Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

Hey Glreno sez Marak. "chinese tubes worthless...basically you are buying a amp. w/o tubes" now that is hilarious. sez Potsey "build quality NOT the best" even more hilarious. sez Ezmerald "NOT worth the money" Let me add 2 more labs that have produced products not worth the money. Rotel's CDP and NAD's amps. Both reproduce horrible sound lets say "unlifelike" sez it best. Fact: Audio Aero and Audio Meca makes CDP almost as good as the Accuphase $12K unit. Fremer's review of the Kora mono's ($6K) in the sterophile dec. issue sez that the Koro pretty much blew away the $11K Audio Research VTM200. Point: you can sometimes spend more and get less and strangely you can spend the least and actually get nothing.(nothing = the hassles of repairs) Will rescind point of view if your rebuttal justifies. As you know there are pitfalls along the way that we all fall into.(wish we never had bought it) I read these threads with a very open mind to try to find out whats best for the money, not least for the money.

Tweakerman I’m sure we all have our idea of what BUDGET means but I’m going to try this one more time.

Many of my friends are music loving students, musicians and dancers for whom spending $600 on an integrated amp is a heart stopping decision. In your last post, you mention the Kora mono’s at ONLY $6K. $6K is more than the value of all their earthy possessions. Your other recommendation of a Capitole or Mephisto (which I presume is your comparison to the Accuphase) is more than the cost of their total system and recordings collections.

Whether I wasted high five figures on my main system configuration is not the point of this thread.

For $600 I got a 302 with decent NOS/Svetlana tubes and a decent aftermarket power cord.

So what integrated amp should I buy for my friends for $600?

I’m still waiting for Ezmerald’s answer.

What’s yours??

If you tell me I’ll get one to listen to and if it is better than Jolida, I’ll buy that unit for my friends instead of the Jolida.

Hey Pls1 you miss my point. Since both Mr. Gthrushl and Mr. Ezmerald are US citizens so are allowed to give their honest thoughts,(they seem to speak from gut feeling) you can take it or leave it. Let Mr. Dakajoba go listen for himself. If you refer to the Dec. issue of sterophile you'll see one of the VERY few reviews i like by a "professional" reviewer. Fremer gives the prize to the Cosmos($6K) over the AR 200($11K). Now to me that is very interesting. No ads ,nobody mentions Kora in their threads So i go over to their web and see their intergrated called Explorer. I figure "must be expensive" I go to a web dealer and bingo Kora Explorer $750!!!! And get this. Its a Hybred, you get the best of both worlds. I bet you that little 60watt!!! amp holds its own 2x's price. Jolida may be better than NAD and Rotel but that ain't saying much.

I haven't heard the hybrids, but my JoLida 502B with Svetlana KT88s, Tungsram 12AX7s, and Westinghouse 12AT7s sounds pretty damn good through my Kestrel Hot Rods. By the way, I used to be a solid state fan...no more.

Mg just curious how much were the Svetlana the Tungsram the Westinghouse? i've heard good on all 3 So looks like Marakanetz had the right word here, get good tubes. BUT how much are they? You may have hit on something here. In order to get these high quality tubes in a amp you may have to spend alot more. In other words get the Jolida then get good tubes and there you have it a good sounding amp at a great price. But then you are in Kora and others price range which becomes a matter of : does the better tubes in your unit overtake the better electronics in the others. If that makes any sense.???