Look what Ups brought

tonyb

....and unlike Kevin, in promo condition.

tonyb

Only thing is....I can't figure out where to slide in the pizza.

tonyb

Bob packed this puppy to the hilt. This pre is also in like new condition.

pitdogg2

Pizza goes on the top bro get with the program....lol
that is very nice Tony. So changing the old name to "tubeTony" ?

what tubes does it take? from the looks seems like 12ax-au maybe any 6sn7?

tonyb

Mr. Bob Wagner , can't give the man enough accolades. A true gentleman and audiophile. He obviously went to extremes to clean this unit and pack accordingly. Much good karma is coming your way Bob. Thank you so very much and Merry Christmas to you and yours. Before anyone asks.....she's warming up right now.

lightman1

New toys are the best! That is a fine piece of pre. New system or putting it in the existing?
I like pepperoni and extra cheese on mine.

Mikey081057

Zawzige Peppas and Unyuns for me

tonyb

I figure if I put a pizza stone on top....I might be in business. lol

For right now, I disconnected the receiver so I can have a direct path. Sonos to Cary dac, AP Crystal oval cables to the pre, AZ Matrix 2's to the Butler amp which sports 6SN7GT's. AZ Satori's to the Legacys.

Haven't figured out yet how to incorporate it into the HT. I can run another set of IC's from the front left and right preouts from the receiver to the pre, but I dunno what effect HT sounds would have on the tubes. Maybe I can have AZ make me some Y connectors to put on the amp and run 2 sets of IC's into that, one for the receiver and one for the pre. Any other ideas....which route would be better, worse ?

heiney9

Come on Tony we need a review, I mean you've had it a couple hours now..........atleast some initial impressions.

Finally, get to bust your balls about a new piece of gear .

I'm sure I've got some tubes here for you too!

H9

heiney9

tonyb wrote: »

I figure if I put a pizza stone on top....I might be in business. lol

For right now, I disconnected the receiver so I can have a direct path. Sonos to Cary dac, AP Crystal oval cables to the pre, AZ Matrix 2's to the Butler amp which sports 6SN7GT's. AZ Satori's to the Legacys.

Haven't figured out yet how to incorporate it into the HT. I can run another set of IC's from the front left and right preouts from the receiver to the pre, but I dunno what effect HT sounds would have on the tubes. Maybe I can have AZ make me some Y connectors to put on the amp and run 2 sets of IC's into that, one for the receiver and one for the pre. Any other ideas....which route would be better, worse ?

Don't use it for HT, Y-splitters usually aren't a good idea if you looking for supreme playback quality. If there's no HT bypass, then not sure how to integrate it w/o some sort of small compromise.

H9

Nightfall

I run my AVR preouts to an input on my tube preamp then have a certain spot on the tube preamp volume dial that matches the rest of the speakers, only catch with that is you're putting hours on your tubes for HT duty too.

tonyb

I'm not worried about the hours on the tubes for HT use. Normally it's a movie every few months for 2 hours anyway. I usually might have a football game or something using the receiver way more often. It is however a line only pre, no volume control to speak of so I'm stuck using the crappy volume control on the Sonos. My goal too, was to remove the receiver from 2 channel all together. Looks like adding the additional interconnects to the pre may be the way to go for HT use.

Touché Brock, lol.

hochpt21

Congrats Tony...looks great!

kharp1

Is it just a pizza joint or do you make gravy here also?

Nice pre. I know I'm liking mine alot, and, yes, Bob did an incredible job packing the one he sent me.

heiney9

So does "Bob" have anymore of these? Lol

Nightfall

Who is Bob and why does he have so many Joules?

WagnerRC

I did find a loose screw right out of the sealed factory box..... come on Cary



But this is a nice looking piece....




I only have one more joule in the house and its a keeper for sure.

Happy you are happy Tony.

polkfarmboy

Merry Christmas to yourself Tony, I love the merry Christmas to me packages as they are awesome. That is a sweet looking/sounding preamp and should keep you happy for many moons Tony!

polkfarmboy

Hey Wagner you should give Steve Witec a call from Cary and they will get that taken care of for you. He will get back with you Monday as its only the accounting depart,eat coming in today so it would be Monday to get your part. The reason I know this is that I have been on the phone with them as I just destroyed my SLP 05 on Wednesday and have been back and forth for advice. Was planning to keep that quiet lol.

tonyb

Dare I ask....how the heck do you destroy a nice pre amp like the Cary SLP-05 ?

One screw eh Bob....not too bad but considering what that piece cost, I might be a tad upset myself.

Will do some listening tonight on the Joule and put up some thoughts tomorrow. Unlike others I know....cough....Joey.....cough.... Brock....cough.. PFB.

Nightfall

I do believe this is the first "new" major piece of equipment you have bought since I joined this place.

Thorton

Nice piece Tony. You may need to upgrade your cabling too!

indyhawg

Very nice pre, Tony.

tonyb

Nightfall wrote: »

I do believe this is the first "new" major piece of equipment you have bought since I joined this place.

Nightfall wrote: »

I do believe this is the first "new" major piece of equipment you have bought since I joined this place.

