Well, I ended up with the Jadis, courtesy of Trelja, whom I think, somewhat guiltily, I coerced into selling it, although I doubt that he really wanted to! But he did, and my conversations with him revealed a truly passionate and knowlegeable Audiophile, who really loved his Jadis. I am running it with new EL34s, a modded Jolida JD-100 CDP (Amperex Bugle Boy and Siemens NOS tubes) with Proac S1 speakers. ICs are Wireworld Gold Eclipse 5, S/Cs Mas Signature bi-wires. The amp is superb; fast, dynamic, with a sweet mid-range and good, sound bass. Initially I heard an edgy, strained high-end, but as the tubes warmed up (now about 100 hours), this softened and the highs are now much sweeter and not edgy at all. Initially I thought that this could be a function of the S/Cs and that I would have to change them to cables that minimized glare; however, time on the tubes has softened the edginess and it is possible that the S/Cs will be OK. The other problem is the speakers - the Proacs are situated 6" from the wall, and, being rear-ported, they should be a few feet from the wall. But it may well be that the Jadis is "too good" for the accompanying equipment and I will soon bring it home to pair it with my Kharma 3.2s and EMM source, just for kicks to hear it at its best for a short while.
However, it certainly does the "job" in my office and has given me 100 hours of pleasure - for which I thank Joe! As always, I appreciate all your input on this forum - you have all been responsible for my best choices in audio, and Stereophile and Dealers' studios for all my worst ones..............:)
By the way, there is only one big negative to this amp - biasing. No way I can dissemble it in my office in its tight space, connected to speaker loads that are intricately threaded through holes, crevices and angles at the back of the closet. That's why I haven't tried KT 88s and KT 90s; nor will I for a long, long while. By the way, he (Trelja) even printed me his own manual on how to bias the amp. A true A'gon star! Thanks, Joe.
