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Jolida JD9: I think I over-bought. Alternatives?

In my infinite quest of attaining gear that punches above it's weight class.... I landed a used JD9 to try it out and I'm frustrated. The AT120ET cart is too high of output to use the high outputs (even with 12au7 tubes). I ended up using the low outputs. While it still sounds good, I can't help but think that I'm not getting as much out of it with the cart i'm using. ...and I don't want to upgrade my cart.

I think I might go back to the Cambridge 651p or Musical Fidelity V90-LPS. Both sounded pretty good. I post here, so you guys can talk me out of it ... or suggest an alternative. On the plus side, I did score some 12ax7 mullards, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

I have a stock technics 1200 Mk2 that I'm quite happy with. Just need a preamp that matches nicely with the cart. I think there might be something in-between the $200 - $600 that might be a good match.

Conversely both the Cambridge and MF are pretty good. I'm not looking for a critical preamp. Thoughts?
128x128martinman
wrayman's avatar
wrayman
54 posts
 
The JD9 has plenty of gain, no question. I've found 5751's to be the best tubes I've tried thus far in mine. They are a bit lower gain alternative to the AX7....may help your situation a bit ?

I only use the low outputs. Using the low output Denon 103D cart... still lots of gain, LOL. The gain is the one thing I've struggled with , but the JD9 is a great sounding phono stage, so I keep workin with it. :)

Good luck,
Mike
gadfly's avatar
gadfly
194 posts
 
I have a JD9 and best thing about it is you set pF to 0. Great for AT carts. But if you want to go to another preamp I can easily recommend the Hagermann Bugle2.
bdgregory
1,580 posts
 
I have both the JD-9 and a Musical Fidelity X-LPS, and have previously owned many other low (<$100) to medium priced ($~600) phono pre's. If you think the JD-9 is more pre than you need, the X-LPS is a great alternative. It's pure simple, has both MM and MC, but no other settings to tinker with. I really like the sound - nearly as much as the JD-9.

They can be found for $160 +/- last time I checked, which is less than half what I think your JD-9 will sell for used.
martinman's avatar
martinman OP
43 posts
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

So regarding the high outputs. I read through many forum threads AG, AK, etc and the overall consensus is that high outputs sound better. So, out of curiosity, I'm trying to get there with what I have. I had 12au7's which is 80% lower gain than a 12ax7 for about a week while using the high outputs. I was just on the edge of overdriving the signal - about half of my records would distort (just slightly). Anyway, things sounded better.

I'm not saying the low outputs are bad. It's more of a recognition that I'm not getting as much out of the JD9 with my setup. I was expecting to hear a big difference from some of the $200 solid state units that I demoed. It's just not that big of a difference.
martinman's avatar
martinman OP
43 posts
 
Going a little further with the "high outputs sound better" theory

My impression is that the high outputs provide more sensitivity which = more detail. I have the older JD9 with trim pots on the low output. This basically allows me to attenuate the signal -- the high outputs don't have this in the signal path. So, my goal is an un-attenuated signal.

I don't know much about pre-amps in general... My suspicion is that there is some attenuation happening?
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