Jadis Defy 7 vs Antique Sound Lab Hurricane

Im biased, since I own a Defy 7, but consider what type of dealer network and affordable tech support you will have in your area. Jadis dealers are rare and if you have reliability issues you can forget about keeping o.e.m. parts in your amp unless your willing to spend a fortune. When my Defy 7 required repairs I borrowed the ridiculously inexpensive Antique Sound Lab amps, the wave 8's, and I was amazed with the level of sound they provided. Ironically I wanted to try the dealers Hurricane's but they were inop. for reasons I can't recall. I think you would be safer going with the Antique Sound Lab amps, though I will say that the Defy 7 does live up to the hype if you can afford to feed it a diet of tubes and are willing to have the occasional resistor replaced. Lately if been having trouble with my Svetlana 6550c replacments developing grid current wich seems to lead to blown fuses and burned resistors. Before the recent tube failures I loved my Jadis amp, now it just makes me nervous. Im truly on the edge of my seat so to speak. The speakers I'm using are Sonus Faber Electa Amators, I THINK they are rated at about 89 dB sensitivity, if it matters.

Im biased, since I own a Defy 7, but consider what type of dealer network and affordable tech support you will have in your area. Jadis dealers are rare and if you have reliability issues you can forget about keeping o.e.m. parts in your amp unless your willing to spend a fortune. When my Defy 7 required repairs I borrowed the ridiculously inexpensive Antique Sound Lab amps, the wave 8's, and I was amazed with the level of sound they provided. Ironically I wanted to try the dealers Hurricane's but they were inop. for reasons I can't recall. I think you would be safer going with the Antique Sound Lab amps, though I will say that the Defy 7 does live up to the hype if you can afford to feed it a diet of tubes and are willing to have the occasional resistor replaced. Lately if been having trouble with my Svetlana 6550c replacments developing grid current wich seems to lead to blown fuses and burned resistors. Before the recent tube failures I loved my Jadis amp, now it just makes me nervous. Im truly on the edge of my seat so to speak. The speakers I'm using are Sonus Faber Electa Amators, I THINK they are rated at about 89 dB sensitivity, if it matters.
I skipped stating the obvious, the Jadis has beautiful fit and finish, high build quality, and pride of ownership, whatever that's worth. I've been told that the Antique stuff continues to have improvment in build quality and reliability, and they do sound great. I hope this is of some help.

The Defy 7 MK 1, and 2 were plagued with problems. After that they were improved as far as liability was concerned. I would think since you are in Europe, you will find more Jadis dealers ( for service ) than you will find ASL Dealers.

This is a no brianer, buy the Jadis!

Hello Lisbon. Pretty tough call. The Jadis is one fabulous sounding amplifier. If it is burning out cathode resistors perodically, I think it would be time to retube if you are getting any run away bias. Definitely more economical to retube than the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes really do live up to the hype though. I had the pleasure of auditioning a pair in my system a few months back and they are top shelf in every way.