Jadis Orchestra Black integrated amplifier

I am the world's worst consumer. Not only have I made more than my share of disastrous purchase decisions, I'm also inexplicably luckless: If there's one defective sample or repack in an inventory, it will find me.

I'm also a deceit magnet, and I'm spineless: More than once in my life, I have made abominable purchase decisions solely to please a manipulative salesman or a disinterested third party (read: girlfriend). There is abundant photographic evidence that I don't know how to shop for clothes, my glasses are wrong for my face because I trust the advice of opticians with bad or no taste, and the less competent/more antagonistic the barber, the likelier I am to say "Great job, I love it" and tip them 50%. If I were smarter, I might actually be rich by now, or at least comfortable.

Thus, I regard my career in consumer journalism as one big cosmic joke. Everything about me fairly screams: Take my advice at your peril.

And yet: Owing in part to my history of mistakes, I have learned a few things about habituation: the art of forcing oneself to acquire an acquired taste. Like kimchi. Or Pimms No.1. (God protect us from Nos.2 through whatever.) Or Ives. Or bad-sounding audio components, the awfulness of which, we are assured, is the price to pay for their excellence in other regards, which usually turn out to be utterly unquantifiable. (Like verve.)

Are "good" products those that require the least amount of habituation? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Recently, Jim Austin and I had a long conversation about the various subjective criteria that separate the good from the bad, and before long we touched upon the notion that the very best products are those whose sonic appeal endures beyond good first impressions. That's a definition that works for me.

I've had the pleasure of knowing a number of such products, two of which spring to mind. One was the Jadis Orchestra Reference MkII integrated amplifier ($4795), which I reviewed about five years ago. Another is the integrated amp before me now: the Jadis Orchestra Black ($3995), which was introduced in the autumn of 2019 as a budget version of the Reference. According to Jay Rein of Bluebird Music, the company that distributes Jadis in North America, the Orchestra Black is specially made for the US market: "It's based on the Orchestra Reference, but we made some slight changes internally to improve the sound, and some slight changes externally to reduce the price."

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Description
Like the Jadis Orchestra Reference MkII, the Orchestra Black is an integrated amp that uses two 6CA7/EL34 power pentodes per side, in push-pull, to produce 40Wpc in class-AB. Those pairs of output tubes are driven by a single 12AX7 dual-triode tube per channel. Upstream from the tubes, a single NPN transistor per channel (a 2N1711 in a TO-39 case) provides voltage gain. The output tubes are operated in fixed-bias mode: Each one has its own trim pot for adjusting the DC voltage applied to its signal grid, and each cathode is connected straight to ground. (Contrast that with the use of a 1 ohm cathode resistor, the presence of which allows for easier adjustment of bias current: With 1 ohm in the circuit, volts and amperes are equivalent.) For that reason, and because the amplifier's enclosure is the very devil to open—to do so requires the removal of 13 hex-head bolts, 10 screws, four feet, and one wooden end cap—adjusting bias, as is required when changing tubes, is best left to a qualified technician. And that would seem to cast a slight pall on the idea of tube-rolling, at least as far as the output tubes are concerned. (The amp arrives prebiased for the supplied tubes, the individual boxes for which are labeled in accordance with the tubes' positions.)

If that sounds daunting, rest assured that the need for exploratory surgery on the Orchestra Black seems unlikely to arise, to the extent that such things can be predicted based on quality of construction: The amp's workmanship is robust and exquisite. Apart from four very small circuit boards—one each for the power supply, input-gain circuit, remote-control logic circuit. and rear-mounted input jacks—the Orchestra Black is wired point to point, and every solder joint I could see was of the very highest quality. Parts quality, too, is reassuringly good, with Alps volume and balance pots—the former is motorized for compatibility with the included remote handset—and Jadis's own hand-wound output transformers and mains transformer. The latter is made with secondary windings specific to various internal chores; one set directly powers all the series-connected tube heaters, while others feed the amp's two silicon full-wave rectifiers, for the B+ rail and the bias supply. There is no separate supply for the screen grids of the output tubes: These are connected to the primaries of the output transformers, indicating that the Orchestra Black operates in Ultralinear or some other distributed-load mode.

All the above is contained within a chassis that's far wider than it is deep—nearly 21" wide, in fact—and made of stainless steel, with wood end caps painted piano black. The fit between the various panels is decent, not luxurious, but outwardly the glossy chromelike finish is impressive. A removable tube cage is held in place with four hex-head bolts; this, like the transformer covers, is painted semigloss black.

Installation and setup
The Jadis Orchestra Black offers five pairs of line-level input jacks and one pair of line-out jacks, all RCA, all mounted on the enclosure's rear panel—shared with two pairs of goldplated speaker connectors and an AC-cord socket of the usual sort. Hooking up was very straightforward, although I wish the speaker connectors were labeled according to their respective channels—but even then, the user has a 50–50 chance of getting it right.

