Jadis JA8o vs. old Audio Research D115

[Franco Lissa]

Recently I had the opportunity to test for four days the Jadis JA80
power amplifier in my home system; it was offered to me while my amp,
the old Audio Research D115 MK II was in servicing for retubing. My
system includes the Michell Gyrodeck turntable with Well Tempered Arm
and Koetsu Black, Proceed PCD, Audio Research SP 9 Mk III, AudioStatic
ES 300 (european version) and a complete MIT Shotgun wiring system. I
need to replace the MIT Shotgun power cables with budget Audioquest
cables, because of the different required wideness of the forks on the
side of the amp: you know, the main connecting problem with the old
ARC power amps is the narrowness of their original binding posts. I
listened carefully to the Jadis for four evenings using mostly high
quality LPs and some CD with classical music material. Using the best
orchestral recordings (just for instance the Speakers' Corner reprint
of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream by Maag) the Jadis had a
significatly deeper soundstage (perhaps deeper than the real thing),
and a more powerful and authoritative bass response. Apart from these
pros, I found the Jadis presentation more dull and lifeless in the
midrange (for example on the violins). My old ARCs seemed to me more
forgiving the flaws of the recordings, their sound was more warm, rich
and forwarding than the Jadis. I found that a lot of recordings (and
very nice ones, for example the Shaded Dog records of the Brahms
violins sonatas with Szeryng and Rubinstein) were almost irritating on
the Jadis. At the end of my occasional test, I found myself proud of
the sound of the old ARC, most of all considering that the italian
price of the Jadis (60 watts) is just for istance heavier than the
price of the recent 110 watts ARC VT 130 (I never heard them). May be
that the Jadis suffered from the different output impedance of the ARC
SP 9 in front of his natural companion, the Jadis JP 80. May be that I
heard them with a less expensive cable. May be that the Jadis have
problems with electrostatic loudspeakers like the Audiostatics (And
why ? Those dutch speakers have none of the typical load problems of
the Martin Logans, for example). May be (and that is my question)
that the new generation tube power amps are too much "hi-fi", too much
looking for transparency and too less attentive to the immediateness
and the pleasantness of the music.

--
Francesco Michele Lissa
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