Addendum : imo, as far as the preamp is concerned, the amp is the star of the show.
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One of my many class A amplifiers, is this JA 99C, the newest variation of this beast. I have to say, this amp is the real deal. I believe it to be true 80 wpc, running class A, no different than the Threshold T200 I had in my stables at one time ( 100 wpc / 8 ). There is very little this amplifier cannot do, and except for the severe heat produced by the amp, I have zero complaints ( lifting it is actually another ). It allows me to follow the musicianship, understand the passion of the musicians, and allows me to hear, very clearly, the location of the performance. I am still not happy with the Class D products I have auditioned in my home ( I have not heard Ralph’s D, or AGD amps ), but so far, class A is the deal, for me. I was graciously lent an XA 25, which did not do it for me, as I believe it was due to the lower gain situation of the Pass design, as I still use my Luminous passive. Those who know me, and know this amplifier, might understand why I enjoy this amplifier so much ( and PRAT, is excellent ) . Enjoy the turkey / ham etc, and my best to you all. Always, MrD.
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Actually the experience with the dealer was fine. The problem is the dealer had to step up and make good out of his own pocket. Months later he told me they gave him the same treatment and so he never placed another order and completely dropped all Jungson gear. Before that he had sold me a couple Jungson interconnects and a power conditioner. The conditioner was crap quality on the outside but good parts on the inside so rather than sell I gutted it and the transformer and stuff is still in my system to this day. The interconnects also were poor quality, the finish started going bad the first year and looks horrible today but they are now just sort of spares. Some things are worth keeping around if only to remind you who not to do business with ever again. Jungson is definitely a never again.
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Yes, I see that you had a terrible experience with Jungson and Jungson dealer. I am not sure though whether it is an exceptional event or a rather widespread event.
All I can say is, buyers of Jungson gears need to be aware of the reliability and after service issue. I knew those issues, and I still purchased them, so if something goes wrong and if I don't get proper service, I guess I was a fool and it is all my fault. |
If you do get a hold of him, ask why he came to my house looked me in the eye and lied straight to my face. Ask him why Stewart had to make good on his crappy amp because Jungson wouldn't honor their warranty. I would ask him myself but once someone has proven to me their word is worthless what is the point? Do you get the idea how I feel about Jungson? Best of luck to you, anyone fool enough to do business with them.
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Have you contacted the seller? Well, many Chinese sellers don’t stay in business long to take care of after service, so you may be out of luck. That’s I’m worrying about too. When I addressed the possible repair situation to the seller (Mr. Yong Lee), he said I can send my amp to their service center in US.
I hope no such occasion occur in the near future. Even though you might not have bought yours from Yong Lee, you can still ask him about their repair center in US. His email is admin@china-hifi-audio.com. |
Have a 200 watt integrated that is nice but has developed a slight hum, very difficult to find a repair person that can take on a supposed Class A transistor device with no access to a schematic or manual. |
My Plinius SA102 eventually died (due to my stupid mistake) and I needed a new (temporary) amp. I have a few spare amps (Nakamichi, Mitsubishi, and AR) but they are far inferior to Plinius.
Against millercarbon’s horrible experience with Jungson, I made a plunge and bought them. It took a less than a week to get to Michigan from China. Well, Jungson exceeded my expectation. I cannot say it is better than Plinius, but it is certainly better than my old Japanese amps and quite close to AR 150M.2 which cost 4 times more than Jungson 20 years ago.
My AR will go to eBay soon.
The preamp JA-1 is also very good, but certainly it has its limit compared to my other preamps (Plinuius M16 and PrimaLuna Diaglogue).
Jungson JA99C is rated as 80wpc class A, but it sounds as loud as 125wpc class A Plinius. I am not a big fan of Chinese audio products, but I cannot but give a big thumb up to Jungson amp. Hope its reliability is as good as its sound.
It will take a while to service my Plinius, but since then I will certainly enjoy Jungson. After I get Plinius serviced, Jungson will work in my second setup.
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But 20 years younger and dumber I decided to hope for the best.
I guess many of us fell into this trap. In my case, it's not been that bad. I've purchased one integrated tube amp (Yaqin MC10L, $550) and tube preamp/phono (Yaqin MS12B, $250) directly from China over 10 years ago. I played around with different tubes and it was fun to notice the difference of sound from different tubes. I also played around with bias adjusting after changing tubes each time, and I blew up few resistors and replaced them by myself, ... on MC10L. It sound pretty good overall, but I eventually sold it. I don't use the preamp but I still have it. It sounds OK for under $300. I see they are still sold new at around $1000 and $400. At least these two models did not seem to have as many problems as you had with what you bought from China. From reading online reviews, JungSon appeared to me to be at least as good as Yaqin in sound and build quality, and that's why I'd like to hear about them from Agon users. It appears that most of Agoners either have no experience on them, or just are not interested in talking about this Chinese brand, or any products from China. |
Also bought a power conditioner. Sound was okay, construction extremely cheap, really nothing more than a potted transformer and cap. So I tossed the outlets and crap chassis and still use the guts of it today. Then there were a couple of interconnects, still have and use those, but the finish on the RCAs went to crap within a year or so. Just overall poor quality stuff.
This was all like 20 years ago. Its possible they're better. Couldn't imagine being any worse. Its the customer service I would worry about more than anything. Besides of course supporting the CCP. Which don't kid yourself, you buy it you are. But you meet a couple guys like I did, guys pretty high up the distribution food chain, have them come in your home, lie to your face, lie to your dealer, lie in a way so blatant that looking back on it now I would have told them to THEIR FACE what you're saying makes no sense you can only be lying. But 20 years younger and dumber I decided to hope for the best.
Which is what you get if you are young and dumb enough to buy Jungson: hope. Good luck with that!
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Thanks for your reply. That's pretty bad. You purchased more than one JungSon gears and they were all bad?
I did not know this brand, but just recently came across a youtube review from ZeroFidelity. I don't know the guy (Sean?) at ZeroFidelity, but he seems to know what he is talking about and he doesn't seem to be a guy who is going to review a junk product and give a favorable review. But we all know that most products coming from China have reliability and support issues even though they may be good in the beginning.
The second reviewer pretty said the same thing the first reviewer said.
More comments, both negative and positive, would be appreciated. |
I’ve had a few things from Jungson, all purchased years ago so maybe they have changed. But my experience with all of it was bad enough there’s no way I would ever buy anything from them again. That goes even if they were made in the USA. Once you have company reps come out to your house, see first hand their amp is defective, promise to replace it under warranty, and then totally unprofessionally stop returning all your calls, well if you are still willing to give them your money at least after hearing my story you won’t be able to say nobody told you to expect to get ripped off.
My dealer by the way wound up replacing the amp at his own expense. They refused to honor their warranty even to him.
Caveat emptor.
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