Klipschorns + Jolida - a seven-week review

[DTLongo]

Hello all. A new Jolida JD102B tube amp is now broken in and settled in with my 2003 Klipschorns. Its been an evolving experience. Here is an account and my latest impressions.

The 20 wpc Jolida is plenty to drive those efficient Klipschorns to live, rock-concert-level volumes. Its four, finger-thick EL84 tubes are hard little workers. They run hot, but no problem since the handsome amplifier sits out atop an end-table cabinet in the open as a piece of audio art (see attached photo).

The Jolida amp is a spare, straight-wire-with-gain design, no frills, no controls except volume and balance. No tone controls. Out of the box and after proper biasing the amp sounded rather thin in the bass. Now that it is broken in it sounds a little fuller but, to my ear, still thinnish in the bass, at least with those Klipschorns in that room. Apart from that, in the imaging, smoothness and clarity departments the Jolida sounded great from the outset and has only continued to improve. It throws out a fat and rock-solid center image heard from my sweet seat. A remarkably dramatic dynamic range, too. Those tubes seem to follow the program materials dynamic ups and downs with a greater alacrity and eagerness than my predecessor SS equipment. (continued)

[DTLongo]

(continued - part II)

(FOR GARYMD: it will be most interesting to A/B the Jolida with your beloved Scott 299 if/when you visit here again. Please bring the 299 if you can, Gary.)

On the tuner side, I first ran the Jolida with a little Tivoli Audio PAL portable AM/FM radio/tuner. In my rather difficult rural listening area it had trouble pulling in a number of stations with clean clarity. ANY deficiency is audible on those merciless Klipschorns. Next, I tried a Bose Wave radio Ive had for years, using its tuner output. It was significantly better, and being able to use its remote control for tuning and volume directly from my sweet seat was a real pleasure. But, I still missed having tone controls.

So, I added to the mix a graphic equalizer I had on hand, a TEAC EQA-220. I fed the Bose, a DVD/CD player, and cassette deck inputs into the equalizer via an outboard RadioShack audio selector switch, thence from the EQ into the Jolidas tuner input. (The factory custom-converted the amps former aux input to a tape-out.) The equalizer worked fine, adding nil if any audible degradation of its own, and with its 30 and 60 hz sliders set to about +8 db the Klipschorns really bloomed.

[DTLongo]

(continued - part III)

Lastly, thinking outside the box some, I researched and then purchased a Cambridge Sound Works CD-740 radio/CD player ($399.00). This is a compact radio designed to compete with the Bose Wave/CD for a hundred bucks less. With its two stereo speakers plus a downward firing subwoofer it sounds quite good as a standalone.

But I purchased it for its tuner/preamp and remote control capabilities. Its headphone output feeds the Jolida tuner input. The CSW remote controls tuning, volume, bass and treble tone (four steps each up and down from flat), selector (radio/CD/aux), stereo mode and a few other functions including Loudness. Using the RadioShack audio selector switch I also run a separate DVD/CD player to play DVD audio through the CD-740s aux input to the Jolida to the Klipschorns, or a cassette deck to play my cassette collection. Many of those humble old cassettes sound awesome through the new rig.

With the CSW remote, once everything is turned on I have very flexible sound crontol including tone from my sweet seat. The TEAC equalizer has been again retired.

(continued)

[DTLongo]

(conclusion - part IV)

Sonic impressions

In a word, very full, nice and sweet. Although purists may disagree, to my ears my Klipschorns do want some bass boost, usually about +2 or +3 on the CSW. Alternatively, depending on the program material, I can run them with Loudness compensation switched in on the CSW, with the bass backed off to -1 or -2. The loudness compensation works, as it should to compensate for Fletcher-Munson lessened bass and treble perception in our ears at lower volumes, to increase relative bass and treble as the CSWs volume is turned down and to diminish them when its turned up. The loudness capability is very handy for imparting a greater fullness through the Klipschorns on bass-shy material.

Meanwhile, my Velodyne S1500R subwoofer sits in its corner for use when the mood strikes me, which no longer is very often given how fully the Klipschorns now sing with this setup. The subs high-level speaker inputs are paralleled with the Klipschorns off the Jolida. Since they are high-level inputs, the amp sees none if any lower impedance beyond the Klipschorns 8 ohms and seems to be quite comfortable. Even if the big Velo is now used rather seldom, it IS nice to have the subs added very-deep-bass capability on occasion.

So, for the moment, I have something close to retro-stereo audio nirvana, at least for me. If any of you are visiting in this area, Ocean Pines, MD, five miles in from the Atlantic shore, you are welcome to give me some advance notice and come by for a listen.

Next project: possible remodeling enlargement and reconfiguration of the Klipschorns present 11 ½ x 15 cathedral ceilinged room to ca. 15 x 16, to allow the Klipschorns more room to open up and their use in a home theater in the enlarged room. Decisions, decisions .

Tom

[3dzapper]

Tom,

What does your cat think? She seems to like the heat from the Jolida.

Nice review as always.

Rick

[DTLongo]

Thank you, Rick. The cat's name is Snuggles, aka the Puppycat (she thinks she's a dog). Heck of a personality. She does like to keep me company on that sofa.

Attached is a pic of another cat, Smokey, decorating one of the Khorns. He is a large fixed tomcat who would be happy living in a barn. The last of my three housemates of the feline persuasion is named Sugar, a cute black-and-white female, not pictured. All three were adopted around eight years ago.

Tom

[DTLongo]

(Reattaching pic - it didn't come through on the last one.)

[3dzapper]

Smokey must think that it is bad karma to have his photo broadcast over the web!

Rick

[Soundthought]

Great review, Tom.

I enjoyed reading it.

I've been running my '57 Khorns with my Jolida 202A for about 3 months.

Though i've opted for pre-conditioning the sound with an external EQ before the Jolida, the end result is extremely pleasing to MY ears.

Heck, since i've been running this set-up, I haven't had the urge to swap components and try something else.

Too me, everything else fails by comparison.

Regards,

John.

[kev313]

Hey John. Glad you still enjoy the unit!

kevin

[Klipschfoot]

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On 4/13/2004 7:20:29 AM DTLongo wrote:

(Reattaching pic - it didn't come through on the last one.)

----------------

the correct link is http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/files/April12-Klipschorns%20003.jpg

Don't leave spaces between letters in html or image links.

HTML space is %20

I just looked at the source code and figured it out. If you edit your post, just put %20 in place of the space you left in the file name.

No charge.

[garymd]

Tom,

I don't know how I missed this thread but I'm happy to hear you are enjoying all your new toys. I'm looking forward to hearing them.

Vacation probably isn't the best time to bring over the scott since our minivan fills up with kids/junk, etc. and I wouldn't trust it or even have room. I should however be making another trip to Salisbury when my son moves to his new place in June. Maybe we could do it then. I should also bring the fisher again for comparison purposes since it basically just sits around anyway.

I'll be in touch.

Take care.

- Gary

[DTLongo]

Gary, June could be iffy since that room with the Khorns is slated to be remodeled then, pushed out 4' to be a bit larger in order to move my home theater into that room along the side wall with the Khorns as front mains. But you live close enough to be able to bop out here after that work is finished, I trust.

Take care, Tom