ok, i promised angela i'd do a follow up post, so here goes. i've owned several jrdg amps and pre's. i have a 9- year-old model 8 that's been upgraded to ti status that i still use and love. i've listened to a variety of jeff's relatively new amps using the switch-mode regulated power supply on a variety of speakers and frontends. there's no doubt the new amps (10,12,etc.) maintain the sonic signature of jrdg products. the new amps are also very "fast." to my ears, tho, the 8 and 9's are more musical than the switch-mode models. this is hard to describe but i'll try. the characteristics that first led me to jrdg amps was their mid-range liquidity and complete lack of any fatiguing qualities. they were, and are, in short, more "tube-like" than most ss amps without false bloom or overly ripe euphonics. with the right associated equipment upstream and down, they present a life-like image, with air and palpability some believe remain still in the realm of valves alone. at least that's what i heard and continue to hear with my model 8. the 10's, 12's and 112's continue the jrdg tradition of non-fatiguing sound and "tube-like" midrange, just less so. i've yet to hear one of the new models on any speakers that i'd trade for the combination i already own. i am, i admit, not in the majority of my friends who owned prior ranges of jrdg amps; most have enthusiastically embraced the new designs, thinking them better than all that's come before. but i've done what i've preach, listening intently and drawing my own conclusions. i don't pretend that my views are superior to those of anyone else. they are, indeed, just my views. but i'm neither ashamed nor afraid to make them public, since they derive from honest and extensive obseravtions..
