I am the proud owner of this product. I auditioned EVERYTHING out there before laying down my money. The following is just one man's opinion... I came to the conclusion that a tube amp(in the right setup) sounded more real to me than any solid state(and I checked them ALL out) amp I had come across. I was not in the market for an integrated amp, but this was the best overall product that I came across(I didn't seriously look at products over my $5000 budget), and that is why I bought it. To me the sound is as good as you can find, without going exotic. Everyday, you see a quote where brand X(usually Jolida, Rogue, etc. - and I am a BIG FAN of those companies) sounds as good as anything else under $5/10/whatever-K. WRONG!!! This amp is levels removed from them. It sounds better than the C - J, VAC, and VTL lines, and will drive loudspeakers the C - J CAV50/MV55 would never even dream of. It is at least a level higher than their own Orchestra, which is a Stereophile Class A rated component. It is, in fact, a much different product, and should be appropriately named to avoid association with a cheaper, inferior product. It is very similar to the $5500 DA-30, but with passive preamp, tone controls, and the new MUCH superior cosmetics(no plastic faceplate or knobs; transformer covers, wood, stainless steel, and vast amounts of 24K gold over very substantial brass faceplate and knobs). This amp features massive transformers wired in OFC(find another integrated with this for less than $10K). It is hard wired. Comes with 4 KT90 output tubes(which a huge number of 6550/KT88 owners are switching to), but will accept EL34/6CA7/6550/KT88. So by not only changing brand, but tube type, the amp can be anywhere on the spectrum from warm and polite tube to neutral and forward. Large capacitance, which combined with the transformers and KT90s, produces the best bass response and power of any tube integrated(short of their $9000 DA-60, which features 8 KT90s), solid state(not Krell) type bass. Passive preamp section is quieter than other tube preamps. Tone controls(nice to see someone not afraid to go against the accepted mantra of what high end products have or don't have), which coupled with the passive preamp actually work, without destroying the sound. And the cosmetics... You simply must see the picture in TAS to get an idea. I don't worry about the way a product looks, but this amp would be at home in the most elegant room. The sound is rich, full, and immediate like an SET amp, yet will drive real world loudspeakers. After 4 months, I upgraded to a solid silver power cord, and a product I didn't think could sound better became blacker, tighter, more focused, etc.(all the stuff they say about power cords). Negatives? Jadis has almost NO US presence these days(shame - if they did, people would be ALL OVER this product). The gold plating is hard to keep pristine(wipe it with a clean cloth, or once in a great while with methylated spirits[95% ethanol, denatured with methanol] - per the factory). And it is harder to bias than other tube amps(you will need two multimeters). I paid $500 more than what a CAV50 lists for. Which would be the better bargain? Well, it is the choice between a simply wonderful amp and an amp you may NEVER have to replace. Some rhetoric: seems like their is a growing tide of European(French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and British companies) products that are leaving their American counterparts in the dust in terms of sound. Ratcheting up the QUALITY of sound, while many of our companies continue to engage in a "horsepower war".
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