Mattzack2, your experience perfectly mirrors my experience when it comes to bias. As I said, as you increase the current flow in the output tube, outside of tube life, EVERYTHING gets better.
At this point, I don't want to encourage you to stray far from the recommended values. But I will say that if one calculates the JOR's plate current in the traditional manner, 120 mV divided by the 5.62 Ohm bias resistor would yield 21.35 mA, an incredibly (low) cold figure.
In comparison, my Dynaco ST70, which uses the same circuit, aims for a bias of 50 mA. The rule of thumb in the guitar industry shoots for 70% of maximum (25 watts for an EL34) plate dissipation, which obviously comes out to 17.5 watts. Though so many maintain the Dynaco's biased way too hot (415V B+ X 50 mA = 20.75 watts), I argue that after all these years you find so many with their original Mullard EL34, the assertion proves false. Figuring on the JOR's approximate 450V B+, at 21.35 mA, we're only at 9.6 watts, not even 50%.
I did send an e-mail to Patrick on Friday, but as of yet, have not received his reply. He's usually very prompt in these matters. We'll hope to hear from him soon. Again, I want to get his answer on the matter before saying to aim higher, as Jadis does employ a novel twist on connection to the output transformer, and the usual way of calculating these things might be very, very wrong. But, there's no need to back off from 120mV.
At this point, I don't want to encourage you to stray far from the recommended values. But I will say that if one calculates the JOR's plate current in the traditional manner, 120 mV divided by the 5.62 Ohm bias resistor would yield 21.35 mA, an incredibly (low) cold figure.
In comparison, my Dynaco ST70, which uses the same circuit, aims for a bias of 50 mA. The rule of thumb in the guitar industry shoots for 70% of maximum (25 watts for an EL34) plate dissipation, which obviously comes out to 17.5 watts. Though so many maintain the Dynaco's biased way too hot (415V B+ X 50 mA = 20.75 watts), I argue that after all these years you find so many with their original Mullard EL34, the assertion proves false. Figuring on the JOR's approximate 450V B+, at 21.35 mA, we're only at 9.6 watts, not even 50%.
I did send an e-mail to Patrick on Friday, but as of yet, have not received his reply. He's usually very prompt in these matters. We'll hope to hear from him soon. Again, I want to get his answer on the matter before saying to aim higher, as Jadis does employ a novel twist on connection to the output transformer, and the usual way of calculating these things might be very, very wrong. But, there's no need to back off from 120mV.