October 2024

Jadis DA88S MkII Vacuum Tube Integrated Amplifier Review
The ultimate music machine.
Review By Dr. Jules Coleman

  Too often, I have been guilty of 'burying the lead.' Not this time: the Jadis DA88S MkII integrated amplifier is the most musically convincing and enjoyable vacuum tube stereo integrated amplifier I have ever experienced – in my home or elsewhere. From the moment it was installed in my system until the moment shippers were summoned to remove it, this handsome piece of kit brought joy and fulfillment to my listening experience that had eluded me since my decade-long love affair with various Shindo-centered reference systems fell victim to life's often unforeseeable and unwelcome interventions.

At different times my Shindo systems were anchored by the (no longer in production) Sinhonia push / pull monoblocks featuring the F2 output tube as well as the ne plus ultra 300B Ltd monoblocks. The former offered a dynamic realism that the 300B Ltd could not match, while the latter offered a texture, color, and density that was in equal measure beguiling and bewitching. I was a captive of their respective charms: more liberated than imprisoned, free to lose myself in the emotional journey the 300B Ltd had planned for me or in the controlled athleticism of the Sinhonia.

An Entirely Human Musical Experience
The Jadis' capacity to convey a performance's emotional content is extraordinary, placing it among the very best I have heard. Though the Jadis integrated, powered by the KT-120 output tube, does not present the emotional content of music with quite the depth and nuance of the 300B Ltd, it is fully capable of leaving one emotionally spent or rejuvenated – depending on the musical fare, and is equal in this regard to anything else I have owned or heard, but for the aforementioned Shindo 300B Ltd.

On the other hand, when it comes to bringing recorded music to life, the Jadis integrated takes a back seat to no amp with which I am familiar, bar none. Whenever the recorded performance demands it, the Jadis displays an energy and drive capable of revealing the urgency of the moment. And if the musical score or vocals call for it, the Jadis presents the requisite moments as wispy, fleeting, or ephemeral. In saying that the Jadis displays an unrivaled ability to bring music to life, I mean more than that it is blessed with great dynamics drive, and force – with which is amply blessed. It is also blessed with the soft touch required to present the musical moment with all the ambiguity, ambivalence, uncertainty, skepticism, even irony, cynicism, and disdain when appropriate and as the music demands.

In a word, the Jadis presents every musical moment appropriately; or, one might say, as 'true to life.' Machine or not, the Jadis integrated has a human quality – more human than those among us who meet life's moments robotically, mechanically, or with a finely practiced insincerity.

One can hear through the Jadis, Warren Zevon's parting wish that those who knew him best 'keep him in their hearts for a while' as a more heart-wrenching apology than as a pleading to be remembered. Or consider Nick Lowe's facially dry report of the LA Police's discovery of the death of a no longer relevant Hollywood actress' death and subsequent fate at the hands of her pet dog. The haunting yet ironically humorous lines, "She was a winner who became her doggy's dinner. She never meant that much to me," pop as if sprung from the pages of a Hollywood rag with just the right touch of insincere respect balanced by disdain for the Hollywood such rags are intended to celebrate.

The Jadis makes music come alive not by feeding it steroids, but by presenting it in a human voice, true to human experience, seen, heard, characterized, and evaluated in terms of human frailty and strength – without a hint of excess or false modesty. There is nothing about its presentation that feels mechanical, robotic, or artificial. The music does not merely come alive in the sense of being energetic and dynamic; it is alive in the sense of displaying a fully human character, with all its richness, tension, solemnity, solitude, and sociality.

When it comes to presenting music as natural, life-like, and entirely human activity in all aspects – from its creation to its performance to one's enjoyment of it – the Jadis DA88S MkII vacuum tube integrated amplifier has established itself as the reference by which I judge all other (integrated) amplifiers.