No, not really. Sometimes I audition pieces, then make a decision. Lately it's been a battle to improve the HT side or 2 channel, and since the HT side gets less and less use, the decision was easily made. I don't always comment on stuff I try, especially if it's a dog and I don't want to offend anyone who may have it. Sadly enough, the only pieces I have bought in the last 5 years have been the Cary dac, Sonos, and a variety of cables. The speakers are staying. Down the road a dedicated audiophile grade music server is now top priority. Vinyl days are behind me, as well as spinning cd's.

I know what my ears like, and more importantly what my wallet can afford, and those 2 usually don't match up very well. I'm sure many around here have that problem also. I won't waste money on stuff I know are borderline for me just for the sake of getting something shiny and new. Finding a decent 2 channel tubed pre on the cheap is harder than it sounds. Actually, above "decent", only because I've been spoiled, soiled, and sheet faced.

The missing piece for me has always been a dedicated tubed pre, haven't had one in like 35 years. Moving away from using a receiver for that function has always been my goal. I just have a hard time settling for anything other than what I consider good sounding. Make sense ?

Mr. Wagner made me an offer I couldn't refuse on a pre he knew I'd like, and coveted for him to buy also. That Joule 300 has got to be the bomb. The Cary too, like I said any of them can be destination pieces.

Joey_V

Tony... I think you got pneumonia with all that coughing...

erniejade

Congrats!!!!! That's awesome!

erniejade

Its supposed to be a cold cr@py weekend anyway with a high of -2 Sunday. I say its the perfect weekend for some listening.

lightman1

Why does my route bring me to the mid-west in winter? Darn cold up here.

erniejade wrote: »

Its supposed to be a cold cr@py weekend anyway with a high of -2 Sunday. I say its the perfect weekend for some listening.

[Deleted User]

Congrats Tony and RC both. Very Nice.

footwedge

@tonyb

Guess you have supplanted your title "the enabler". Bet it sounds good to be an enablee.

tonyb

I'm not above being the enablee. lol

Listened for about 6 hours last night with the wife so here are some initial thoughts. Recent memory taken into consideration, I'll compare to the Rhumba.

First off, The Joule LA-100 is replacing a mid level Pioneer receiver as the pre amp function. I don't think I need to dive too deeply into the sound improvements over that. Every aspect of the musical spectrum improved. There were somethings I was expecting, and some things I wasn't.

Considering the Joule has some age on it, and life of the tubes unknown, I was expecting a somewhat subdued sound with laid back highs and good mid bass. What I wasn't expecting was....the bass. Holy smokes was it good, mids all the way down into the lower registers. The Rhumba also had good bass, some of the better I've heard in tubed pre's but this just had another dimension of realism to it without being over blown or drawing attention to itself.

Matter of fact, none of the frequency ranges drew attention to itself, everything played in harmony from top down and the music just flowed. Not laid back, not too forward, just right. Lots of detail too, more than I was expecting, but I think the Rhumba had a bit more. I thought the Rhumba had a bit more separation of the instruments too but you'd never notice because everything just sounded so darn good.

The Rhumba also had good Prat, but so does the Joule. It has a boogie factor that simply surprised me from an older tubed pre. Given the years these were produced, I could now see how Joule made a name for themselves against the competition of the times. It just made you want to get off the couch and dance. I just didn't want to stop listening. There was no comparison to my old Sonic Frontiers, it was better all around. The SF had a bloom to it that could play well with certain songs and sound like mush on others. None of that here in the Joule, everything sounded great.

Not as good as the LA-150, but I'll be darn if it didn't carry many of the attributes. The rhythm and pace of this thing was stupid good, Bruno Mars sounded phenomenal . Never any strain in the upper registers, made some bad recordings actually sound better....but we all know bad recordings are bad recordings and you can only spit shine a t u r d so much.

Part of the problem I had with the receiver in the mix, was I thought somewhere in the chain I had a bad impedance mismatch, or just some not so good synergy. It wasn't hugely noticeable, but still bugged me. The Joule slid right in and made itself at home with it's new friends. So much so, my Butler amp seemed to have new life. It has this musical tension, like a lot of horsepower waiting to be used. The Joule let it breath more and showed the amp could do more than low level Barry Manillow crap.

I put the gain at about the 3 o'clock position and used the digital volume control on the Sonos. Only when pushed did I start to notice a bit of hash from that crappy volume control when the volume went way up. Lower volume details also improved. Before it seemed I had to turn it up to get the detailed presentation I wanted, not anymore. I had no lack of headroom to get to ear busting levels.

The manual states, this is a phase inverting pre amp. I however left things as is without switching the positive and negative cables on the speakers and it sounded just peachy. Also, I was expecting some hum issues given the age, dead arse quiet, and I mean not a peep. Someone along the line must have done work on this, all the caps and inside looked squeaky clean and almost like new.

Soundstage was wide enough but not as much so on the upper Joule products, then again much wider than the Pioneer. Needless to say, Tony is a happy camper with this piece. It has a sound that can please anyone, musical, fits right in with it's playmates, doesn't draw attention to itself, quiet as a church mouse and puts a smile on your face as soon as you hit play. Sure, I could ask for a little more of this or that in the musical spectrum, but your too busy just boogying to even notice. I've always liked the Joule sound, just never thought I would have one in my system.

Thanks again to Mr. Bob Wagner for thinking of me when he acquired it. The Joule isn't going anywhere anytime soon.