Jad Freer Sisma Mega Thread.

[gtirard]

This just came in Friday. Here’s my first impression after playing a couple of days with it in a home studio: I was only using headphones, a 1x10 cab, and the DI out direct to an audio interface.

Unboxing

Sisma looks sturdy and built to last, beautiful finish, knobs are smooth and accurate. Overall look and feel of a high quality product.
It feels slightly heavier than its size would let you expect, it is for sure very dense, but not much heavier than a normal Class D amp + an external tube preamp. It fits in my gig bag, but I will probably use the nice included bag for safety reasons.

First impression

First test run, this amp seems to check all my boxes. I didn’t think I could find all these (almost opposite) qualities in a single amp:

• It has a strong tubey character if you want it (the official Youtube video is quite representative), but no « baked in » tone that you can’t get rid off.
• Neutral sounding when all knobs are at noon (that’s important for me).
• Very versatile: the combination of tube preamp + Baxandall tone stack + 2 semi parametric mids lets you dial in a large tonal palette.
• Intuitive - once you get used to each control, they’re all predictable and straightforward.

Attention to details

I seems that Jad Freer Audio have really worked on the small details, in order to remove all the irritating issues you may find on other amps, and provide a pleasant and rewarding user experience in the studio and in live settings.

• The Deep and LPF switches have a subtle effect, and that’s great. It makes these options usable at any volume (on other amps or preamps, the deep switch is usually super cool at practice level, but excessively pronounced in a live context).
• The gain control is super progressive. The other tube preamps I have tried go very quickly from clean to distortion. With Sisma you can control very precisely the level of tube coloration.
• The combination of a Baxandall tonestack and the 2 semi-parametric EQ is very well thought out, which makes it efficient and intuitive.
• The Master knob is logarithmic, so you can adjust the volume precisely even at very low levels. Many other bass amps I know reach 80% of the power at 10 o’clock (Markbass for example), I hate this because it makes it super hard to adjust the volume at practice levels (plus I don’t like to be taken for a fool).
• Dead silent: all the outputs are completely free of noise, and you can’t hear the fan at all. Basically the power led is the only way to know that your amp is turned on when you’re not playing. Beware, it’s addictive.

So far, I really love the tone, I can’t wait to play it loud, with various bigger cabs. But after two days in a home studio I already know it’s a keeper.

I think this might be the first customer review available online, so feel free to ask me any question...

 

[P. Aaron]

This just came in Friday. Here’s my first impression after playing a couple of days with it in a home studio: I was only using headphones, a 1x10 cab, and the DI out direct to an audio interface.
I think this might be the first customer review available online, so feel free to ask me any question...

Thanks for posting.

Can you please post a pic of the back side? I like the Mesa I'm currently using but, I gig a lot so cost isn't an issue.

 

[gtirard]

Thanks for posting.

Can you please post a pic of the back side? I like the Mesa I'm currently using but, I gig a lot so cost isn't an issue.

 

[gtirard]

Thanks for posting.

Can you please post a pic of the back side? I like the Mesa I'm currently using but, I gig a lot so cost isn't an issue.

What Mesa amp do you have? I'd love to read A/B test between the TT800 or WD800 and Sisma...

 

[P. Aaron]

What Mesa amp do you have? I'd love to read A/B test between the TT800 or WD800 and Sisma...

I'm using a Mesa WD800. I like it just fine tho' I liked the brutal simplicity of my former Hartke LH1000. Its weight was substantial but its output could turn drum sets to toothpicks and twisted metal...if need be and still give me the old-school Precision tone.

 

[Standalone]

Four band is my preference thanks to my positive experiences with GK. I always loved my Eden with parametric too. Would be into trying one of these and seeing what’s up.

 

[gtirard]

Would be into trying one of these and seeing what’s up.

I must admit that I was a little bit crazy to buy an amp at this price without trying. But there's a 2 weeks return policy, so if you don't like it, it only costs the send & return shipping cost (70 € in my case for Italy -> France -> Italy). I thought it was worth the risk, and I don't regret it.

I still have to try it loud, at rehearsal and live, but from my tests at home I'm pretty sure this amp will easily exeed my needs.

 

[prikkers]

Thanks for the detailed review @gtirard!
At the moment I'm trying the Sisma and I like it very much, for all the reasons you put in your review.
Only one thing is bugging me and thats the hiss level, with master and gain at about 9 o clock it is fine,
but with master at 12 o clock the hiss is becoming quite annoying and with more gain it increases...
This also affects the phones out, wasn't able to check the di, but this may be a reason for not buying the amp.

My own amp (Trickfish mini) is dead quiet in comparison , could it be the tube in the Sisma?
Tried a monique pre in the fx return and the same hiss occurs.
@gtirard you mentioned the Sima is dead quit too, so i presume your Sima has no problems in this regard?

 

[smeet]

Thanks for the detailed review @gtirard!
At the moment I'm trying the Sisma and I like it very much, for all the reasons you put in your review.
Only one thing is bugging me and thats the hiss level, with master and gain at about 9 o clock it is fine,
but with master at 12 o clock the hiss is becoming quite annoying and with more gain it increases...
This also affects the phones out, wasn't able to check the di, but this may be a reason for not buying the amp.