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The Jadis Orchestra Black has nothing up its sleeve, save for one no-doubt-unavoidable quirk. Given that the amp's three transformers are all positioned toward the rear of its chassis, the whole of the thing is a bit out of balance: If you lift it up by its end caps, which seems the natural way to do it, the amp has a natural tendency to roll backward, unless you grasp it firmly. (The most recent version of the Shindo Cortese amp exhibits the same tendency.) At 44lb, the Orchestra Black isn't too terrible heavy, but it really must be lifted with care to avoid damage to the amp or its surroundings.

I used the Jadis integrated to drive both my DeVore O/93 loudspeakers and my even more sensitive Altec Valencias; both proved to be very good pairings, but the comments below generally refer to the former. Sources were the Hegel Mohican CD player and my usual Garrard 301-based LP player, used with my Hommage T2 step-up transformer and Sentec EQ11 phono preamplifier, set for normal RIAA equalization.

Listening
Straight out of the box, the Jadis was a little rough; it had that treble lisp that I assume many of you have heard from amps and preamps that aren't yet run in—audible here as an exaggeration of note attacks from violins, as on Haydn String Trio in G, Op.53, Grumiaux Trio (LP, Philips 802 905 LY). Similarly, Robbie Robertson and Charlie McCoy's guitars, not to mention Kenny Buttrey's snare and Al Kooper's organ, on Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna," from Blonde on Blonde (LP, Columbia LP 5110), had too much of an edge when I first installed the Jadis.

COMPANY INFO
Jadis S.A.R.L.
US distributor: Bluebird Music Ltd.
310 Rosewell Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M4R 2B2, Canada
(416)638-8207
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
tonykaz's picture

It's still too dam much but it's getting close to tempting!

Another exciting piece of audio literature in the form of a product review.

Nice work

Tony in Venice

ps. Can someone Pleaaaasssseee contact Art Ferris and do a review of one of his latest Modulus Pre-Amps?

mmole's picture

...We shook hands at the N.Y. Audio show last fall. Since then I’ve purchased two sets of headphones and two phonostages, that were all DOA. Either you passed your curse on to me and you are now free, or what you have is communicable. Even after the current crisis is over I think I’m going to have to practice social distancing from you.

Bogolu Haranath's picture

Orchestra Black is smiling even more than Orchestra Reference ........ See, Fig.6, in measurements :-) ........

shawnwes's picture

I'm commenting after only reading the first 3 paragraphs. That was the best intro ever to an audio review. You've always been one of my favourites but man you almost had me guffaw-ing!

windansea's picture

Loved the opening of the review.
"Dream of Gerontius" shows up in many of Art's reviews. Alas, I cannot say that I share his affection for the work.
I would have liked a bit more about the choice of tubes. Why 12AX7 rather than 12AU7 for instance? And which mark of 12AX7 and EL34s were selected by the maker?

Pretzel Logic's picture

C'mon Art, you should know that enjoyment of Pimms requires you throw some random fruit and a, uh, uh, cucumber in there with it.

Anton's picture

Great price, really, and seems like splendid performance.

Perfect for my demographic niche in this hobby.

Thanks!

Ortofan's picture

Is $4K really such a "great" price for an integrated amplifier that can only put out 14W into an 8Ω load (and only 6W into a 4Ω load) before the distortion level hits 1%? And one that lacks a built-in phono preamp and/or DAC?

The measurements beg the question as to what you are really hearing - the music or noise and distortion?

The $1,600 Denon PMA-1600NE won a Hi-Fi Choice comparison test:
https://files.hifiklubben.com/4a500a/globalassets/tester/denon/2017/pma-1600ne-hfc-group-test-verdict.pdf
https://files.hifiklubben.com/4a500a/globalassets/tester/denon/2017/hfc_427_gt_integrated_amps_reprint_denon.pdf

Of the $3K Parasound Halo HINT 6, KM said it "worked well with every speaker I threw at it" - including the DeVore O/93 - and "I can't think of another integrated amplifier that offers so many options and has such solid, generous sound."
https://www.stereophile.com/content/parasound-halo-hint-6-integrated-amplifier

Also, both of these amps include a MM/MC phono preamp and a DAC. What more do you really need?

Anton's picture

I certainly hope you are not feeling coerced to buy it.

I don't like built-in DAC or phono preamps, preferring to handle those to suit my own wants.

I have nothing against the Parasound, either. It's not a purely binary hobby, I can love more than one approach.

I hope you get a chance to do some fine measurement listening today!

Jimmyblues1959's picture

Art did a great job with this review as he did with all his audio reviews. He was thorough, fair and humorous. He was also self deprecating which only served to further endear
him to his readers.

When Art passed away earlier this year the HiFi profession lost one of its most talented members, and he most certainly will be missed.

Yet he has left us with a body of written work which will
be cherished by new generations of HiFi enthusiasts in the years to come.

May Art Rest In Peace..

PTG's picture

A couple of years ago, I wanted to try out the Jadis Diapason when it was just released. Unfortunately, it was not available in the USA or Canada but is available in Mexico. Diapason seems like a great bang for the buck type of an amp. Jadis in France was not able to help either.... So I went with an American made SET amp instead. I would have loved to have the chance to own a Jadis... Someday....

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