i had a chance to listen last night to a jolida 502b in my system. bare with me as this will be a bit long winded, but here are my thoughts. it has really put me into a quandry.
my long term amp of choice has been a b&k ex442. it's dual mono at 200w/ch and was chosen b/c of it's reputation for sounding "tube like". it sounds significantly better in my system than the previous adcom 5400 which sounded shrill even with a tubed front end.
last night i realized that there is no free lunch. the jolida sounded great, but there were some shortcomings. first the strengths. the sound stage was noticeably larger. it had a cool sense of enveloping you. it was also deeper and the "air" seemed more palpable. it was very natural sounding, smoothing over sibilant voices and instruments that can sound piercing in other systems i've listened to with my cds of choice.
on the down side there was a haziness in the imaging. my b&k images pretty well and comparing the two yielded less distinct instrument placement and separation w/ the jolida. the bass was also fairly rolled off and loose w/ the jolida.
lastly, and this is probably the biggest issue for me, the jolida really needed to be played loudly to get dynamic impact. it's as if the music just collapsed from the top and bottom ends leaving only the middle frequencies at anything less than concert hall db. my b&k is engaging at low volume levels. i recognize that i am comparing 60w to 200w/ch, but i question if even running two jolidas bridged will be disappointing.
i am now at a loss at to which way to turn. fwiw i did miss the smooth mids that the jolida offered. there are a couple of my reference cd's that have a flute and biting guitar that can be fatiguing with the b&k. not bad and nothing like i've experienced when listening to krells or the aforementioned adcom. but, for just a few notes it can cause me to wince when listening at loud levels.
my reason for this search is because my previous vandersteens were wonderful and i never thought they could be bested by anything other than a huge investment. what i found was that the gallo were reasonably priced and a significant upgrade in performance. i was hoping to find the same in an amplifier. i wish i could find the power, bass and imaging i get from my b&k with the larger, enveloping sound stage and liquid mids offered by the jolida. i am not sure this combo exists...
