Joule Electra preamps and amps. What is your impression?


Never auditioned them. Thinking about replacing my SS integrated. Lamm, VAC etc. are out of reach.  Also, how would Joule preamp work with some SS amp, say, Rowland # 2 or older Pass or something like that ?
My Redgum integrated is very dynamic with excellent drive and bass so I won't sacrifice that even for a more natural and sophisticated.
inna

Showing 2 responses by larryi

I like the LAP150 linestage for its warmish tonality without sounding murky or slow.  I also have heard and liked very much their OTL amps.  These too are on the warm side, particularly for OTL amps, which still manage to retain much of the genre's advantages in terms of liveliness and dynamics.

The big issue with their gear is longevity and reliability.  Both the linestage and the various OTL amps had some issues with build quality and reliability.  I happen to be listening to one of their OTL amps at a dealership when the amp delivered a HUGE pop.  It turned out that the tube sockets were going bad on the amp and had to be replaced.  I found out later that this was somewhat of a common problem with this particular model.  While socket replacement in most amps would be time consuming but not extremely so, in an OTL amp such as this particular model, it was not easy to do because it had MANY tube sockets and a whole lot of point to point wiring.

OTL amps tend to have a high output impedance.  That means that, if they are matched with low impedance speakers, particularly ones with an impedance curve with wide swings up and down, the frequency response of the speaker could vary quite a bit.  The ideal speaker for all tube amps, particularly OTLs and SETs (which also tend to have highish output impedance), would be one with a high nominal impedance and a curve that is relatively flat.  

Theory aside, all speakers require careful matching of amps.  I haven't noticed, in the setups I've heard using OTLs, any particular sensitivity of the OTL type; they tend to sound very good with a wide variety of speakers.