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Ready to upgrade from the Jolida JD1501

Like the title says, I currently have the Jolida JD1501RC and I absolutely love it. That being said, I'm getting the itch to upgrade. I recently got the new KEF LS50s and my system has never sounded so good. BUT now I cant help but shake this feeling that the amp is holding the speakers back. For the most part it sounds fantastic but I've noticed that more complicated music, with lots of parts, seem to loose a bit of the magic. I feel like these speakers deserve an amp that is on the same level in order to really shine. Any suggestions? Im mostly interested in a good integrated but am open to seperates if I can get them for the right price.

A few I have been reading about.

Exposure 2010s (Noticed that stereophile gave it a class A rating and its price is not astronomical)

Luxman l505u (I admit half of the interest is because it just looks pretty. I'm a sucker for the power gauges)

parasound Halo a21 w/appropriate pre-amp (I started looking into this combo after seeing a picture in Stereophile of KEF using this setup to demo the ls50s)

Any of these stand out as an obvious choice? Anything else I should be considering? Not many options for auditioning locally so research is going to have to be my primary method.
128x128megido
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I still use a pair of KEF Q10s I bought new...a great nearfield recording monitor by the way...and I bet the LS50s are MUCH better in every way. Metal heads should use 'em with a subwoofer. Also, a buddy of mine has that Vincent 236 and it sounds great, although it's not as much fun as a pure tube amp.
megido's avatar
megido OP
22 posts
 
@Finsup Maybe I am just hearing the speakers limitations. I suspected the amplifier because a common complaint or critique of the JD1501 is that its quite musical but not very revealing. After seeing that stated several places, I began to suspect it might be holding the speakers back a bit since being revealing is what they are really good at.

@ Wolf_garcia I'm actually very happy with the bass these things put out. I have a velodyne subwoofer I could plug in, but honestly, I've never even been tempted to.

Like I said, I would LOVE to go pure tube and have recently been tempted by the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum but I don't think tubes would be very practical for things such as movies and games which the amp would also have to run. Please correct me if I am wrong. All I need is an excuse!
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I've found that a sub does more than merely add bass extension (although that is what they do) as a good sub somehow "charges" a room, making the main speakers sound better all around, even with bass shy recordings (mandolin, bird noises, whining strangers). That Rogue amp has 100 watts or something so I bet you can game and movie all you want. I promote the use of tube amps partly because you can change them to suit your tastes with tube rolling, and for the joy that comes from burning your fingers
megido's avatar
megido OP
22 posts
 
I have no doubts that the the rouge could deliver on performance but I'm more concerned with burning through the tubes more quickly with excessive movie watching or game play on top of actually listening to music.
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