My own amp (Trickfish mini) is dead quiet in comparison , could it be the tube in the Sisma?
Tried a monique pre in the fx return and the same hiss occurs.
@gtirard you mentioned the Sima is dead quit too, so i presume your Sima has no problems in this regard?

With an external pre going to the power amp, there should be no tube in the signal path. So the hiss is coming from the power amp?

 

[gtirard]

Thanks for the detailed review @gtirard!
At the moment I'm trying the Sisma and I like it very much, for all the reasons you put in your review.
Only one thing is bugging me and thats the hiss level, with master and gain at about 9 o clock it is fine,
but with master at 12 o clock the hiss is becoming quite annoying and with more gain it increases...
This also affects the phones out, wasn't able to check the di, but this may be a reason for not buying the amp.

My own amp (Trickfish mini) is dead quiet in comparison , could it be the tube in the Sisma?
Tried a monique pre in the fx return and the same hiss occurs.
@gtirard you mentioned the Sima is dead quit too, so i presume your Sima has no problems in this regard?

OK, there is a hiss with the headphones when the master is at 12, but I think it's mainly because the headphones out is super loud - I didn't notice before you mention it simply because I would never use the headphones with the master at 12 (it's too loud for my ears).

You should not compare the level of hiss with identical settings on 2 different amps, because these settings may correspond to different output levels for each amp. This is all relative (we must compare the level of hiss relatively to the same actual output volume). Accurate measurements should be made before drawing any conclusion.

I don't think it has anything to do with the preamp stage or the tube since you notice the same thnig when you bypass the preamp (= when you plug an external preamp in the fx return).

I recorded several songs with the DI out, I had no hiss at all. I'm sure I would saturate the DAW input before I can hear any hiss.

As for the speaker out, I'm at home so I cannot crank up the volume to try. But I just made a test with nothing plugged in: passed 3 o'clock I can hear maybe 1 db of hiss, but if I was playing at that volume I think I would blow the windows. So I'm not worried for rehearsal or live situation, I'm sure the hiss will be hardly noticeable when playing music.

Conclusion:
- It was probably a little bit exagerated from me to say that all outputs are dead silent, sorry
- It's not an issue on the headphone out because I never need to set the master volume above 9 o'clock with my headphones
- I still have to take Sisma to rehearsals and gigs, but I'm not worried

Maybe @Andrea Lo could give us more detailed infos?

 

[Andrea Lo]

Signal to noise level should be really good on the Sisma, this means that when you hear some electrical noise the amplified sound will be really loud. If you feel that noise is above what could be considered "normal" please contact JF at [email protected] since all products carry a lifetime warranty.

 

[prikkers]

Thanks for the answers!
To clarify my remarks were about the loudspeaker out, the phones out were at a reasonable level of the master volume.
I do consider the noise level above normal, so for now I returned the amp to the shop , but its a great amp and
certainly will give it another go in the future.

 

[gtirard]

all products carry a lifetime warranty.

Good news

Consider updating your website, it currently states "Each Jad Freer Audio item is covered by a 2 year warranty"

 

[Andrea Lo]

JF Audio ensures you a life-time warranty against defects in materials and workmanship; external parts like pots, jacks and footswitches have a 24 months warranty. I'll check the site!

 

[Mayo Fan]

I just found out about the JF amps via another thread where @gtirard mentioned the Coda. After reading up on the Sisma I must say I'm very intrigued. I've been thinking about getting a smaller head to make logistics a bit easier, but all of the mass produced class D heads I've tried sounded flat an dull in my experience. The Sisma however sounds like it should meet my needs.

Gtirard, would you be able to provide some context on the preamp? How does it compare to some other known (tube) pre's? Or to phrase it differently: does it come close to the realm of the Broughton lunchbox preamps and such?

 

[gtirard]

I just found out about the JF amps via another thread where @gtirard mentioned the Coda. After reading up on the Sisma I must say I'm very intrigued. I've been thinking about getting a smaller head to make logistics a bit easier, but all of the mass produced class D heads I've tried sounded flat an dull in my experience. The Sisma however sounds like it should meet my needs.

Gtirard, would you be able to provide some context on the preamp? How does it compare to some other known (tube) pre's? Or to phrase it differently: does it come close to the realm of the Broughton lunchbox preamps and such?

I haven't tried the Broughton lunchbox, so I cannot compare.

My journey was:
- First I bought the Quilter Bass Block 800, which I still have and love. I don't think it sounds dull or sterile, it's really a warm tone, with authority and heft.
- Then I was hooked on the search for the tubey goodness, so I tried several preamps. You probably know Scubaduba's big tube DIs and preamps thread. I bought the Night Owl Edison preamp, Effectrode Blackbird, the Sushibox Space Heater, Monique dove cage, and Mozztronic DI. I like them all, but I noticed that I didn't care taking them to rehearsal or gigs, because I'm kind of lazy and the tone difference is too subtle for anybody to notice except me.
- So then I looked for a hybrid amp, to get an all in one solution, and to have that gritty sound, "at the edge of breakup" that I don't have with the Quilter, but without using an external preamp.
- I think I could have bought a Mesa WD800 or TT800, but it's super hard to find one from France, and when I discovered Sisma I favored a European (Italian) builder, and also I prefer to spend my money for a small company building hand made products rather than a big established US company. Very personal though, I would still love to try a Mesa amp, I'm sure I would love them.