Artifacts And Artificiality
There are two related, but also fundamentally different, senses of the term 'artifact'. In one sense, an artifact is a kind of noise. Lots of things can be noisy, and in some cases, the noise is the result of an artifact of some sort. Data can be noisy or inadequately purified or cleansed. Experiments can be noisy and so too can recordings and audio components. In audio, artifacts are amusical elements or additions, whether in a recording or to the signal passing through a component. Surface noise on an LP is an artifact. It isn't part of the music, though it gets transferred along the chain.

And when it is heard as part of the system's output it detracts from the musical presentation. And second -order harmonic distortion is an artifact, an amusical addition to the signal. Second-order harmonic distortion can be enjoyable and can heighten the listening experience, or at the least render it more familiar and relaxing. Whether enjoyable or detestable, audio artifacts do not contribute to the musical aspect of music reproduction, but they can impact the quality of the musical experience. The thing about artifacts in this sense of the term is that they are corrupting; they render a musical representation on an audio system less accurate or a scientific experiment or a survey less informative.

But all that is quite a different matter from whether they are enjoyable or otherwise of interest.

I would argue (but not here and will instead comfort myself by allowing it as a bold assertion) that every period in audio reproduction is associated with a particular sound; and that it is an open question whether the sound of a particular era has much to do with presenting a genuine and convincing musical experience. I would also argue (and here again allege without argumentation) that as technical aspects of design are more achievable, musical achievements in audio design have been replaced by technical or manufacturing ones.

Consider: Noise floors are vanishingly low. Veiling has been all but eliminated. Transparency is the norm, not the exception. We laud equipment these days for how quiet they are; how deep and black the background they present is; how well-defined images on the stage are etched; and more. In effect, we are prone to assess the quality of components and systems by their engineering prowess, less directly by their musical ones!

Do not misunderstand my point. My claim is not that technical achievements – reductions in noise floor, a certain capacity to present a convincing soundscape, and increased transparency, for example – are unconnected to musical presentation or reproduction. Quite the contrary. My point is the narrower, yet, I would suggest, the more salient one that eliminating noise, removing veils, and presenting locked and well-defined images across a soundstage does little more than provide a space in which music can emerge, and the performance of it is allowed to come to life.

It is not itself a musical presentation, but a foundation on which one can stand or a background from which one might emerge. Eliminating the noise, opening the window, removing the curtains, and letting the light shine through does not by itself create something worth seeing or listening to. Achieving that requires more than technical expertise; it requires an aesthetic vision that can be realized through one's designs.

Data purged of noise and misinformation does not tell its own story. It still needs to be organized and interpreted, and almost always that interpretive act involves norms and creativity, essential elements of what, in audio, I refer to as a musical point of view. It involves choices informed by experience and knowledge: of what it is to make music and what it feels like to experience it live in real time and within real space. The task of an audio system and its parts is to present that musical experience, not to set the stage for it.

And this brings me to the second sense of the term, 'artifact.' In general, an artifact is a human creation intended to serve a particular function. Handcrafted furniture, tools, computers, and even paper currency are all artifacts in this sense. Artifacts are characterized by their intended functions, and typically assessed as successful or not based on the extent to which they perform as intended and the relative efficiency with which they do so.

To be sure, though intended to serve a specific function (or functions), most artifacts can be put to many uses beyond those for which they are intended. At times these unintended purposes display creativity and prove imaginative and useful. Other times, artifacts intended for one purpose are employed in ways that produce more harm than good. After all, some tools, like chainsaws and hammers have figured prominently in homicides as well as in home and garden maintenance and do so in real life and not just in the movies. And paper currency (i.e. money) has figured mightily in relationships of domination, as a signaling device, as well as constituting a mechanism for facilitating exchange.

All audio components are artifacts in this sense, designed by humans and intended to serve a particular function. Like other artifacts, distinguishing their intended functions from other purposes to which they may be put is no easy matter. At first blush, the function of audio components is to transmit a distinctive kind of electronic signal, or in the case of speakers, to turn that signal into sound. Similarly, the intended function of a set of such components (a set that constitutes an audio system) is to create sounds that constitute music.

