Jadis JA-200 Mk. II Amplifiers

[bonzo75]

When I went to Joel's (who writes for 6 moons), I found the Luxman to be much better to his Ypsilon hybrids on the vivid G1. Joel further mentioned that he had reviewed the Ayon Orthos XS and found them to be the second best, after the Luxman, on his Vivid and also on Maggie 20.7. I therefore bought the Orthos XS and shipped them to Justin to try on his duetta.

They were good on duetta but not great. To do dynamics you had to shift them from triode to pentode. I found that the Parasound which we compared it directly with, while lacking refinement, would wake up the panels more. So I didn't find them special but maybe should not have tried on duetta.

My favorite push pulls with jadis would be the AR 250 SE (having compared them with MSB and the VTL with MSB). AR probably better for drive on tougher speaker.

I would any day choose Luxman and/or Vitus (i mention these two because they are more valve like in their sound in SS amps for your tastes) over PP valve amps for speakers that require the current and power, as I expect ribbons to be. If you wanted to keep a transistor out you should have gone horns

 

[bonzo75]

Your mono and stereo Danon did choose Vitus over Nat to drive his Gryphon? And Greg baron said his client replaced his all NAT with all Dart and both he and the client found out much better? I forget the speakers

 

[bonzo75]

An important point is the midrange is just not about the valve tone that will be consistent across speaker. The ribbon has to be driven properly for midrange, not just for dynamics. For the vocalist to have the sustain, rise, depth, all of which contribute to the midrange, the ribbon has to be properly driven. There is a reason Krell on scintilla has such a fantastic midrange. So imo your theory of thinking that NAT being a SET has a better midrange than Krell is not correct. This is correct only if you are using them on Zu, verity, and such speakers.

 

[DaveyF]

Purely out of curiosity, did you consider the comparable Ayon Audio amplifier to the JA-30?

A friend and fellow a’phile owns Ayon. I had several options to consider in the amp department before the Jadis JA 30mk2 became available..once the Jadis showed up,the decision was obvious at that point. The Ayon were never really in consideration, they don’t hold candle to the new Jadis IMHO.

Even though I had not heard the new JA30mk2 at that point ( I doubt more than a mere handful of people in the US had either) I had heard the JA120’s and I knew these new amps would be even better!!

 

[BruceD]

Bruce, I don’t know where you get the idea about the Hong Kong consortium??

As to the musical side, I believe the new Jadis amps are easily the best I have had in my system...and I have had some pretty good amps there.

Ah Glad they seem to have their ducks all in a Row and you are pleased--like I said they were/are great sonically--- Kudos!. I stuck with them not only with Amps

But JPS2/JD1/JS1/etc !

Re the Hkg connection---I am not back at my home till beginning of Dec 018 --and do not have access to my data

Storage / Old mails etc, but I was told by a Jadis Distributor at an Asian show of the HongKong buy-in of the Company.

I will try and locate my info/notes I recall when I return. Being a few moons past though I see the French base is to the fore on the current website

--possibly if the Hkg connection was made--this has now been terminated and full control returned to France.

As I said I'll need to check again and post .No Net info if I recall it was not widely reported--only could find this skerrick of a crumb!

But I'm happy to be proven wrong!

https://cheaptubeaudio.blogspot.com/2011/06/overview-jadis_21.html

Jun 21, 2011 - As with most French hifi companies, Jadis is more popular in the East and ... I did own the DPL-2, which I finally sold because there is just a trace of ..... An industry person tells me the boss behind is someone from Hong Kong.


BruceD

 

[Calle_jr]

a year ago I was hot on getting tube amplification and briefly looked closely at Jadis, likely the JA80 Mk2. I read an article (might have been attached to a review) that talked quite a bit about some significant changes Jadis had made to improve their quality control and performance. I just searched for that same article but could not find it. it might have been related to a visit to the Jadis factory and some details related to that.

maybe someone has a link?

Thanks.

I have read that cool factory visit report: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?10696-A-Visit-to-Jadis
I found this nice review yesterday. It is quite detailed but it doesn't speak about changes and I can't see any differences on the circuit: http://www.audio.grobel.com.pl/file...df?PHPSESSID=de882b312140db26d6b090d409731004

 

[Calle_jr]

Every tubophile should own a Bosch PTD-1 to measure his tubes from distance.