Back to your question now, if I compare Sisma's preamp to the other tube preamps I own or have owned, I would say it's on the top of the list, I like it as much as Monique although they are different. The DI out is super silent (some of the other preamps on my list suffer from hiss or hum for certain settings but not these 2). The EQ is super versatile and the tone is just excellent, from super clean to gritty tones (Monique is also great for clean tone but never goes near saturation). Monique is more wooly while Sisma's preamp is more "in your face".

What I like most about it compared to all others is that from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock on the gain knob, you can adjust very precisely how much tube coloration you add. In comparison, some other tube preamps jump very quickly from clean to overdrive.

Also, the combination of tube preamp and 2 band semi parametric EQ is great because for the same level of gain you adjust the precise mid frequency you want to increase the "bite" or soften the tone a little bit. I still have to experiment, because that's new to me, but it's fun and rewarding (it's hard to get a bad tone with Sisma).

I think the demo on their website is well representative of the tone you can get with it. If you like it (for me it was the biggest selling point) you should love the amp, else you would probably be dissapointed.

Last, I still haven't tried it yet in rehearsal or live (it's a shame, but as we are currently recording, it's not our priority at the moment). I confirm it's great for recording. But from the small tests I made at home with my Barefaced One 10, I'm confident that it will sound great in a full band setting.

Sorry for being so long, I hope it's clear (English is not my mother tongue, and these things are hard to explain).

 

[gtirard]

I just found out about the JF amps via another thread where @gtirard mentioned the Coda. After reading up on the Sisma I must say I'm very intrigued. I've been thinking about getting a smaller head to make logistics a bit easier, but all of the mass produced class D heads I've tried sounded flat an dull in my experience. The Sisma however sounds like it should meet my needs.

Gtirard, would you be able to provide some context on the preamp? How does it compare to some other known (tube) pre's? Or to phrase it differently: does it come close to the realm of the Broughton lunchbox preamps and such?

Reading again your question, if you have a full tube head and you want to scale down but don't like class D, this amp seems to be just made for that (it's class G, not class D).

Now, to be honnest, if your current heavy amp is an SVT, I don't think it can sound exactly like a Ampeg SVT. It was inspired from the Ampeg B15, and it doesn't have the SVT touch - or maybe you can get closed to it with the semi parametric mids, but somebody would have to tell how to do this (*). Anyway, I think it's better like this, because even though I love the SVT tone, I prefer less colores amp, I like to hear the sound of my bass rather than to sound of a super colored amp.

(*) if anyone knows what mid frequency I should tweak to emulate the SVT sound, I'd be curious to try…

And last comment (I hope): you may think it's a bit crazy to buy an amp at that price without listening to it first. But if you don't like it, you can just send it back and ask for a full refund, you're only left with the shipping cost.

 

[Mayo Fan]

Thanks for the write-up, much appreciated! I'm Dutch, so I can relate with the preference for stuff built somewhat close by.

My current head is a (hand built in Hungary) class AB with switching power supply. So not super heavy. It sounds great, but after discovering Scuba's tube preamp thread I bought a Broughton SSDI and discovered how much that added to my tone. But as you say, lugging it all to gigs and stuff gets tiring quite fast.

So to find a hybrid head with a pre that you compare to a Monique sounds very promising. I'm actually not looking to order anything, but this might be hard to ignore. It ticks a lot of boxes.

When I mentioned mainstream class D amps I was referring to Aguilar Tonehammer, Markbass, Darkglass, TC, EBS etc. Never heard a Mesa up close and never even seen a Quilter in the flesh. The Quilter was for a long time on my wishlist to pair with my SSDI, but I don't think I'll take that out to gigs very often.

Keep us posted on new insights and a gig report. Good luck with the recordings

 

[gtirard]

First rehearsal with Sisma tonight. Very impressed.
Super loud + all the qualities I have already described in my first post = pleasure x 10

What surprised me the most is how this amp responds to the touch, I couldn't stop playing.

Second surprise: I discovered that I could finally use more settings on my G&L L-2000 than I can with other amps.
Normally I always prefer the tone of my L-2000 with both pickups. Not that I don't like each pickup soloed, but I always end up with both. I can't explain why, but with Sisma it's different, I enjoyed equaly the three pickup settings.
Great amp.

 

[fretless Bob]

How interesting, ive been using 2 Moniques for about 7 years and not really found anything that compares so this is good to hear.

The preamp in the capo i recently purchased is beautiful so if thats anything to go by the Sisma is gonna be a winner.

Anybody tried a cab yet?