A tade more briteness - Jolida 302b. Tubes?

Goatwuss, the Jolida can't be used as a preamp, since it needs a constant load on the outputs. From my own experience I can say that the Jolida is limited by its stock chines tubes. Changing the input ones to other, current production or NOS tubes makes a big difference.

Rene

Cables and tubes are "tweaks" as far as I'm concerned, and shouldn't be relied on as tone controls.

Man, is this a tiresome refrain, and one that has no application in this instance. You are not looking to change the tone. You are looking for high frequency access. The information is there, on the source disc, and experimenting with cables/tubes in your situation will absolutely yield the result you want. End of story.

Completely agree c Trelja. I have Ei EL34 & Ei 12AU7. I found them extremely good and reliable for the money and have the extended highs you are looking for if you are not into NOS.

Howard, I could NOT agree with you any more strongly!!!

My Jadis Orchestra Reference was a very good amplifier when I began with it. A silver power cord raised its level of performance by providing me with blacker blackgrounds, lower noise, better bass, more clarity, and more sparkle. The HGA SilverLace upped it even more. And, when I retubed with JJ Blue Glass E34L tubes, it became, in my opinion, a world class amplifier.

Should I have just accepted the performance I got right out of the box? That would have been VERY stupid. For a total outlay of less than $500, in my opinion, I raised the bar of my component from competing with $5000 competition to competing with anything. If I wanted to do that otherwise, I'd need to move into a completely different amplifier, at 2 - 3 times the price.

Glai, I think we agree on the Ei. They certainly are special. Ultimately, I did find Mullard Blackburn tubes to be clearly better than the Ei, but for about $7/tube versus $35 - $50, the value for money is with the Ei in spades. You really have to spend 7 - 10X more to beat them.

I cannot address your Jolida. However, in my Conrad Johnson MV-55, I have evolved my EL-34's from Svetlana to JJ to Electro Harmonix (EL34H) and finally have nice treble!