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Going ceramique with the Job twins didn't at all go Twiggy. The Albedo's super-smooth behaviour atop what for its size is exceptional bass extension here was mined for all its worth. This likely credited the Job 225's high damping and advertised down-to-DC linearity for good phase integrity. The upshot was a very illuminated chunky read with superior treble and more energetic transmission than very beefy paler class D monos on hand. This was modern high-resolution sound very much 'in control'. Valve fanciers would have missed some elasticity. This was a function of well-damped electronics meeting equally well-damped speakers. This confluence emphasized metronomic precision over looser swing. If things perhaps felt stiffer than my ideal, there was no faulting proper colour intensity or image density. Forget about washed out. Also consign pixilated, hyped, edgy or stressful to the trash bin of improper expectations.

A modicum of dryness and coolness did come with the territory. To compensate for that with a transistor preamp required the Esoteric C-03 set to high gain. Arguably more suave and texturally sophisticated in this context, someone pursuing it with these hardware options would pay a very high price for said refinement. The Pre2 strikes me as a swearer of the Hippocratic oath and this particular passage: "διαιτήμασί τε χρήσομαι ἐπ' ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κρίσιν ἐμήν, ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν." It says "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone". With a preamp, harm would come from insufficient drive, noise, distortion and bandwidth limits. All of those would brush things under the table. This the PRe2 plainly doesn't do. Where it stops is going beyond the oath to add enhancements of the sort exotic preamps pursue.

That the Job/Albedo encounter came off as harmless as it did was primarily because of a clearly fortuitous match between speakers and amp. As stated earlier, that match rather dominates over the preamp. It determines driver control and with it, articulation without overhang, blur or boom. It affects linearity of the bandwidth due to whether the speaker's phase, impedance changes and kicked-back electromotive force alter the response and behaviour of the amplifier or not. Here the Job 225 proved fully up to the task.

That the tandem team's resolution was of high caliber was brought home once more when I powered the entire system down to plug the just-arrived Vibex Alhambra AC filter into the existing Vibex Granada DC filter before firing everything back up. Bass power and reach instantly went up a few clicks. These electronics were clearly responsive to upstream manipulations. Another aspect which the conditioner addition affected instantly was the metallic clatter of a close-mic'd bouzouki accompanying Turkish clarinetist Turgay Özüfler. The nearly rusty buzz flying off the strings was more pronounced. Brushing things under the table is not what the Jobs do.

To go beyond the Pre2 with transistors should require rather deeper pockets. To go sideways with tubes doesn't have to cost much at all as an Eastern Electric MiniMax would show. But it should nearly predictably turn into a give and take. You'd expect to get fatter but also fuzzier. Resolving power should diminish. You'll probably have excess gain and with the Job 225 very likely noise. To avoid such tube-gear beginner's losses should again reach quite a bit deeper into the old wallet.

Wrap. Basic but properly engineered, with a PGA volume control rather than logarithmic pot to suit even high-gain amps and unusually efficient loudspeakers, with a very effective remote control and the type of bandwidth and noise specs you'd expect of a modern transistor deck, the Pre2 is another heavy value from the Swiss house of Goldmund and its basement bargain area called Job Systems. Not only does it make one look forward to the promised 300-watt monos, it questions why other high-priced engineering-driven hifi firms don't have a direct-sales division with trickle-down products priced for the man and woman of the street. If Goldmund can do it in and from bloody Switzerland, there's no excuse left for anyone else. We don't hand out red ribbons for audiophile humanitarianism. But make no mistake - if we did, the Job Pre2 would be ribbonated!
 
Job Sys website