franksmith

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1700.00 from Used as a la-100 mkI

Summary:
God I like this preamp. I bough it used as a la-100mkII for around 1200$. After the listning I was so amazed that I bough it wihtout checking the tube lifespan. They where all weak and where also original from 1999 (they lasted 5 years, not bad). I called Joule Electra and had a nice discussion with Judd Barber. The price for the upgrade to MKIII was pretty tempting so I send it to him. 1 month and half after , I got it back upgraded and retubed and I started to listen to it for a long time. From mkII to mkIII the improvment are noticable, not big but the mkII was for sure the best preamp I had never heard so the mkIII is simply amazing. Compared to the la-100 mkIII most preamp i tried where deceptive, including a AR reference one. My system consist of a mcintosh mc-2100 amp, a pair of esl-63 from quad, a esoteric d1 dac and a meitner transport. It's by far the best setup I had in my life and the joule is a big part of it.

Strengths:
Dynamic, detailed Musical, so musical and sweet Voices are sublimes, tonality is respected Very good extention from bass to highs simply amazing

Weaknesses:
Somes do not like this look, No tubes on the top no shinny metalic front plate ... personaly i like it and I prefer the sound to the look of equipment. The gain is not for every amplifier also

Price Paid:  $3200.00 from Joule-Electra

Summary:
This is the music lover's preamp, if anything else were to be better than this, then I cannot imagine what that would sound like, because for reaching the ultimate, this does sound to me as being the ultimate.

Huge soundstage, open, musical and natural. The guys below are all totally right in what they say. This is the last preamp you would ever want to buy and maybe even the last one you will ever want to hear...

My equipment :

Joule LA-150 Preamo
Joule Mk 160 Grand Marquis monoblocks
Audio Aero Capitole CD Player
Sonus Faber Amati Hommage speakers
all this running on Zcable

This is the ultimate combination...feel like moving my bedroom down to the living room and live with this equipment

Strengths:
Wonderful soundstage, solid bass, gorgious mids, extended highs, excellent remote control. Prompt, friendly and efficient service of Jud and Marianne Barber

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
Cary Audio, Manley, Lectron

Price Paid:  $2500.00

Summary:
Runs cirlces around my Sonic Frontiers Line 1 preamp. Far better top end, instruments more fleshed out. But I miss the wonder slow stepping volume control. Humm is not acceptable for a product in this price range. While I am sure that the transformer sounds best as the designer says, he should have doubled them up, which would reduce their load. That would keep the transformer from protesting so much. Doesn't produce the detail or frequency extremes of say the CJ Premier 16, but still immensely listenable.

Strengths:
Very musical, always pleasant, surprising how much more natural than even other tube preamps.

Weaknesses:
Humms, coarse volume control, remote turns volume control like a lawn mower blade.

Similar Products Used:
CJ and SF products

Summary:
i formerly owned a Stereophile class B preamp (CJ Pf2L) and there is absolutely no comparison. the joule sings, breathes, slaps, claps, stomps and romps all over it!

i routinely use a bill evans XRCD as a test cd (as some of the notes he hits can sound bright given my system). it now sounds natural--like a piano does, without the electrical / digital artifacts that were present with the CJ.

treble information has become much more natural--i think about how cymbals sound in real life, and how they normally sounded through my system--with the joule, they've become much more splashy with all the decay that they normally exhibit live. makes for a very realistic presentation.

i'm quite amazed that the bass (depth, articulation, and speed) has improved considerably moving from a SS pre to the Joule (which is tubes). wonderful lower octaves.

but the midrange is king, and the joule wears the crown. i don't know what to say beyond the fact that this is the most natural sounding midrange i have ever heard (and i've heard pre's that cost $5K+). (well, maybe the CTC Blowtorch is better, but that's it!). vocals have every nuance that you'd expect in real life. guitars have bite but also articulation that i never heard before. horns (sax, trombone, etc)--forget it. clean a permanent space in my rack for this thing. i'm done upgrading

don't get me wrong, the CJ was / is a nice piece. but the joule is amongst the best preamps made (regardless of whether or not its on the stereophile 'recommended components list'). its a one-time buy: get a joule pre, and i'm thinking you won't have the itch to upgrade your preamp for a very very long time.

hat's off to judd barber. genius at work.

system:
merlin VSM milleniums w/ bam
Joule LA 100 mk2
CJ MF 2100
denon DCM 560 cdplayer
mac mr67 tuner
JPS ultraconductor ICs
JPS super speaker wires
SCE HRS & TDS passive audiophile units after cd before pre (helps overcome the cd player's modest quality)

Strengths:
liquid midrange, completely natural presentation of entire musical performance.

Weaknesses:
no remote (but i have a Mk2, and the remote is an upgrade option for the Mk3 upgrade---which is a Strength in my book!)

Similar Products Used:
CJ PF2L

Summary:
Simply put, If you are in the market for a preamp in the
3-5K range, audition this one! Tubes are not tubes when it
comes to audio. I originally purchased the BAT VK-200 for
amplification and was very pleased with the sound of this
amp, especially for the price I got it for. I thought the
BAT preamp (5i) would do it justice but after hearing the
BAT and Joule side by side there was no comparison. The
BAT sounded more solid state than the Joule. It lacked
the air and and ambience of the Joule. Jud Barber of Joule
Electra is very helpful when it comes to tweaking the unit
for your particular system. My system was a bit on the
warm side anyway, but he sent me some instructions on
adjusting the filament voltages on the 5751 and 6350 to add
more zip on the top end. The filament voltages on the
tubes are actually shipped lower than the specifications
suggest. This tends to add more warmth to the presentation.
It actually blew me away right out of the box although it
was a bit broken in already. After the tweak, it is
simply breathtaking, especially on piano, classical guitar,
and female vocals. Now I am wondering what Jud's OTL's
would do to my system. Hope my audio budget will someday
allow this.

My system:

Joule Electra LA-100 mkIII preamp
BAT VK-200 amp
Harmonic Tech Pro-Silway IC's
Vandersteen 3A speakers
Sony DVP-7700 DVD/CD player
Auditioning (Bel Canto DAC-1/Perpetual Tech P-3A) DAC

Strengths:
Excellent bass, lush sounding with a midrange that is by
far better than anything I have experienced thus far.

Weaknesses:
Are you kidding. None here.

Similar Products Used:
BAT VK-5i