Prima Luna vs jolida

i had a chance to listen last night to a jolida 502b in my system. bare with me as this will be a bit long winded, but here are my thoughts. it has really put me into a quandry.
my long term amp of choice has been a b&k ex442. it's dual mono at 200w/ch and was chosen b/c of it's reputation for sounding "tube like". it sounds significantly better in my system than the previous adcom 5400 which sounded shrill even with a tubed front end.
last night i realized that there is no free lunch. the jolida sounded great, but there were some shortcomings. first the strengths. the sound stage was noticeably larger. it had a cool sense of enveloping you. it was also deeper and the "air" seemed more palpable. it was very natural sounding, smoothing over sibilant voices and instruments that can sound piercing in other systems i've listened to with my cds of choice.
on the down side there was a haziness in the imaging. my b&k images pretty well and comparing the two yielded less distinct instrument placement and separation w/ the jolida. the bass was also fairly rolled off and loose w/ the jolida.
lastly, and this is probably the biggest issue for me, the jolida really needed to be played loudly to get dynamic impact. it's as if the music just collapsed from the top and bottom ends leaving only the middle frequencies at anything less than concert hall db. my b&k is engaging at low volume levels. i recognize that i am comparing 60w to 200w/ch, but i question if even running two jolidas bridged will be disappointing.
i am now at a loss at to which way to turn. fwiw i did miss the smooth mids that the jolida offered. there are a couple of my reference cd's that have a flute and biting guitar that can be fatiguing with the b&k. not bad and nothing like i've experienced when listening to krells or the aforementioned adcom. but, for just a few notes it can cause me to wince when listening at loud levels.
my reason for this search is because my previous vandersteens were wonderful and i never thought they could be bested by anything other than a huge investment. what i found was that the gallo were reasonably priced and a significant upgrade in performance. i was hoping to find the same in an amplifier. i wish i could find the power, bass and imaging i get from my b&k with the larger, enveloping sound stage and liquid mids offered by the jolida. i am not sure this combo exists...

Perhaps swap the 12AX7s and 12AT7s out (I like Mullard 12at7A/CV4024s and Psvane 12ax7s), different power tubes, try different interconnects and speaker wires...take the entire amp apart and replace everything with premium caps, resisters, wire, and a new oil filter...and was this a factory modded version? Also, I'm using a very clean dual mono balanced Kavent S33 preamp and a later version factory modded 502P, not a 502b...so my suggestions might be useless anyway. I use a REL sub so the bass is influenced by Mosfets mosfetting away.

Call the guys at Jolida and ask them. I'm sure they have ideas.

Hi 2out2sea

I think you may need to try different tubes with that Jolida 502B. I agree with Donjr that you should ask Jolida for their input as well.

Here are my findings with tube rolling with my Jolida 502P which I think may be comparable to the 502B. This was with my system so YMMV.

For thicker bass and very clean tones I found blue glass JJ KT88 tubes paired with Mullard CV4024 and JJ 5751 preamp tubes did the trick.

I found with the Tung Sol KT-120s Preferred 7025s and Penta Labs 12AT7 tubes I had very good performance in the mids and highs along with tight bass. Lots of nice separation and detail.

My favorite overall sound was with a NOS JAN GE 6550 quad JAN GE 12AT7 and 5751s. These tubes were expensive but man the music was awesome in my system. I had a very hard time giving these tubes back to the gent that loaned them to me.

My least favorite combo was with black solid plate Penta Labs KT-88 tubes with reissue Tung Sol 12AT7 and reissue Mullard 12AX7s. Bass wasn't as tight and sound was flat to me.

Again these were my findings I'm sure others have had different experiences.

Sorry if this is a duplicate response. I tried to post my Jolida findings yesterday but I didn't see the post this morning.

i may try to contact jolida, but i am starting to wonder if a different tack may serve better. john hillig at musical concepts and i have talked and i may just modify my b&k into a state of the art amp. the cost is going to be essentially the same as getting a single jolida. all high end bits in my amp is starting to sound pretty good. i dunno at this point. i wish there were a way to trial gear. it seems very few, and none of the equipment i'm interested in, offer a trial period. demo equipment would sure go a long way into helping with these dilemmas!!!