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Jadis ja-200 vs ja500

Does anyone here have experience with these two amps? 
I used to have the JA800 (3 units) and loved it but unfortunately had to sell it when I moved overseas. Lately, I have been considering going back to the big Jadis, but I wonder whether it should be the 200 or the 500. I know the 200 is class A and the 500 is A/B, which means the 200 gets very hot and might be more colored than the 500. By the way, I am talking about the old models circa 2000. 
At the moment I have JA30 and Luxman m900U, and I am looking for an amp that would be able to combine the traits of both of these. As far as I remember, (and that was 20 years ago), my old JA800 was just that.   
taviran
shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,485 posts
 
I had used Jadis 500 from 2000 to 2002 to drive B&W Notilus 800.

It gave the most powerful and deep bass in my listening room.

But I could not tolerate too much heat in the modest size listening room.

Thus I let it go.

No experience of JA 200.

Now I am happy  to drive efficient speaker with SET amp.
zipost's avatar
zipost
199 posts
 
i had both ja500 and ja200,  Side by side comparison, Ja200 is a sweeter amps and more organic.   The ja500 is a much powerful amps,  inefficient speakers 86 db and below, will work well.  Both amps are totally different in sound quality and application.  Personally, i prefer the ja200.  
rcprince
3,078 posts
 
I agree with zipost; I felt the 200s had more finesse and character than the 500s, which were more a brute force amplifier.  Plus, with the older Jadis you're looking at, the JA200s were auto-biasing and could use tubes other than 6550s, while I believe the JA500s were not auto-biasing and you had to use 6550s unless you got a tech to change the bias.  As an aside, I think the best-sounding Jadis amps were the lower-powered JA30s and 80s; if you don't need the power for your speakers your JA30s would be difficult to beat--you might want to try using different tube types in them (EL34, KT88) and different brands of driver tubes to tailor the sound to your liking..  
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