The Class-A Amplifier Site
This page was last updated on 14 September 2001
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Chris Ma’s email
Geoff,
After ten hours plus listening to my newly built 1996 JLH amp I would like to
put my two cents in your comment section of your web site. Firstly I must say
that my Hi-Fi experience/background plays an important role for this judgment I
am making, since I do not listen to enough live music to train my brain/ear to
distinguish what is good or bad. I am pretty sure the majority of people grow
up listening to music through reproduced media be it TV, radio, hi-fi, i.e.
electronic sound one way or the other, digital or analogue. Please bear with me
for my hi-fi experience. It started off when I was living in North London. My
flat mates and I each bought a piece of equipment to make up the system, well
we were students then. The system we had at the time was the Meridian 101 pre
amp and 100 watt mono blocks power amps. Pink Triangle turn table and a 150
quid worth of stylus (it was really expensive for us at the time) and the
Tannoy Little Red Monitor speakers. Mostly we listened to half speed master LPs
or Japanese pressed LPs. The range of music was from classical to classic rock
by London Sympathy Orchestra, Boy George to Deep Purple. But when CD came along
we gave away the system and LPs to friends and I did not buy or own another
Hi-Fi system because CD sound was no comparison unless you have a very deep,
deep pocket. Untill three years ago when DVD arrived, then I bought a system to
watch movies with a Rotel A/V DTS 5.1 etc... the love of listening to music
grows again. But I was not satisfied with the sound of my system so I try to
improve the system within a budget of course. First I get into diy cables, then
the Morrison ELAD, and now thanks to the internet and people like you I can
build my own amplifier that I could never dreamed of doing myself without help.
The JLH compares to the Rotel multi-channel (power section only) as follows:-
The brightness/harsh high is gone. The vocal is a lot fuller. The four string
bass has more emotion to the notes. The kick drum is easier to distinguish from
the electric bass guitar. It has more depth in the sense of stage but narrower
than the Rotel. The focus or image position is better with the JLH. It reviews
the fine detail much, much more with ease. Certain tracks in some CDs I would
not like to listen to before with the Rotel because they sounded really bad but
now I can enjoy them with the JLH. The background noise is really quiet. I can
enjoy heavy rock music again with the JLH because it can handle a lot of things
going on musically without tiring me out with just noise. For such a simple
design and inexpensive final product it is a very good amp. Now the JLH makes
me really miss the Pink Triangle turntable.
Regards
Chris
HISTORY: Page created 14/09/2001