After that, specifying the intended function of an audio component, or a system, can get murkier and more controversial – and quickly. So, one might argue that the intended function of an audio system is to reproduce a sound faithful to what is on the recording. Alternatively, one could argue that the function of an audio system is to convey the meaning of the piece, or an interpretation of it in the context of its time, or in the light of what we know of its composer's life, the times in which she lived, her other works, and so on.

Or we would hope that the system can capture the actual interaction of the performers, in what way each does and says with their instruments (or voices) reflects the ways in which the performers engage with one another.

Or is the function of an audio system to present the listener with a distinctive emotional or, where appropriate, cognitive experience? It is no accident that music reviewers often take note of precisely these features (as well as others) when assessing records and CDs.

The prevailing brief in audio design grows out of a particular fixation on eliminating certain noisy artifacts from the signal chain while emphasizing other artifacts that render the presentation more likely to create 'Wow' moments.

Not So the Jadis
The unsurprising result of the modern sound to my ears (but not only mine) is that audio components and systems nowadays sound more alike than different, and that represents a kind of technical, design, or manufacturing achievement. Whether tubes or transistors, CD, streamer, or turntable – all can be configured more or less to produce the preferred sound – with modest variations to fit different 'tastes'. The sound is often energetic and quick to the point of feeling hurried and rushed; strong in the way in which gym rats characterize some as 'machine strong' but not weighty or dense. Nearly perfect, but fundamentally artificial. Not at all human.

But this is not true of the Jadis. It has a loftier and more ambitious function. Of course, as Jadis has continued to exist for some time, its engineers have been able to take advantage of technical improvements and so its components have become quieter, more transparent, and even easier to use. However, the Jadis design brief is not defined by the goal of eliminating roadblocks to a musical creation. It is designed around a compelling musical vision that invests in removing noisy artifacts significantly. For its brief – to my ear – is to create components capable of rendering musical performances in a human voice. It has an ease and naturalness, a flow and sensibility that is immediately recognizable as much more like the real thing than virtually anything I have ever listened to before.

In terms of what they expect from their components, the design team at Jadis has adopted a culture that strikes me as very much of a piece with the design approach that Fredrik Lejonklou has adopted for his line of electronics. Though Lejonklous and Jadis components sound very little like one another, they are very much alike in terms of their design briefs than Jadis and their ability to execute on it. Neither is satisfied to produce a particular sound, pleasant or otherwise. Neither seeks to be forgiving of poor source material. Each however is committed to creating a musical experience for the listener that brings them closer to some fundamental feature of all music – whatever its type or whatever the source.

In the case of Lejonklou, the intended function of his creations is explicitly to bring the listener in touch with music's emotional content. As I hear it, the intended function of Jadis equipment is to bring the human elements of music, from its creation to its performance to the listener. Each excels at what it seeks to do in ways that no mere technical accomplishment can.

Amplifiers And Speakers: The Jadis In Various Systems
The Jadis' push-pull amplifier delivers 60 Watts per channel. It comes equipped with KT-120 tubes though it can also be fitted with both 6550s and EL-34s. Some of my colleagues and friends who own it swear by its performance with various EL-34 tubes, known for their way with the midrange. Jay Rein of Bluebird, Jadis' North American distributor delivered the amplifier with KT-120 output tubes and encouraged me to review the piece in that configuration. I was happy to comply with his wish as I have had good experiences with the KT-120 tube previously.

I find reviewing individual components very difficult. After all, the sound one hears at the end of the day is the sound of a system, not that of a particular component. It is hard to isolate with any confidence the difference any component makes when you put it into a reference system replacing the same kind of component along the way. I'm a holist about reviewing and believe a reviewer should be modest about their ability to decipher fully the contribution any individual component under review will make to any and all audio systems.

With that in mind, when reviewing I take it as a responsibility to construct a system around the component that will display its performance in its best light. I see no point in randomly placing a component in a reference system and then assessing whether it makes the reference system performance, better or worse and in what ways. I see even less value in sharing with Enjoy the Music.com readers ways in which components fail to impress under those circumstances. I want to share with readers what the component is capable of providing them with musically and to explain to them my understanding.

