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.

The Jadis’ capacity to convey a performance’s emotional content is extraordinary, placing it among the very best I have heard. The Jadis integrated is fully capable of leaving one emotionally spent or rejuvenated – depending on the musical fare.

The Jadis makes music come alive not by feeding it steroids, but by presenting it in a human voice. 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. There is nothing about its presentation that feels mechanical, robotic, or artificial.

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 amplifiers.

I would argue that every period in audio reproduction is associated with a particular sound. I would also argue that as technical aspects of design are more achievable, musical achievements in audio design have been replaced by technical or manufacturing ones.

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!

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.

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. Nearly perfect, but fundamentally artificial. Not at all human.

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. 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. 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.

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.

Jules Coleman, enjoythemusic, October 2024

Click to read the full review.