joule electra vs. atma-sphere any input?

I discussed this with Jud many years ago.  His feeling was that balanced was critical with long cable runs, such as in studios, but not necessarily so with the lengths in most home audio systems.  He said to be truly balanced, as opposed to sudo-balanced, would require one additional gain stage and he didn't believe that was worth the trouble or cost.

These are common myths. You don't need any more gain stages (our balanced preamps only have 3 from LOMC phono input to main output). That makes for a signal path simpler than most preamps, apparently including the JA preamps.
The reason to go with balanced line is to eliminate cable **artifacts**- length is a side benefit so even six inches is long enough to realize an improvement! What that means to an audiophile is that an inexpensive cable can sound as good as one that cost over $1000/foot. IOW its all about greater neutrality. Of course the longer cables possible make putting the monoblock amps by the speaker a lot easier.

So even today we find manufacturers on both sides of the question.

This is true, and its because there is a balanced standard (also known as AES File 48) to which the manufacturer must adhere in order to gain all the benefits of balanced operation. Most high end audio manufacturers don't seem to acknowledge that the standard exists, so you hear about all sorts of variability! That is why in my prior post, I was careful to use the words 'if it is done right'.

@brunomarsThe advantage of going balanced is that if it is done right, the interconnect cables won't play a big role in the sound of the system. If you've ever had to audition cables to get the right sound, you know what I mean.

Hi Siddh, which version of the MkII did you have?

Hi Siddh, Thanks for the nice comments! The MkII.2 dates from 1999 to about 2003; we've come a long way since then and are now building the MkIII amplifiers. It might be worth your while to audition again when you get the chance- the MkIIIs are smoother and more detailed, with the added benefit that the tubes hold up better too.

FWIW the older amps can be updated with full warranty reactivation.

The V-Cap Teflon capacitor has been a big boost - it is a better part than the Teflon cap we were using before and are arguably the best in the industry.