What amp to consider as an upgrade or next step up to the Job 225 ? ......

joeinid

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2011
1,543
12
400
NY
I have been extremely impressed with my Job 225. A friend is borrowing it and I think he loves it so much, he may want to buy it from me. That leaves me with the option to replace it (or get it back and have him get his own), or go up to Goldmund (or similar) line. I like the tone, articulation and sound stage of the Job 225 and wonder what if anything would be an upgrade to the Job 225 without breaking the bank. Yes, $1500 is tough to beat, but I'd like to explore my options as to what you guys would consider the next step. Short of getting a second for vertical/horizontal bi-amping, I'd appreciate your opinions.

Thanks!
 

flez007

Member Sponsor
Aug 31, 2010
2,915
36
435
Mexico City
Goldmund has its own "house sound", I should look into that route.
 

Ric Schultz

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2013
227
56
333
Soquel, CA
Joe,
There is a person receiving his Job this week and will burn in for a few days, listen and then send it to me. I will be doing some mods on it. I am sure it will sound way better.....I am also going to see if his amp is stable running balanced bridged mono. If so, then two of them both modded and running balanced bridged mono (requires a balanced source and possibly a special cable if I cannot mount an xlr on them) could be as good as .......well......maybe......who knows? Certainly worlds better than a single unit stock. I will be returning the modded amp to him and I am pretty sure he will chime in here.
 

joeinid

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2011
1,543
12
400
NY
Thanks Ric,

Looking forward to yours and his impressions. This amp at $1500 is an outstanding value. I have it on a pair of SF Evolutions right now and it sounds wonderful.



Joe,
There is a person receiving his Job this week and will burn in for a few days, listen and then send it to me. I will be doing some mods on it. I am sure it will sound way better.....I am also going to see if his amp is stable running balanced bridged mono. If so, then two of them both modded and running balanced bridged mono (requires a balanced source and possibly a special cable if I cannot mount an xlr on them) could be as good as .......well......maybe......who knows? Certainly worlds better than a single unit stock. I will be returning the modded amp to him and I am pretty sure he will chime in here.
 

mep

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
9,481
17
0
I have been extremely impressed with my Job 225. A friend is borrowing it and I think he loves it so much, he may want to buy it from me. That leaves me with the option to replace it (or get it back and have him get his own), or go up to Goldmund (or similar) line. I like the tone, articulation and sound stage of the Job 225 and wonder what if anything would be an upgrade to the Job 225 without breaking the bank. Yes, $1500 is tough to beat, but I'd like to explore my options as to what you guys would consider the next step. Short of getting a second for vertical/horizontal bi-amping, I'd appreciate your opinions.

Thanks!

Don't you already have 14,529 amps laying around your room? Why do you even need another amp?
 

joeinid

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2011
1,543
12
400
NY
Don't you already have 14,529 amps laying around your room? Why do you even need another amp?

Why not? This is whatsbestforum, isn't it? I'm going through them one by one to find out. :)

ps. I'll try and stop at 14,601 amps. No guarantee though.
 
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LazyMan

Well-Known Member
Jun 16, 2013
9
0
76
Northeast
I am the guilty party..... roasting one Job at home (how do you actually pronounce this; is it French?) while sending another unopened to Chef Ric. We had a great chat and
he convinced me not to attempt a complete makeover. I think the relatively low-cost of entry as compared to other amps opens up many possibilities..... is it possible to
modify an established unit and get significantly improved performance - I mean the kind that rivals the big boys? I don't know the answer and it will be a while before anyone
can say that the Job 225 is truly disruptive....

I'll get my thoughts together and make a list of the mods but I would most definitely welcome additional suggestions.... Maybe we can make the Job equivalent to the Linux
open source system as long as Goldmund offers it.

Right now I'm not a big fan of the "balanced" approach since I've gone whole hog with RCAs from High Fidelity, but I found out that the D'Agostino Momentums (my dream amp/pre :D )
are ONLY offered in balanced form so I may have to get used to it and augment my setup with the SMC Flex-Connect.

As an aside, I think the idea of the 50-ohm coaxial BNC inputs/outputs that (I believe) DarTZeel pioneered for consumer products and then adopted by Playback Design and lately by CH-Precision is a fantastic idea... wish it would be more widespread since I have an unproven suspicion that this route is less susceptible to interference (thus limiting its "tweakiness").
 
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LazyMan

Well-Known Member
Jun 16, 2013
9
0
76
Northeast
To clarify, I only mentioned balanced ins/outs since Ric Schultz believes there may be potential in converting the amp into
balanced-bridged mono units, but specialized connections may be necessary (hopefully not too complicated for my simple mind).

I came across this very nice-looking unit:

SMC.jpg



From the description on the SMC Audio site:
"Create monoblock amplifiers from a matching pair of stereo amps for higher power and improved system performance (special adapter cables required)."

How this is done, I'm not sure...... but may be interesting to find out.
 

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