Jolida jd-502p

I can tell you from personal experience how much better a Jolida piece I once owned sounded after I rolled the tubes. At that time it was expensive but clearly not as bad as it is now for the better truly strong old stuff. I used Upscale Mil Spec Mullard CV 4004s. The impact on the sound was so great that I found it unlistenable without those tubes in place. That was before the advent of all of the reissue 12AX7s. I like them as well but still imagine that the improvement made by true Mullards is worth the investment. If you can somehow borrow a friends NOS tubes I think you will understand what I am saying. Ordinarily I would tell you to use 5751s but unfortunately the one and only circuit where they simply did not function was the Jolida.

I used 5751s in my system to great satisfaction when I was using monitor speakers. I later moved to full size speakers and the system sounded flat. For the larger speakers I went back to the 12AX7 tube and it provided significantly more dynamic performance.

Jedinite24 makes a good point about Jolida in general...other amps I've looked at (and some I've actually listened to) are from VTL (85), Conrad Johnson, Cary, Rogue, and even a Tim de Paravicini EAR thing...all sell for multiples of the Jolida cost, and are they better? I'm not so sure...heresy yes, but really...the 502P sounds amazing.

Everyone likes what they like and if the Jolida makes you really happy why fight it. I say this because I imagine you have heard other makes of audio gear and are not naive. My own thoughts are that there are many better sounding pieces around including the EAR.
I use Chinese amps that are truly giant Killers. I honestly think their sound is about as good as it gets (in my system). They will never garner the respect of the mainstream audiophile community but I don't care and for the price paid they are simply ridiculously great.

I hardly "fight it" (the low cost excellence of the 502P)...I think I celebrate it! (ad nauseum maybe, but I prefer enthusiasm to cool). I use a Chinese Kavent S-33 (before going out of production it was built alongside Vincent stuff) that is a Giant Killer so I'm hip to great things from our Chinese brothers, without whom I'd have paid several times over what my rig cost.