Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

I owned an early version of the SJ202a, hand wired before the PCB went in'em. Ok little amp, pretty, nice external build, and biasing can be fun for someone just learning about amps, but its tubes and marketing hype, and not worth the money. Alot spent just making it look pretty like most tube gear. Granted alot of tube amps may actually sound nicer than many solid-state designs, for various reasons, but solid-state does it better and for less when well engineered. The jolida was an improvement from my H/K unit (I sold my NAD earlier so never heard the two at the same time) but for the money of one of the jolida's, there is better. Try these sealelectronics.com

Hmm: I like the 302A and 302B amps. They just require better tubes and a decent power cord to perform best. The power cord replacement could be a stock Belden 14 gage (nothing expensive or fancy). What I would do though is try to purchase a new one with a warranty (hopefully @ a discount) as the few hundred dollars more will be well spent if there is a defect or problem. I do not care for 6550 based amps (the 500 series) and therefore prefer the 300 series (based on EL34 output tubes). I have not listened to their Hybrid models. What is the rest of your system right now (tell the truth:-) and the size of your listening room? It is possible that your speakers are not tube friendly (even with 50 watts). Sound wise the 302B that I auditioned was comparable to my old Dynaco ST70/Pas3x rig (better @ the frequency extremes, though it did not have a phono stage) and offered a classic tube sound. The output tubes were by Svetlana (you could probably do even better for the same $) and I cannot recall what signal tubes were used. The power cord was an HT Pro 11 that I supplied. I would much rather listen to this amp than all except a few budget SS amps, so in this respect I have somewhat of an opposite take than that of Ezmeralda. The only thing that it will not supply is super deep controlled bass, but this should be of little concern if one is not using full range speakers. Even with full range speakers, I found the bass to be adequate and well balanced (just don't expect it to sound like a $5k Plinius power amp in the low registers).

In various secondary systems over the last two years I have had Jolida 202 302 and 502 units. I think the 302 has the best sound. The 502 with KT-88s is best for someone who likes a tube sound and rock. I have also compared them directly to the NAD 317. I like a tube sound so I prefer the Jolida but the NAD was also a decent unit. The stock tubes ARE trash and need to be replaced. The Svetlana EL-34s are a good buy. I agree with Dekay overall and especially that the sound is about old Dynaco quality. Used they offer very decent price performance and there is a ready market for them.

I think there is some snobbery concerning the Jolida. Its not a $40K set of Jadis' but, rather, a fine piece of listening equipment. I love this amp. It is smooth, warm, reliable, and tweakable.
I replaced the signal tubes with (2) Ken-Rad VT-231 (military 6sn7) and replaced the single 12ax7 with an FAA 5751 (military 12ax7 with 70% gain). The 5751 works fine for me and I don't notice the lower gain. For power tubes I use Svet. 6550s.

This amp has nice tight bass and sweet (not sticky) mids and highs. The lack of glare using a moderate CDP (Marantz 67se with Art DI/O)is simply delightful (as in I enjoy the music).

By the way, since the Jolida integrated amps have the volume control before the signal tubes, the Art DI/O 6v output can run straight to the amp. inputs without a resistor and without overloading the amp's front end. Actually, the DI/O acts as gain pumper.

The Jolida looks good, sounds wonderful, is reliable and is fun to play with. Anything "better" costs an order of magnitude more.

While in college, I had a sytem composed of a 302A, Marantz cd67SE, and Dunlavy speakers. I honestly have to say that this setup sounded surprisingly good for the money. I never once had any problems with my amp and really noticed a difference in sound (huge difference) when I switched from stock tubes to Svetlana EL-34s.