CDP Group test Part - I Jolida CD 100A

CD players Group Test Part - I

Recently I had an opportunity to group test 4 CD players at my place. Here is a brief report.

CD players participating in the group test:
(Make - Model, Dealer/Distributor, and Price (including taxes) as quoted):

1.Cyrus CD 6S : Sound-N-Vision , Pune : 65K
2.Arcam CD73T: Xpro Global / Boomerang ,Mumbai : 40K
3.Advance Acoustic MCD203II:Boomrang, Mumbai :33K
4.Jolida 100A : Oceanic Sound and Vision, Pune : 61K

System Components:

Speakers: Cadence ARITA w/ Cadence stands
Amp: Jolida 1501RC, 100 Wpc, Hybrid
Interconnects: VDH 102 M-III
Speaker Cables: VDH Goldwater
Headphones: SONY MDR V6 Studio Monitor, Shure E2C Canal phones

Jolida 100A:

Though less common in India, Jolida is quite popular and well regarded in US where it is currently the darling of budget Tube CDP (< US$1000). And Jolida product modification has become a thriving business.

This Chinese made Jolida with an American sticker, look like a Sumo wrestler and lacks sophistication (of Cyrus), aesthetics and fine engineering (of Advance Acoustics) and simple, decent, clean – ‘boy next door’ type comfort feeling (of Arcam).

It is built like a tank, Period! Its 6 mm thick metal front plate, heavy duty buttons and military grade heavy gauge metal chassis speaks quality and dependability while inspiring confidence. Even the Remote Control is all steel body with ball bearings as buttons. This remote is not just a ‘Remote’ but a deadly, lethal and portable weapon of Mass destruction, I mean it guys. Drop it on your toes (as it happens many a times with Remote) and a bone fracture is guaranteed! And who would like the touch and feel of ball bearings? I think, Jolida guys got carried away too much with the ‘Built like a tank’ concept while designing this Remote!

Jolida’s Philips CDM 12 transport is equally sturdy but little bit of noisy. Disc access is amazingly fast, the fastest in this group test. Don’t know what Jolida guys did but track access as well as fast forwarding within a track is also amazing fast, seamless and synchronized.

The 24/96 Burr Brown DAC feeding a 12AX7A Chinese stock tube based gain stage does a fine job. This Jolida CDP is Tube roller’s delight! Just 6 screws to take out and you are in Tube rolling business.

Headphone jack on front panel with its own dedicated volume control is a real nice touch. This section is driven by a MOSFET circuit. I liked the idea initially but disappointed later when I tried SONY MDR V6 studio Monitor cans and Shure E2C, this certainly not a substitute for a dedicated Headphone amp.

How it performed? Well, one single word – Sweet! Diabetic patients - beware of this product! This Tube based CDP was warm, lush and deep. I got amazed by its rich textured sound, a bit bright yet natural sounding and free flowing and vibrant presentation. It has got certain emotional contains that other CD players in the group test lack heavily.

All strings from Sitar, Sarod, Sarangi, Violin and Santoor came very vibrant though I noticed some rounding. It performed equally well with vocals, particularly Dhrupad tracks from Uday Bhawalkar and majestic presentation of Miya Tansen by Pt Jasraj. Pakhawaj sounded like a Pakhawaj! Female voice too came out clean, crisp and sweet though it lacked some details typical to female voice. Bass is fast, accurate and tight at least I found it adequate for my listening pleasure, others may want little bit of more punch.

However Jolida lacks heavily in the departments of Sound staging, clarity and channel separation, Jolida also needs some help in dynamics. Other concerns are rolled off highs and weaker bass.

In this group test I paired this with my Jolida hybrid amp and overall effect of too much of warm sound made me slightly uncomfortable at the end.

Jolida is not for everybody, Jolida is more beneficial to soft and slow paced music like Jazz and Indian classical, with its Warmness, textures, deep and lush sounding and vibrant emotions.

For Rock Jolida may sound little bit thin because of weaker bass, further Jolida lacks in dynamics, detailing and separation that make this CDP inadequate for western classical music.

Jolida can improve with some better tubes like Svetlana, Sovtek etc.

Looking at the circuit boards and available information regarding Jolida ' operations, it seems that they are using the same old circuit without modifying a bit of it for year after year. There is no R&D , no dedicated efforts to improve the product. When compared to other player in the group Jolida looked like a kit assembly. But somehow the kit is performing!

I got surprised when I saw Jolida specs, saying output impedance of 47K! I somehow reached Michael Allen President of Jolida for clarification, and he said it is in fact 47 ohm and that 47K is a typo! And even after knowing this there are no efforts in correcting it!!

To summarize, the build quality is top notch; sound is clean, sweet and transparent but with some disappointments especially in Sound staging, detailing, dynamics and presentation. For a 60K price tag, I wanted a better performer in terms of speed, resolution, accuracy and precision. 60K for Jolida is rather an ambitious statement!

But at end, at least for the emotional connection that Jolida brings in, I must say, ‘Well done, Jolida’.

(In next installment I will cover Cyrus CD 6S)

Contd..