Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

I have the 1801a and generally like it very much for almost all types of music. It is a pretty robust tube amp. What I don't like about this particular model is that one must turn the amp upside down in order to bias the tubes. Very odd.

@Samzx12

Sam, my apologies, this should be a friendly forum, I never said you are naive', I doubt you are. What does my opinion matter anyway, I think the more expensive is better is 'wrong' which is a better way to say it. I'll give you a for instance. Someone was selling a $4,000 Kenwood power and preamp on craigslist for $400. I dont think he got his money's worth with the $4,000 :)I wouldn't touch it for $400.

Getting into more respected equipment: My dealer (it's an addiction I guess) alternates usually between Cary and McCormack seperates, which run $5,000. That's $15,000 for the amp and cd player. His name is John L Vandersteen, in Chicago, he was an audio engineer for some big companies, he designs and sells his own speakers now, and he explained to me the difference in cost between the components used in high end vs. extremely high end, which was not that much and ultra high end which is costly. He explained that the name plate accounts for a huge percentage of 'markup' and 'market price'. He's a respected sound engineer as best I can tell, a high end audio dealer, someone who build gear and knows costs, and has let me hear expensive stuff for many hours.

So the Cary and McCormack gear that I've heard for many hours doesn't sound 'better" to me than Musical Fidelity or Jolida gear which costs LESS THAN 1/3rd the price, it sounds different. A Cary name tag will add a certain cache', like a Rolex. More expensive usually means better, but my understanding is that the costs of the making these components is not nearly as great as the price, so a lot goes into paying for the name. If it were the R&D you are paying for, I imagine B&W (as big as they are) could never be beat based on their budget...and I bet Kenwood has a high budget too. And I think they still make crap at whatever price.

I've owned a 302b for a while now. I bought it used from another Agoner. I replaced tubes right off the bat and that made a noticeable difference. Last year I sent it to jolida to have some work done and had the recommended upgrades done. When I got it back I was very happy. I'd say for the money you get a pretty good product. I also have had many positive interactions with the staff at jolida MD. I'd recommend jolida to my friends.

Owned a 2003 302B powering Meadowlark Kesrel 2s for about a year, then Vandersteen 2Ce Signatures. Then traded up to a Rogue Cronus, than to a CJ CAV50. The Jolida was OK as a entry point into tubes but if I could do it all over again I would have gone straight to CJ for the simple reason that the dynamics witht he Jolida were way too soft and laid back for my tastes. I mean tubes are somewhat polite, but the 302B was way too polite, my sense is that there was some incoherence that was the cause.

No problem Sloane and I have to agree with your assessment on higher end gear for the most part. A lot of the differences in audio is the design. You can build something with decent parts and if its implemented correctly it will sound very good . Just because it costs an arm and leg doesn't mean it will sound fantastic. A Jolida amp with better tubes does improve it quite a bit. I do have to say I had a Jolida JD-100 CDP an d for the price it sounded very good and better with NOS tubes. I replaced it with a Cary 303 CDP and liked the Cary much better. The Cary was a few hundred dollars more but Cary's are designed very well. Its also how it fits in your system and personal tastes.