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Jolida CDP question

I have owned a Jolida JD100 with a level 1 mod for about 8 months. I read many threads about the Jolida here on Agon before my purchase as well as after. In my system, it sounds rich and warm with good tonal balance, but lacks detail and emotion big time! I'd have to say kind or boring if you will.

Prior to buying the Jolida, I had a somewhat decent solid state upsampling dac and transport. The SS dac was definately on the bright side and had very little warmth. However, it had incredible detail, was unbelievably transparent, and was very exciting to listen to. Transparency seems virtually non-existent with the Jolida. The purchase of the Jolida was an attempt to capture some warmth, and it did! but, the sacrifices appear immense.

In my 8 months of ownership these are some of the things I have done to remedy the situation without success. I have bought to date about $1,200.00 in different matched tubes(one pair at a time). These include all of the recommended NOS tubes and many many more. I have also tried some different interconnects, and power cords. The best results were with Audience Au24 IC's, Guerrilla Audio Power cable, and a pair of tubes I bought here an Agon that are not in anyones list of tubes to try, but are the best on the planet.

I am driving Innersound Eros hybrid electrostats, which includs the bass amp for the low frequencies, and are using Monarchy Audio SE-100 deluxe SS monoblocks to drive the stators. I used this same combination of speakers and amps when I had my SS source gear.

So I'm not sure if anyone can help. Seems like the characteristics I'm experiencing with the Jolida are etched in stone. In any case, if anyone has any recommendations on fixes or different players, please let me know. Thanks..
sfrounds

Showing 2 responses by chazzbo

chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
Kehut
Well slip of the tongue after I got all frothed up.The damn thing to this hobby is there is so many contrary oppinions of "fact" (see my other recent post on "Best Turntable Under $5K).Bet people in the coin collecting world or model rocketry sleep better and have longer lives than "audiophiles"
Chazzbo
chazzbo
1,007 posts
 
All of this makes me think my buddy is right that tubes don't belong in CD players.His point being that the tube warmth or sofetening should be done farther down the line.Maybe in the pre with glass if you want the speaker to have the dynamic or bass control of SS or a Glass poweramp for ultimate bloom,midrange magic on say vocals or acoustic instruments.I have had most combos use you can have in setting up systems but I am now of a mind that the source from digital to cartriges/phono sections should have the greatest resolution,that pre-amps should be (passive or active) have the least signatureand that your power amp should give the greatest "imprint" on the sound before your ultimate transducer the speakers.Sounstage is critcal to the source component but resolution is on an equal footing.The choice of cables ot components farther down the chain can "fix" the problems up front but like they say "garbage in garbage out".Take a high resolution CD player like a Krell which some have criticized as too harsh or metallic sounding well it certainly seems like an easier task to "cure" than "adding" resolution to a well hate to say it "mushy" sound.This is all taken by somebody who uses an EL34 based EAR intergrated currently and loves that two way monitor sound with the right midrange to expense of the frequency extremes.But my next go at it will be to get the best resolution (even with nasties to tame) SS up front (CD and phono)with a neutral SS pre-and finsh the gig by matching glass amps with the right efficiency speakers.Not sure how much this screed was worth but think that even with well respected after market modifiers adding tubes to the CD it isn't the way to go at it sort of jumping the gun oir putting the Horse before the cart.
Chazzbo
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