Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

BULLSEYE!!!

I always know that I have made my point whenever the free speech Red Herring swims by in a post. I had actually though that I was exercising my freedom of speech to push back on those prefer to raising their vituperation to actual experience index as high as possible rather than be helpful to other Audiogoners.

At least we now have your entry on the circa $600 price point for integrated amps. I spent some time poking around Audio Asylums 200 recent posts on Jolida. Many of the positive posts are from folks who have had extensive personal experience, as do I, with multi kilo-buck amps. In “FACT” most of those posts were positives although there does seem to be two confirmed cases of units that went up in flames (In those cases always adjust the bias for the lightest color of smoke as my old engineering prof used to say).

From Audio Asylum I garnered the recommendation of Acoustic Zen. So know I’m going to get one of those and find a Kora Explorer, and although out of the price range a Rogue. I’ll report back on my ACTUAL experience against the 302 and 502 in a month or two.

It does seem from your most recent post that you are a little more flexible that the earlier posts might indicate. Two data points, because there are so many Jolida units available from people who did tube rolling it is possible to get a used unit with very decent tubes. Second data point, a tube amp without tubes is not worthless. If you own a tube amp that you like, sooner or later you will have to retube. At this point your amp is hardly worthless.

One of my first exposures to tube power amps was a basic 1703 integrated amp with only one input!. But, for a mere $750.00 it is a rare find!. And it actually utilizes an alps potentiometer(volume control). It weighs about 37lbs and has a massive power supply!. However, the revelation and the soundstage depth and width were nothing short of exhilirating! To describe its engaging qualities would not be enough , no matter how many adjectives one used. A true bargain, no matter how you look at it. Rolls Royce build at wholesale bargain asking prices!..Bravo Jolida!!

approximately 10 years ago i went to the jolida "factory" near columbia,MD in search of EL-34 tubes for my guitar amp and found jolida to be a place that unpacked asian, no-name integrated amplifiers in straw cushioned cheap boxes and did some tricky labeling. i was given a tour of the whole works and after seeing the entire deal was told i could purchase a system for what i would calculate to being %500 markup.

i don't know who engineered the electronics but it doesn't take much to get a good sound out of a tube stereo amp versus solid state. i am an electronics tech.

I know this threads over 4 years old. But just so theres no misinformation about Jolida thought I'd post.

Bob I'm not sure what Jolida did 10 years ago and if thats what was going on then, I can certainly understand why you were turned off to Jolida. Rebadging with massive markups is definitly common although I'm not sure Jolida ever did this.

Jolida does have their equipment assembled in China. Thats never been a secret. However it is not assembled by another Chinese Manufacturer. They have their own factory and of course have them assembled there to save costs.

The design/engineering is done in Maryland.

In the last 2 years I've owned 4 amps. A Jolida 202A and Jolida 1501A being among those. I also own a Cambridge Audio A500 amp.

Although the Cambridge Audio is considered among the best budget amps I would take either Jolida over it no questions asked. Midrange is so much better, especially on the 202A, in that aspect the're not even comparable.

For a mass producted, product they are very tough to equal or better in their given price range.

I owned the fully modded underwood 202A and loved that amp as it got me into this thing.I Now own the 707A unmodded amp which i picked up used and i love this amp.Talk about midrange.If you want more midrange maxxc you owe it to yourself to hear this amp.Since i have high efficiency horn drivers i am now persueing a real SET amp from Wright to see how far this darn sonic horse can go.The 707a is suppose to emulate a SET amp and it is really quite nice.Picked mine up $700 used and i wouldn't go back to the 202A after owning this one in my set up.In fact i swapped back and forth a few times before selling it but the 707A was the clear winner in my system.I am even hesitant about getting it modified as i don't want that to mess anything up.The stock Jolida 6P3P tubes actually sound nice in this amp where as those EL34 Jolidas in the 202A had to go immediately.I find it really takes away nothing that the 202A had and adds more sweet mids to the sound.The impact is still way there as the power ratings are identical or close.Larger possibly nicer transformers possibly has something to do with this.
Anyway i find this amp to be anything but junk sonicly.I was using an old Sansuii Au717 SS amp that i bought new in the day and the 202A was my next amp.These jolidas are quite a nice step forward from that that is for sure.Next stop REAL SET and i can't wait.