To Former owners of Jolida JD 100

I felt my JD100s had great body and coherence, average detail, and not enough edge definition for dynamic snap and verve. It is a CD player that doesn't do anything very fast which is fine with many kinds of music but falls short with highly dynamic electronic and the like. For rock it was "nice" but when the music was supposed to be aggressive, the JD100 was not. I ended up liking a more neutral cd player and after trying 6 of them in my system, I settled on an Audio Aero Prima mk2 - and I love it. It has just the right balance of coherence and detail for my system and my tastes in music.

Arthur

I second Arthurs assessment though I would point out that it depends on your system and how well it integrates with your other components so you have to take each opinion in context.
R

I basically feel the same( as Arthur and Rushbattle)..I thought the JD was a very open player in my system (at the time)..I will also add that the player is very responsive to tube rolling. The Chinese tubes provide decent drive, but seem to be responsible for what I thought was a rather "splashy" top end, (at least in my set up) NOS types such as RCA, Raytheon,GE's 5751's with their lower gain seemed to limit the dynamics and made a more closed in soundstage IMO. I dont think any amount of tube rolling is going to drastically change the player into a top performer though.

Power cords too have a definate effect upon the player. I tried cords from VH Audio's Flav 4 to Electraglide's Epiphany ( some would concider overkill)..All changed the character of the sound as would be expected.

FWIW..a good audio buddy and I were able to compare my stock JD with a Level 2 (Parts Connection) player side by side..The jest of it was that while the modded player had the better bass and lower noise, as well as a more forward presentation......the stock player with EH 12AX7 provided the warmth and texture that makes this player as good as it is at its price point.(at least at its used going price)

I owned a Rega Apollo and then NAD 542 after the JD. While I felt the Rega to be a bit better than the JD in terms of noise floor and overall smoothness, It was more of a lateral move than a real sonic upgrade IMO.

Like Aball..I landed upon the new AA Prima and haven't looked back. It's more than 2X the price but truly is a leap in sonics above the JD in every regard.

If I still owned the JD...This is a tube I would try. I like them in my Jolida amp very much!

http://www.thetubestore.com/tungsol12ax7g.html

Ken

Aball summed it up nicely.

My favorite tubes were vintage Telefunken 12AX7 smoothplates however, new matched goldpin EH 12AX7s performed admirably, at one tenth the cost. (I tried around a dozen different tubes)

Since you ask specifically. PRAT may have been its only glaring short coming and maybe a bit of top end clarity. Not a lack of air, just the minutia contained herein.

I am glad I kept my Jolida. I also have a CJ DV2B (tube output) and a Meridian 508.24. Each player has it's own strengths/weakenesses, but the Jolida is a keeper, especially after replacing the tubes with ribbed plate Telefunken 12AX7s. This really opened up the mids and highs and the bass is much clearer and solid. Soundstaging is as good as the CJ but perhaps not as much dynamic oomph. The Meridian trumps the two tube players for that.