Just ordered the Jungson 88D Luxury Edition.


Based on some of your commends and a sparse BFS review, I'm taking the plunge. I really hope it will sound good in my system. The guy I bought it from says it's ultra smooth, lush, and just seductive. He also carries the DK VS1 integrated and prefers the Jungson sound over the DK. The Jungson LE is supposed to have better build quality and sells for $1300 less! Any comments on the Jungson is welcome.
dracule1
Thanks, Still using the Cayin Tube amp? I think you'll really like the difference. I had a Jolida 202A which probably isn't quite up to the level of the Cayin. None the less I think you'll probably find the midrange more resolving but probably not quite as warm. Treble more extended and natural. Big difference will be in the bass and slam department. Speakers will probably sound an octave deeper.

These are just guesses, not having heard the Cayin. But I think you'll find music alot more exciting. Should match real well with the Shengya tube CDP.

Looking forward to your impressions once you have it burned in.

All Chinese rig cool!

BW Maxx
Hi Maxx, I sold my Cayin and Shengya CDP. Although I enjoyed the openness of the Cayin, I wanted more extension and dynamics. The other problem was tube noise especially with a tube Shengya CDP I had. The soundstage collapsed and sound became harsh on loud classical passages. You can only ask so much from a 30 watt integrated. I also ordered the Marantz SA-11 SACD player, both the amp and player should arrive around the same time. I think I'll get all the things you mentioned and more, if there is synergy between the Jungson and Marantz. I will write a review of both units once everything has broken in. I could never afford this level of sound if it weren't for the new wave of excellent Chinese gear.
Same here no way I could afford this type of performance with domestic/euro gear. Thats what I had heard about the Cayin. Thats why I think you'll find this alot more exciting amp. Its anything but boring, big big 80wpc.

The owners manuel is intersting. English on the front and back. First page is in English with the same thing in Chinese under it saying be sure to read the manuel. Everything after that is in Chinese. LOL Not that you really need instructions.

One thing I did learn though is if you hold down the mode button on the remote, which is used to select the input source, it allows you to go up and down much faster on the volume control which being a stepped attenuator is fairly slow.

Love to see the Luxury Edition. Andy at Sekei after seeing the LE said he was going to be ordering it as standard rather then the non LE because its such a cool looking amp.

Later.

BW Maxx
Probably not totally relevant to this thread, but I just bought the Jungson 88C (budget 80W, class AB integrated) used (on Audiogon of course). It was interesting for me to read the link to the review that Maxx posted on the more expensive gear, as the 88C exhibits the same kind of behaviour with the volume control as its more expensive brethren in the lineup. I have never had the volume control past about 18-20 for serious listening, but there is a point at which going one notch further seems to harden the sound up noticeably. I think this is a characteristic with most gear, but it was noticeable immediately with the Jungson; it would be nice if there was a little less gain delivered between "notches" on the volume control as you get higher up on the volume scale.

That, however, is a pretty minor quibble and I can tell you that I am thrilled with this amp. It replaced an older Audiolab 8000A which I bought used for about $400 Cnd. in 1990 or so. The Audiolab had been modified a bit (Vampire RCA's, Cardas jacks, extensive damping of the chassis) and sounded considerably better than it did stock and was pretty highly thought of in the budget integrated category for a long time (it retailed around $900-$1000 Cnd. in the early to mid 90's). I paid $300 U.S. (about $380 Cnd.) for the Jungson expecting it would be kind of a sideways move sonically but I'm getting old and lazy and really wanted a remote. The 88C is miles ahead of the Audiolab in terms of digging into the recording, transparency, smoothness, bass control, etc. etc. I can literally hear stuff on many recordings that was not there with the Audiolab and the overall presentation is much more refined and less aggressive. The 88C, however, will not make poor recordings sound good; certain (particularly pop-fortunately I don't listen to much of it) recordings which sounded hard and aggresive on the Audiolab sound even worse with the Jungson, but well recorded material sounds significantly better.

Unless there are reliability issues (and I would doubt it based on how the stuff appears to be built-it is gorgeous and appears to be of extremely high quality), this stuff is an absolute bargain. I have always been a "value for money" audiophile; I'm not particularly interested in paying 2 or 3 times as much for what I consider to be limited performance gains, so the Jungson stuff is pretty appealing to me. I know that Maxx had an e-mail from the previous owner of the 88c that I now have who felt the amp might be a little weak dynamically (he ended up upgrading to the class A 88D) but I honestly don't hear that. I'm a very happy guy.
Small world. Daniel emailed me and said he sold his 88C to someone who was a little apprehensive about the dynamics before buying it.

Actually the dynamics thing was a little out of context. What I basically said on AA was that I had not heard the 88C. Recommended the 88C on what other owners were saying.

He really liked the amp but thought it might not be quite as dynamcic as his old setup. This really had me curious since the 88C like the 88D is suppose to be quite dynamcic.

It really floored me to find out the 88C had replaced his Bryston 2B LP amp/Forte3 preamp combo. Nuff said?

Bw Maxx