Tube upgrades for Jolida 502B?

Tbromgard - I hope you enjoy your Jolida 502 as much as I did mine. The tube complement recommended by the Tube Store sounded great. Unfortunately, the JJ KT88s just did not seem that reliable. I had a couple fail in well under 1000 hrs and on at least one occasion necessitate an amp repair. Ultimately, I went to Winged C SED KT88s purchased from Upscale Audio. That isn't anything against the Tube Store. I have subsequently purchased and will purchase again from them. The Mullard and Ei Elite small tubes they sold me were just fine. Because I changed all the tubes out at the same time, however, I can't give you any impressions about their individual contributions to the overall sound. Before you do any tube rolling, do take some time to get familiar with how the amp sounds in stock form. I think the Jolida represents good value and it does benefit from some relatively inexpensive tweaking. I heard improvement from the following: Herbie's Tenderfeet between amp and hardwood cutting board used as platform for it; HiFi Tuning Fuse; upgraded power cord. I went with a MAC Soundpipe but today would also consider a Pangea AC-9. Finally, after you have lived with the amp for a good while, get in touch with Jolida. Call them direct and find out about their factory upgrade. It was maybe $250 or a little less when I did it. Thought it was well worth the $. Noted greater clarity and a bit more detail as well as deeper tighter bass from it. Wished I had done it sooner. I don't use the Jolida day to day anymore but did keep it as a backup. While they sounded great with the Jolida, the Totem Forests I was running really needed more power so I eventually got some higher power tubed monoblocks. If WAF allowed, I would love to get a 2nd set of more efficient speakers (e.g., Tekton Lore's?) to use with the Jolida from time to time. Good luck with your 502B. Again, I hope it gives you many hours of listening enjoyment.

Tbromgard
I own a jolida 502p and I have put the current tube store premium package recommendation of 4 Gold lion KT88 reissues, 2 Northern Electric 12AX7 and 2 NOS Mullard 12AT7WA / CV4024 in the amp.The combo is quite nice open sound stage, deep bass and clear highs. It is the best combo I have tried I have used the tungsol and the winged c 6550's, GE and rca 5751,JJ 12ax7,Ei 12ax7, mullard cv4004 sovteck and EH and the list goes on for small signal tubes. I do like the tubes stores combo and it has been in for the last year. One note I purchased all the tubes from other sources GL from a local store just because I heard kt88 can be kind of fragile and did not want the hassle of shipping them back if something was wrong and the others I found a better price elsewhere.The GL's have been operating just fine for the last two years.

I stuck KT120s in my Jolida 502p after being assured (By the Jolida MD people) they would work. They do. Amazingly. The stock 6550s were fine, as are the Sovtek KT88s I tried, but the 120s just sound better in every way I can hear. Then, it was suggested by a dude at the tubestore.com to try their "preferred" 7025s in place of the 12AX7s...another brilliant idea that, combined with the 120s makes the amp just sing...more accurate seemingly, crisp but still tube rich...all good, and the 120s hold the bias settings really well. Now I'm thinking of trying Mullards in place of the EH 12AT7s and if that makes things even better, my head might explode from happiness.

Hi Tbromgard

Another Jolida JD-502P owner chiming in here. I too have Tung Sol KT-120 power tubes installed on the 502P and am very happy with them. Out of curiosity I did try the a matched quad of solid black plate Penta KT-88SC tubes. I found the bass to be less tight with the KT-88SC tubes vs the KT-120s. Mids and Highs were slightly better with the KT-120s to me. I may keep the Penta KT-88s since they don't come up for sale often or if I want a change of pace.

Now for preamp tubes here is what I've found in my system. All these notes were done with the Tung Sol KT-120 power tubes in place.

With a mellow source I found Penta Labs 12AT7 tubes and Groove Tubes 12AX7 Gold tubes make for better detail in the music without any listener fatigue.

With a source that is very forward I found The Preferred Series 7025 tubes along with Tung Sol 12AT7 tubes made the music more warm and mellow in my system with just the right amount of detail.

I also found the re-issue Mullard 12AX7s along with the EH 12AT7s made for a very mellow less detailed presentation to the music in my system. A lot of songs I was playing were really laid back. Maybe it could have been revealing the true mellowness of my source but that is what I found.

Best of luck with the search.

Thanks for the tips guys. Any other experiences tube rolling with the JD 502B?