2. amps-preamps
  3. 151113-136265

JADIS DEFY7, can not get it to sing

Hi
I hope some of you old pros can help answer my,,well lets say help me figure out how to get my Jadis defy 7 to sing. I purchased the amp used (like new, as the seller had a  Jadis JA200 mono blocks laready and the Defy sat quiet, So I bought it in 2008. Months later i purchased a  MINGDA tube pre amp, sounded AWEFUL, Not even close to my jadis Orch reference, KT90's EI tubes, that intergrtaed was really all I needed, i made a  huge costly mistake selling and buying the  DEFY 7, I do believe that w/o a  powerful pre, to DRIVE the FQ's into the Defy, the Defy will not respo9nd. 
The sound is flat, lifeless, no dynamics, The Orch Refer had HUGE sound stage, bass, GORGEOUS life like mids, nice sweet highs. 
I wanted more and bought the Defy,. 
I just had the Defy cked in Baton Rouge, had the KT90's brand new EH tuibes biased . 
I have a  ONKYO preamp arriving next week and am about to buy a  Mitshibushi Pre amp, 
I have a  LITE LS9 , chinese tube preamp, and that pre sounds like the,,no worse than the heftier Ming Da. 
This Lite LS9 is suppose to be a copy of the Jadis 200 pre, It weighs only 7 lbs, the trans is light weight.
I get  the idea the jadis Defy needs a  great hefty powerful prem, which is what folks told me back when i bought it, I did not believe them. 

I am low on  cash and will list the Defy for $3500 and i will pay shipping. 
I will then wait fora  great used Jadis intergrated, say a  DA50.

But I 1st want to try the 2 solid state pres to see if i can get the Defy to wake up.
It I can get some better respose , i may keep it and look for a  good used Audio reserach or a  macnintosh.
I do not have $6K for a jadis pre used. 
My budget is $1K
any help is greatly appreacitaed.
I have the uncredibly  SEAS Thor MTM speakser along with the CAYIN tube cd player with upgraded opamps .
As I say I am very close to selling the hge, hardly used (Like New) amp, due to my doubts that I can get the amp to respond like its tiny brother , The Orch Reference. 
btw I am the one who coined the tag *shootout* wayyyy back in 2000, or 2001 
I stared a  thread of speaker shootouts,,,and based on that long thread, i bought the SEAS THor kits. 
I now see *shoot out* is now the common tag for speaker and stereo components comparison.
My old login was Bartokfan.
Look forward to any suggestions in my dilemma.
paul
new orleans
mozartfan

Showing 1 response by andrew31829

andrew31829's avatar
andrew31829
13 posts
 
Mozartfan,     I have not the knowledge of the learned ladies and gentlemen here.   I also was disappointed by the hijacking of your post so to get back to a Jadis point. 

I run a DA30 and I know it's integrated but by far the best valves I ran were EI KT90s.  They blew at the same time as an output trafo so not sure which blew first.  At the time Jadis advised that the amp would be unable to handle KT120s without modification so you may want to check.  JJ EL34s I tried also but while musical did not rock enough. 

Last year the Power supply blew so at huge expense I returned to Jadis who fitted new power supply and claimed the KT90s were faulty and at huge inflated cost €120 each fitted what seem to be EHKT120s. Now they could be hand selected but are in plain white boxes. 

The 120s give much more oomph but musically I think the EI KT90s had better mids/highs although maybe highs drowned out less.  I tried for the pre section all sorts of AX and AU,  Not the crazy cost NOS Mullards, telefunkens etc but cheaper marked versions etc and Amperex were easily the best for my ears with mids and highs and stage but surprisingly the cheaper new golden lions did well and I kept some as spares for that reason.  (the Amperex glow too much for my liking)

I know it's totally different amps but sharing anyway as possible Jadis characteristics. 
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