Limited though it may be of what the designer of it is trying to accomplish – especially from a musical point of view, and much less so from a technical point of view (as such). To do this, I feel compelled to put together as best I can a system that allows me to hear the component as the designer would want it to be heard, and to bring out in it, those attributes that the designer believes reflect the vision they are driven to realize. In short, I want to share with you what a product is fully capable of when it is working well, not what it sounds like when it is forced to live in less-than-friendly environments.

I mated the Jadis with five different speakers over three months. Auditorium 23 SoloVox; PureAudioProject Duet 15 (review to follow); and three JM Reynaud designs – Bliss Jubile, Voce Grande, and Orfeo Grande (reviews of the Bliss Jubile and Orfeo Grande to follow as well). All five presented relatively easy loads for the Jadis. I expected each would make an acceptable dance partner. The question is whether one or more speakers would be capable of making magic together.

The associated equipment remained virtually the same throughout this period. It included the Well-Tempered Amadeu Jr. Turntable fitted with one of two Dynavector low-output moving coil cartridges; the Lejonklou Entity low-output phono preamp and a variety of Linn and Auditorium 23 ICs and speaker cables. For almost all my listening, I used the Jadis provided power cord and the Lejonklou provided cords for the Entity and the Well-Tempered.

While every match revealed the essential human character of the Jadis, each match proved different in musically important ways. The Jadis' dynamism and power brought the modestly priced and sized JMR Electroacoustique Bliss Jubile monitor loudspeakers to life and filled my large listening room with what could only be described as a joyous and joyful presence. Its naturalness, fast but unhurried, natural and flowing way with music was beautifully presented through its mating with the PureAudioProject open baffle two-way speaker.

It reminded me why I had been so comfortable living with the Solo Vox open baffle design for so long, but its way with the PureAudioProject open baffle bettered that presentation in every musically significant way. Indeed, I would have recommended the amplifier / loudspeaker combination as 'as good as it gets' were it not for the arrival of the JM Reynaud Voce Grande. Here was a magical combination I was hoping to hear for it allowed me to hear both what the Voce Grande and the Jadis are capable of. Everything in this review reflects my listening experience with the Pure Audio Project and Voce Grande loudspeakers.

Conclusion
Here's an interesting bit of information about Jadis electronics. They stay in circulation for very long periods of time. Favorite Jadis amps, like the long out-of-production Defy 7, are always in demand. Another bit of interesting info. There have been many reviews of the DA88S MkII integrated over the years. But it seems that reviewers are always keen to get their hands on one to listen to for themselves. Rarely have I heard of a component that is consistently praised by so many reviewers of very different tastes. And now I know why.

The Jadis DA88S MkII vacuum tube unit is a very special, almost impossibly good stereo integrated amplifier. It is nearly universally loved and certainly universally admired. It is loved for different reasons by different people precisely because it allows listeners to experience music in several different but equally powerful and distinctive ways. Precisely the way real music does. With the right complementary components, this is as close to the real thing as one can get while sitting in a chair at home.

Specifications
Type: Vacuum tube stereo integrated amplifier with optional remote control
Bandwidth 10 Hz to 29 KHz (-3dB)
Tube Compliment: Eight KT88/KT120/6CA7, two ECC83/12AX7, and three ECC82/12AU7
Output Power: 60 Watts per channel in Class A operation
Automatic Bias Automatic
Inputs: Five unbalanced RCA inputs
Line Level Outputs: One preamplifier
Loudspeaker Binding Posts: Two sets of speaker wire outputs (for bi-wiring)
Sensitivity: 120 mV
Dimensions 19.75" x 17.35" x 10.25" (WxDxH)
Weight: 62 lbs.
Price: $18,900

Manufacturer
Jadis Electronics
Chemin du Pech
11800 Villedubert
France

Website: Jadis-Electronics.com

USA Distributor
Bluebird Music
Voice: (416) 638-8207
E-mail: sales@bluebirdmusic.com 
Website: BluebirdMusic.com