarmonix is producing KT90 tubes, though I have heard they are not quite as good sounding as the Ei.

I agree with the statement regarding KT90 reliability. Mine ran for 5 years with a lot of play. One shorted, with no damage to the amp, and the other three tested good enough to still probably be OK for a while. The sound was quite neutral with this tube, with excellent power, and even balance across the frequency range. Extension at both ends of the spectrum, but particularly bass, was outstanding. Overall, however, I found myself wanting for a more romantic, tubey sound.

I retubed the amp with JJ E34L tubes. Power was down a fair amount, as well as bass response. However, the tone of this tube was just about perfect through the midrange. The sound of each note and vocals was as good as I have ever encountered. Treble was also very nice. I only got to put about 10 hours on these tubes, but my impressions were immensely positive. I have sold the amp to Springbok10, and he seems to love it. He has told me that the sound has improved tremendously now that the tubes have 150 hours plus on them. Highly recommended.

For a short while, to compare to the JJ E34L tubes, I tried JJ KT88s. Wow! My complaints about power and bass response were more than addressed, while the spectacular sound of the midrange was still there. I will say that this tube seems to have a midbass fatness that while I find intoxicating, could be argued that it might not be completely accurate. Absolute bass extension was still not as much as the Ei KT90, however.

I think overall, I would either go with JJ E34L or KT88 tubes. I would love to hear the amp with the E34Ls with 250 hours on them. The midrange and treble should be about as good as it gets. Still, presuming the KT88 is close in this regard, I would probably opt for that tube.

Fernando, that adjustment might be the same thing I was referring to in one of my above posts. Hopefully, Pierre Gabriel will speak to the biasing of the DA5 and DA8.

Flg2001, the DA5 is not autobias? I always thought that outside of the Orchestra and Orchestra Reference were autobias.

Although, I may know what you are talking about. I used to read that the JA200 had some kind of adjustment for "bias" on the transformer, which technicians would set based on the voltage coming out of your wall (whether it was 115V or 120V).

Nevertheless, as you said, I'm sure the amp sounded good!