jolida issues? first tube amp

There is one good thing about a "mass market" product...most of the bugs have been worked out before you get yours. Low production products, whether they be audio amps or balistic missile guidance systems cannot get the extent of pre-release evaluation that is common practice for products that are sold large quantity. In other words, you, the purchaser, perform the final acceptance test, and you the purchaser must fix the problems.

I (very briefly) owned a Jolida 102b and it was also a piece of junk. Very poor manufacturing - a whole laundry-list of issues, both cosmetic and functional. The worst was the controls - the volume/balance pots made tons of noise, and the unit was only a couple years old. I also had to have the unit repaired. It didn't even sound all that special. A complete and total waste of time.

There's magic to those "tubes tubes tubes", but there are brands at the low end that aren't all that well built. Poor build quality and its resultant problems can take the joy out of the experience.

I'd suggest checking out Quicksilver and Rogue for some very nicely made (and great sounding) tube gear that is still affordable. They're both way out of Jolida's league.

well, I will agree w/ Mwilson that JoLida manuf quality & parts quality leaves much to be desired. However, in my limited experience w/ a 502A, I cannot say that it as bad as Jupiterfish has experienced.
I'm the 3rd owner of this 502A & my amp was built around 1997 (confirmed by speaking to JoLida on the phone). I used the amp for 2 months in its original/stock form. Everything worked just fine & none of the controls made any noise. There was an annoying hum & it was discovered to be a design issue that I had fixed later on (you can read about it in my "bedroom system" page if you care to know more). The prev owner did have to repair 1 tube socket because he put too much pressure when inserting a tube (he confessed this at the time of the sale).
Internally, I've had much of orig parts have been upgraded & my friend who did the work did say that the PCB quality was poor in that the metal runners would peel off if too much heat was applied during soldering. I sort of expected this being manuf in China & sold in the USA at a certain low price point.
From a sonic point, the JoLida is poor sounding & I think that it is 'cuz of the ample global negative feedback it uses in the "ultra-linear" mode (boy, did I fall for this marketing term "ultra-linear"!!). All-the-same, it sounds quite good but it certainly not the best tube integrated at this price point.
Mwilson's suggestions of Rogue & Quicksilver are very good but they are all atleast 2X the JoLida price. I've seen some new Rogue integrateds advertised in Stereophile for about the same price as a new JoLida 502B but I've not heard them myself.
Other reasonable brands to consider are Primaluna & Unico.
There is magic in tube amps - make NO mistake! I'm sorry to read that your 1st foray had been marked w/ much pain. Hopefully you will persevere w/ tube power amps & will get to hear what they can offer.

I decided to jump on this "Jolida issues" train and post some of my personal notes in order to help & inform my audiophile friends.
Well first I have to agree with Mwilson & Jupiterfish on a manufacturing issues. I owned 502b for a less than 4 months and had to let go due to a couple of issues that I discovered straight from the box. Purchased brand new, amp came shipped in double box nicely packed.I removed the amp from the box & discovered that the power switch blue led is hidden inside the amp instead of above the power switch, so when you turn on the amp it glows blue light from inside.That was easy fix.But paint on the surface of 1k amp shouldn't be so rough and it shouldn't include human or brush hair visible right next to where the tube holes are! Also some of the openings(small holes on the bottom of the amp) were so roug/sharp and almost dangerous looking.And sound of the amp is what you pay for.So don't expect anything close to Cary, Rogue or Quicksilver.It will paint a tube picture for you quite well but nothing stunning will came out of that box.I would suggest buying it used or hearing/seeing it first before any final thoughts on purchasing.Beleive me, there is sea of other models and companies who will offer more for far less or same amount of money specialy if you buy them used from your local Audiogoner.And for the end please inform yourself before any purchase.It will save you some money and a lot of nerves.Thanks and happy listening.

Reliability issues are what keep me from using tube equipment. It's been years since I owned a tube integrated.
While I wouldn't debate the sonic benefits of tubes, if tweaking/fiddling with your equipment is why you love this hobby then tubes are for you.

I owned a 1703 Jolida a few years ago and it worked perfect. I own their CD player (JD 100) and it also works perfect. Love it!!!!

R.

Most tube amps should not be powered up with no load, ie. speakers not connected. This is probably the reason the fuse keeps blowing. Don't do that anymore.

Jupiterfish,

couple of things....

"when i called about the shipping they said it was ont eh bench being tested- a park bench?"

LOL! no, it's not a park bench! they spoke to you in typical engineering terminology - a test-bench where equipment is tested is colloquially refered to a "bench" in short-form. typically, a test-bench (or bench) is a rigid metal table with 4 sturdy legs that can take the weight of some heavy test equipment (signal sources, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, network analyzers, etc). Often this bench has a hutch so that some of the equipment can be stacked onto it as there is not enough space on the bench itself to accomodate all the test equipment & DUT (device under test).
hope that this clarifies.

agree with Rhljazz - tube equipment does NOT like to be switched on without a load (such as a speaker) & the reason for this is that if the load is disconnected, the anode/plate voltage of the output tubes can reach thousands of volts as a result of this open-circuit. This will most likely blow the fuse (as you are experiencing).

HI jupiterfish,

Not sure what to make of this as the Jolida equipment has been nothing but excellent the last several years. You mentioned spending over $1000 for a 1501RC?? You must be including all the shipping to Jolida? Retail is $750.

Jolida did have some QC issues many years back but lately have been very good with the more recent designs.

".....tube equipment does NOT like to be switched on without a load......"
The 1501RC is a Hybrid design with a solid state output section. It sounds like a ground/short problem with the fuse blowing upon turn-on.

I have been selling Jolida gear for 10 years and teh 1501RC since it's introduction. I don't think I have 3 units go in for any service work. One of these was do to a bad tube and the customer was not comfortable with changing it on his own. The other two (that I know of) were sent in to have the RCA input jacks replaced due to the ground coming out in interconnect cables. The new versions do not use these cheap RCAs and no more problems have been reported.

I have an older version in my home that has not been shut off since 2001 and it has not skipped a beat. Even has the original 12AX7 Chinese tubes in it!!

What version do you have? Does it have the fixed and variable out?

As far as the rest of the gear, such as the 102B mentioned, these have also come a loooong way with MUCH better internal components including ALPS Blue volume controls.