Jadis Orchestra Reference

I have read all these posts about how much of a fuss biasing of JOR is... Certainly it is not a very staight forward task but for anybody with a litle bit of technical background, a small scredwiver and a multimeter would be quite easy thing to do. The biggest problem is to get that 20kg amplifier upside dowm in a safe manner. The rest is a piece of cake.
And the last but not least I got my JOR with 6CA7 tubes biased at about 18 mA ( 100 mV across 5.7 Ohms load resistor ) and in mine opinion it sounded metallic and harsh. I rebiased it to something like 35 mA and it sounds much better now. Would anybody know what are the "factory" settings?

I feel that the fuss that Jadis is asking for biasing its Orchestra amp contributes to the no-longer-deserved reputation that owning tube equipment is trouble.

Modern tube amps are no longer a fuss to own, provided that some respect for the user is built-in, which is a concept foreign to Jadis.

I would not blame a Jadis owner for wanting to go back to solid state. It is totally unacceptable that one is expected to go to great length just to bias his unit. This situation will force many audiophile to just not adjust the bias when needed, and suffer inferior performance and tube life.

Why no just put in an auto-biasing circuit or at least, have the controls on the outside of the chassis, like Cary amplifiers and others? These units are expensive as they are, don't you think?

Denis, it's wonderful to hear the JOR sounds so good for you. I would like to point out to everyone that Denis (Springbok10) is one of the most knowledgeable and demanding listeners one will ever encounter. Unlike a lot of audiophiles, he will not accept less than the best sonics, and yes, he can distinguish great from good from mediocre from poor.

One tip I would like to offer up is that anyone with a JOR should consider drilling holes that line up with the four potentiometers and biasing resistors. Had I kept mine, I would have certainly done so. After one learns the procedure (which is not at all intuitive), the most difficult task is in reassembling the amp. Being able to access everything without taking the JOR apart would make biasing a simple 3 minute procedure, no muss, no fuss.

I agree entirely that Jadis should be ashamed of themselves,
making biasing such a huge a huge chore; however, aside from this, the sound alone is so good as to compensate, I think, for this. However, I have not had to bias mine, since the previous owner did it all. Maybe I'll change my mind when a tube blows, but so far, it's just sonic bliss.

rob techsupoert: If you like the Jadis sound and can afford it, the DA30/50/60 are all autobiasing and sound great. Tough to find used, I know a number of members on this site have their eyes peeled for them.

I was thinking of getting both an Orchestra integrated and the Jadis Symphonia cd player that Pierre Gabriel is liquidating (he is the importer). I decided against this purchase for 2 reasons. 1 The Symphonia is a ''re-badged'' player and is very expensive, even at a big discount and does not have the typical Jadis build quality. More recent, less expensive player out-perform it easily. 2. The Jadis Orchestra cannot be easily biased by its owner. Biasing is complicated as one must open the chassis and fiddle around with nearby high voltages. Talk about user-unfriendly, this is 2005 !!!! If anyone has integrated amplifier recommendations (tube) instead of the Orchestra, be my guest !

If you cant figure out the biasing, I'll copy the manual Joe Trelli made for me and send it to you. It sounds great with El 34s.

The original kt 90, but would like to try some el34 if
I can figure out the biasing. I also just got a Symphonia CD. It does not seem to have the same build quality.

I hope you like your JOR as much as I do. What tubes are you using?

Thanks!

Not a problem. A lot of Eastern European tubes flash on turn on. I have some NOS EI's in an amp that flash. Interestingly there are four of them and they flash sequentially from the left as the current flows thru the curcuits starting at the switch on the left.