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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$900.00
from Private Seller Summary:
Guess I will have the honor of writing the 1st review.
To be honest I find this preamp very hard to beat anywhere near its price point. I first heard it as part of the Jolida Music Envoy system before my buddy Ty Lashbrook of Tyler Acoustics took the system to "The Show" last year in Vegas. This system consists of Jolidas tubed Monoblocks (beautiful pieces) and the JD100 CD player. Wish I could afford the monoblocks as they are very powerful and sound soooo sweet. They should for 6 grand. I also have the Jolida CD player and changed the tubes in it to GE triple mica black plates. These tubes took this fine player to another level. When I inserted the preamp into my system I noticed an obvious improvement in just about the whole music spectrum. I let it break in for about a month or so before changing tubes. I then put in some GE tubes in place of the stock Chinese tubes and more improvement was heard. I waited several more months and changed out the 12AT7's with Mullards. I did not like the Mullards at all as they sounded very dry. Lot of detail but uninvolving and bland so back in went the GE's. I have done no more tube rolling but several sources say to try the Sovtek 12AX7LPH I think they are and some EH 12AT7's.
I have owned several solid state and tubed pre's and to my ears this has been the best one so far. I had a BAT system consisting of the VK200 amp and VK5i preamp. Then I had a Plinius SA100MKIII amp with a N.E.W. tubed preamp. I call it a Cary knockoff. This is one fine little preamp but something told me to try the Jolida and I am glad I did. Like I said earlier the whole spectrum just opened up. I am not going into all the mumbo jumbo that we describe but I think you catch what I mean. I have since sold the Plinius and bought a Mark Levinson ML29 amp. Believe it or not the 29 is the best amp I have heard in my system. I have owned the ML27, 27.5, Plinius, BAT, Conrad Johnson, among others over the past several years and this 50 wpc amp is the sweetest most musical of all. What a gem it is. Anyway I am really satisfied with the Jolida Music Envoy and I really find it hard to beat in this price range. The rest of my system is:
Mark Levinson ML29 amp
Jolida JD-100 CD player
Tyler Acoustics Ref III speakers
Cardas Cabling
Acoustic Zen Tsunami power cords
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet (20 amp high current) Strengths:
Build quality
Price
Phono stage
Very nice metal remote
Overall great value Weaknesses:
Wish it had blue lights instead of green Similar Products Used:
BAT VK5i
N.E.W. preamp
Plinius CD-LAD preamp
CJ preamp
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