Jolida and B&W Nautilus 805

How big is your room and what type of music and volumes do you listen to? For normal volume levels in a reasonably sized room the JD-202A drives the Nautilus 805 just fine. Wally

I disagree with Wally.

Although I am one of the biggest fans of the Jolida 202A, it does not mate well with the B&W N805. If that sounds like a criticism of the Jolida, it isn't. I tried the N805 with another, far more expensive EL34 based integrated, the Conrad Johnson CAV50, and it also is not up to driving the B&W.

Although I am not a big solid state propoent, I go along with your first statement, these speakers prefer solid state amplification. A demanding impedendance/phase angle up through the lower midrange is the reason. If you are going to go with these speakers, you'll never get them to sing until your pair them with transistors.

Personally, I feel so strongly about this amplifier, however, that I would see if you could look into a friendlier pair of loudspeakers. If you like the EL34 magic, it definitely has that. A beautiful amplifier when you find a synergistic match.

My room is about 18 x 11 and I don't listen at party volumes (although, occasionally, I will turn it up a little to get some of the excitement out of rock music...). :)

Let me name off a few artists in my CD collection of late:

India Arie, Coldplay, Michelle Branch, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Getz/Gilberto, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Ben Folds Five, Train, John Mayer, Eagles, Elton John, Jamiroquai...

I have two follow up questions:

1. For the collection of music I just mentioned, would the Jolida be a good match? If the N805s aren't recommended with the Jolida, what speakers would work better?
2. Otherwise, if the Jolida isn't a good match, what amp/speaker combo would be recommended?

Thanks for all of the good comments!

Lennychen, your tastes seem to tend toward an eclectic version of someone who listens to modern rock.

18' X 11' is not a small room. Forget about ever feeling you "don't listen at party volumes", although I am into lower power tube amplification, I am also a proponent of having enough guts to do the music justice.

I should clarify my assertion that the Jolida will not drive the B&W well. Sure, the speakers will play, you will attain a certain, probably satisfactory level of volume, and all may seem well. But, that is a far cry from what this hobby is about. What you will miss is something that may sound intangible - the marriage of a loudspeaker with the amplifier driving it. As in life, any man and woman can get married, but some make more sense than others.

An amplifier works well with a speaker, to me, when it is capable of producing beautiful music with the loudspeaker. The human voice will be realistic, the pace of the sound will not lag behind what the disc truly sounds like. The mid/woofer's voice coil will be controlled to the point of not having the illusion of it not causing the amplifier to seem like someone straining to run up a hill. You will know within a very short time whether or not it works.

To put things most plainly, if the loudspeaker - amplifier combination sounds like less than the cost of the two, it is a poor match. Conversely, if the whole sounds like it exceeds the cost of the sum, it is a good match. That is what should never be lost sight of.

As far as solid state amplifiers go, I am not so up to date on them, as I do not actively seek them out. But, you may want to look into Audio Refinement, Bryston, Electrocompaniet, Musical Fidelity, or Plinius.

In terms of speakers that mate well with the Jolida, I have personally heard absolut magic with the Totem Arro(INCREDIBLE, if you can live without the bottom octave) and JMlab Cobalt series(very musical). I would also recommend anything from the Alon monitors, Coincident, most speakers from Soliloquy, and a few models of Triangle(if they suit your taste).

"Trelja", I would like to agree and dissagree with you on a couple of point...
...First, 11x18 IS A SMALL ROOM!...from an acoustical standpoint that is! Maybe in terms of HOA and realter's terms it's not. But in the world of acoustics, 11x18 would most defintely not evern really be medium sized!..but I guess it's all relative to who'm your asking.
I would, however, agree that the little Jolida's aren't necessarily the best POWER OUTPUT match with the 805n's in my experience. AS much as I love those little Jolidas for the $, they want a little less demanding speaker ideally. As far as sonic match, tastes will vary.
Even though the B&W's are not so ineficient, and are modestly high sensitivity for small monitors, they seem to do better pushed with higher current indeed!..the same held true for the older Matrix 805's(even the likes of the VTL ST85 wasn't really enough to push the sound stage on those either!). I used to also own Thiel 1.5's, which were like 86db senstive at 4ohms. And the Jolida 502, allthough excellent sounding overall for the money on them, didn't push the soundstage as good as it could have. Better solid state amps did aa better job there. Although, I liked the sound of tubes on those two speakers for sure!
I guess alot depends on your tastes and what volume levels and types of music you prefer as well.
A combo, if you already own the 805's, that I think would be stellar, yet still giving tubes in the system, would be a great sounding tube preamp, mated with a good solid state amp! You could find used tube pre's with good sonics in the $500 range used, but you'd need to spend a bit more on a good amp I guess...at least maybe $600+ on a used Classe or something...minimal!
However, if you would like to find out what the Jolida's can do, it wouldn't hurt to buy one!..they are great little dudes for the money for sure.
hope this helps