Who's using the Jolida JD100?


To start with, I'm using one. Frankly, I think my system deserves the best CDP available. I have a Pass Labs Aleph P pre amp, one of the best; Pass Labs X 600 mono blocks, very serious stuff; Apogee Scintilla full range ribbon speakers, rare and priceless.

My Jolida is fitted with 5751 NOS tubes. I tried Telefunken and liked them a lot, but the 5751 tubes had better treble extension.

The Apogee Scintilla is a three way speaker, like none you have ever imagined. It consist of a very large trapezoidal ribbon panel that finesses an articulate bass down to 25 Hz. beside it is a mid/treble 53 inch vertical ribbon array. The ribbons are naked feather weight corrugated aluminum. They are arranged just like the five side of a die, two tweeters firing rear, two firing forward, and a midrange ribbon in the middle. These ribbons hang limply and are excited by the signal electrical current.

Sorry about all the technical. I'm hoping my description helps people understand when I say this is a speaker like no other and is quite possibly the perfect transducer. Unlike small cones and domes, the ribbon is free of heat dissipation noise. It's unique construction allows the speakers to disappear amidst a room full of performance grade music.

It will articulate every subtlety, no matter how faint, that a recording has. It will also transmit any defect of the music chain. That is why I chose Pass amps. They are so squeaky clean in their delivery.

The Jolida is a hold over from a lesser system. Amazingly, it has passed everything I have thrown at it. With every improvement I've made in my system, the Jolida just keeps on matching increasing performance. Right down to the Scintilla system. That is perplexing considering this machine's less than stellar CDP lineage.

What are your Jolida 100 experiences, and have you found better?
muralman1
Wow, I'm impressed by the test conditions for your Jolida player. I have been seriously considering buying one, and so I'm interested in what you and any other responders to your thread think. My system is definitely not as resolving as yours, but I insist on warm, detailed, non-mushy sound from a CD player. Sounds like the Jolida may be just the ticket.
Thanks for the response, Sc53. I know little about the Jolida other than, unlike nearly all cdps, it employs no op-amps. Phillip's chips and it's five pin tube drive stage do the amplification. It has a simple circuit design, and I prefer simple circuits and simple systems.

I got into Jolida with one of it's totally unrelated early models, the 603, when someone brought over his 601. I had a Audiogon Best Buy marked Sony ES model at the time. It took just one song. I was totally blown away buy the spaciousness, airyness, and liquidity of the Jolida. I bought one the next day. Unfortunately the early cheap models were failure prone. I'm happy to say Mark Allen of Jolida has changed his company's mission away from cheap great sound to dependable greater sound. The JD100 doesn't even resemble the old stuff. There is no plastic around. The Sony transport has been replaced by Phillips.

Mark Allen told me he went for the Phillips chips over the usual Burr Brown, because he was aiming for a more linear response from his machine. Well done Mark.
I was just introduced to this CDP this weekend and am rethinking my Sony XA777ES decision. I own a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 so multichannel SACD is not that important to me, but made sense since I have heard such good things about the redbook playback on the Sony. Can any one compare the 2 players?
Hi Mdomnic, see if you can hear the Jolida with some great tubes, like Telefunken, Seimens, NOS RCA, or the like. Fine tubes raise the bar quite a bit.

I would like to hear your review of the SF cdp. I passed one by and got the Jolida. I didn't want to put up with old transports. I've heard it is real good.
I have owned the JD-100 for approximately 8 months and am continually impressed with how good it sounds. Hard to b elieve this is less than a grand. Just no glaring shortcomings that leave one wanting. The player sounds immediate and dynamic with good frequency reach, and has a sweet and extended top end. The most appealing characteristic to me is the overall musicality. Here is on par with the best regardless of cost (in my opinion of course). I've been meaning to try other tubes but have not gotten around to this because I have just been so pleased with the way it sounds now. In any event, I will get around to this in due time.
old thread but.. I just recieved the Jolida JD100 a few days ago. Makes music easy to listen to, a nice suprise.
shoe