Anyone have honest opinion of Jolida amps?

I think there is some snobbery concerning the Jolida. Its not a $40K set of Jadis' but, rather, a fine piece of listening equipment. I love this amp. It is smooth, warm, reliable, and tweakable.
I replaced the signal tubes with (2) Ken-Rad VT-231 (military 6sn7) and replaced the single 12ax7 with an FAA 5751 (military 12ax7 with 70% gain). The 5751 works fine for me and I don't notice the lower gain. For power tubes I use Svet. 6550s.

This amp has nice tight bass and sweet (not sticky) mids and highs. The lack of glare using a moderate CDP (Marantz 67se with Art DI/O)is simply delightful (as in I enjoy the music).

By the way, since the Jolida integrated amps have the volume control before the signal tubes, the Art DI/O 6v output can run straight to the amp. inputs without a resistor and without overloading the amp's front end. Actually, the DI/O acts as gain pumper.

The Jolida looks good, sounds wonderful, is reliable and is fun to play with. Anything "better" costs an order of magnitude more.

While in college, I had a sytem composed of a 302A, Marantz cd67SE, and Dunlavy speakers. I honestly have to say that this setup sounded surprisingly good for the money. I never once had any problems with my amp and really noticed a difference in sound (huge difference) when I switched from stock tubes to Svetlana EL-34s.

The jolida is garbage. If you just want tubes at least get a dyna st-70 with an upgrade kit, check the older threads. I'd like to know the distortion levels across the entire audio band on the thing and its power output at 30hz and 20khz (if it can even get that high), just for starters. Wonder what the slew rate is like, and I bet the damping factor (while certainly not one of the most important parameters of an amp) is probably worse than the average receiver 5 years ago. And while you can start throwing better tubes on there and power cords (the latter do nothing), that's just more money down the drain that you could have just invested in a better amp from the start.

To Ezmeralda: OK so for Dakajiba with a budget of around $500 he could get a used Jolida 302 with upgraded tubes, an NAD or a ST-70/PAS combo. Any other specific recommendations?

I thought the original question was whether the Jolida was a viable intro to tube amplification. You obviously like solid state. Goody for you. So do I. But that's why I have three systems, two SS, one Jolida based tube.

Your comparison of Sealelectronic DIY kits and Jolida is comparing apple sauce to orange juice. It simply is not a valid (or logical) comparison.

Dakajoba, a Jolida is a great way to get introduced to tubes. You may like em, you may not. I have nothing at all against a Dynaco ST-70, but an updated version and tube preamp is going to set you back at least as far as a Jolida without any substantial advantage (and no warranty).