Haha, that's cool. But you won't get far with that on a Jadis amp.
I have the Beck RM 1 Tube Tester, customized for the tubes I use, see image below. It is possible to measure transconductance with a little trick. The RM 1 contains a switch for the calibrate measuring voltage and a lower measuring voltage. For example, you have matched a pair of tubes with same plate current values. Now put this switch in "low-position", the read off voltages (now lower values) must have also the same values for the both tubes (= 100 % identical mutual conductance)!

http://www.beck-elektroakustik.com

 

[Sablon Audio]

I realize the MB-750s are now somewhat elderly. I have heard myself how the Siegfried Series IIs and the MB-450 Series IIIs are more neutral, more extended at both ends of the frequency spectrum, are more dynamic, etc. . But . . . if I can keep the headroom with high power, yet capture more SET "magic" in the midrange . . . and improve dynamics . . . then . . . I want it!

Some sympathetic component upgrades (eg Duelund hybrid coupling caps / hexfred rectifiers / high grade connectors) will give you many of the qualities you want whilst keeping the power you need.

 

[Ron Resnick]

a year ago I was hot on getting tube amplification and briefly looked closely at Jadis, likely the JA80 Mk2. I read an article (might have been attached to a review) that talked quite a bit about some significant changes Jadis had made to improve their quality control and performance. I just searched for that same article but could not find it. it might have been related to a visit to the Jadis factory and some details related to that.

maybe someone has a link?

Very interesting, Mike! As long as you were considering venturing back to Europe did you also consider the comparable Austrian Ayon Audio amplifier?

 

[Jazzhead]

Anybody heard the JA500 mk2 .... compared it with the JA200 ?

 

[gian60]

I had together 15 years go ja 500 and ja 200
JA 200 was much better,ja 500 had good midrange but in comparison with ja 200 was dark slow and too heavy in mid bass
I THINK??? also in MK II,will be similar difference

 

[gian60]

My Jadis 80 in 1981 around

 

[gian60]

ARC 250 mk II seemed broken in comparison

 

[Jazzhead]

I had together 15 years go ja 500 and ja 200
JA 200 was much better,ja 500 had good midrange but in comparison with ja 200 was dark slow and too heavy in mid bass
I THINK??? also in MK II,will be similar difference

Thanks Gian

 

[Argonaut]

ARC 250 mk II seemed broken in comparison

gian, would you care to expand a little upon your somewhat extreme choice of rhetoric, a little context and information regarding the relevant system(s) involved etc.etc.

 

[BruceD]

Ha!--Well the Jadis Tube fetish knows no bounds--

BruceD

 

[gian60]

Which kind of choice or system involved?
I started in 1973 and until now i did different experience and choice and always involved the system

 

[BruceD]

A friend and fellow a’phile owns Ayon. I had several options to consider in the amp department before the Jadis JA 30mk2 became available..once the Jadis showed up,the decision was obvious at that point. The Ayon were never really in consideration, they don’t hold candle to the new Jadis IMHO.

Even though I had not heard the new JA30mk2 at that point ( I doubt more than a mere handful of people in the US had either) I had heard the JA120’s and I knew these new amps would be even better!!

We are in agreement on this fact the Jadis are sweeter and more seemingly more dynamically detailed than the Ayon Amps which sound constricted to me

-only heard the latter at show demos though.

The Amps that in my opinion give the Jadis good run for the money are the WAVACs.

BruceD

 

[Audiocrack]

I have always liked Jadis amps and I played for many years with a Jadis 80 (likely the mk i) before I changed to the Convergent Audio JL 1. This Jadis amp was a musical amp letting you always enjoy your music ... but there was a price to pay. It was somewhat veiled, that is not transparent, and ‘coloured’ all recordings with a beautiful glow. The CAT JL 1 ‘beated’ my JA 80 in (almost) all respects but I have still fond memories of the JA 80.

Have not heard the latest versions of the various Jadis amps but according several ‘insiders’ they are still not ‘transparency kings’ but remain ‘musical machines’.

In my experience the most/more powerful solid state and push pull amps of a certain brand almost never sound as good as its less powerful siblings. The additional power apparently (always) comes at a cost in musical terms. Unless you absolutely need the power I would always opt for a Jadis 80 or Jadis 30.

 

[BMCG]

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/jadis-ja-80-mk-ii-mono-valve-power-amplifier/

Alan Sircom's take on the Mk II JA 80