Jadis amps and pre-amps still competitive?

Flg2001, the DA5 is not autobias? I always thought that outside of the Orchestra and Orchestra Reference were autobias.

Although, I may know what you are talking about. I used to read that the JA200 had some kind of adjustment for "bias" on the transformer, which technicians would set based on the voltage coming out of your wall (whether it was 115V or 120V).

Nevertheless, as you said, I'm sure the amp sounded good!

Trelja: I have my weekly audio-buddies meeting and will get the specifics for you.

Fernando

I have to echo what Trelja said. I am the lucky new owner of Trelja's Jadis Orchestra Reference in a small office sytem. It has run about 160 hours on the new JJ EL 34 tubes and sounds better and better every day. Despite the accompanying equipment not being of the caliber of my main rig at home, it has a superbly pleasing tone and timbre, and as Trelja has said, the sound is tonally right and it certainly is a match for the much more expensive tube amps.
A wonderful-sounding amp. Of course, the big negative, and the only one, is the biasing issue, which, I suspect, may cost Jadis sales of this glorious piece of equipment.Obviously, it can be done, but is a pain.

Fernando, not Jadis related, but if we are talking of biasing in general, I have always found that my preference is strongly towards running tubes at the higher end of a manufacturer's biasing recommendations. To my ears, the sound takes on a warmer, richer tone. This is but one man's opinion.

It will be interesting to hear what your friend says. Though, the DA5 is the power amp section of the DA30 integrated, which I remember both being autobias.

And, Denis, despite my preference, as you saw in the pictures, I biased your amp dead on at 110 mV (Jadis recommendations: 95 - 120 mV, preferably 110 mv).

I agree with the posts above. The Jadis sound is extraordinarily like live music, but their equipment is expensive. I still have not heard a preamp I like better than my JP200, and the JP80 I owned for years was more than competitive with the Lamm L2, which is the next best line stage I've heard at length (plus you get a world-class phono stage as well). The amplifiers may give up a little in the frequency extremes to other designs (having owned JA80s for over 10 years, I could recognize their weaknesses), but they get the midrange right in a way few amplifiers I've heard do.

Joe, it's my understanding that the Jadis equipment, even with autobias, kind of ran tubes at or close to their limits (one reason my JA80s ate up most 6550 and EL-34 tubes I used in them); that could be one reason they sound so good.