Look what Ups brought

erniejade

The unit I have does have a remote. It is a little bit loud when you turn it up or down .. not through the music loud but you can hear it loud if the music is at a lower volume

tonyb

Brian,
Are you saying the volume control on the LA-150 is noisy ? Something might be amiss then, I'd give Judd a call and see what he thinks. You sure it's not a tube going south ?

erniejade

Noise like a motor turning the motor itself isn't that quiet. You cannot hear it through the speakers or anything like that, only from the unit itself.

tonyb

Gotcha man, for a second there....l

F1nut

Jud closed his doors and retired.

F1nut

Tony, you can stick a Bent Audio/Alps pot in there, piece of cake and tell ya the truth, it would be a lot better than the motorized pots Jud used.

heiney9

I don't think the issue is with the vol pot in Joule, but rather that he uses the Sonos volume control since it's remote. Leaving the Joule set and varying the volume with the crappy digital chip in the Sonos.

H9

F1nut

I understand that. I'm offering a solution.

tonyb

Jess, that Bent Audio remote looks very enticing.

heiney9

I see. I wasn't paying attention.

heiney9

yeah Tony..............get Bent

WagnerRC

seems like a no brainer solution to the carpet replacement .

tonyb

heiney9 wrote: »

yeah Tony..............get Bent

Ha...can always count on you Brock. You better be sifting threw those tubes looking for a 5751 NOS Sylvania black plate triple mica D getter with yellow lettering and RCA 6350'S black plates. That is if you have any in that horde of 10,000 tubes.

Some Raytheon or RCA 6EM7's might be helpful too.

tonyb

Btw....can anyone tell me what the differences were between the LA-100/MK2/MK3 ? Having a hard time scarfing up info. From all I gather though, many like the LA-100 mk3 better than the LA-150's.

WagnerRC

here some good info .

http://www.sigsound.com/FrameFiles/joule.htm

heiney9

tonyb wrote: »

heiney9 wrote: »

yeah Tony..............get Bent

Ha...can always count on you Brock. You better be sifting threw those tubes looking for a 5751 NOS Sylvania black plate triple mica D getter with yellow lettering and RCA 6350'S black plates. That is if you have any in that horde of 10,000 tubes.

Some Raytheon or RCA 6EM7's might be helpful too.

6350's and 6EM7's are not my bag, so I don't have any. A single 5751, I'll look and see. Also the lettering has very little to do with the sound if it's the same build and year. You can use the lettering to determine the year, but there is other lettering for the same year (same tube) so don't just get a hard on for yellow.

You might want to assess what the sound is and how the 5751 affects the overall sound. Depending on what you want, the gray and black plate 3 mica Sylvania's 5751 are great, but they do sound a bit different from each other. Some prefer one over the other. The gray plate has a midrange presence to die for, where the black plates are a tad more linear.

The earlier 3mica tubes with the D or Square getter are the ones to look for.

H9

tonyb

I was reading the yellow lettering on the 5751 Sylvania's sound better than the ones with green lettering. Obviously one persons opinion though. I need pairs by the way, not singles..

heiney9

That's because the green lettering is a later tube (depending on the shade of green). All the 50's black plate 3 mica tubes are the same, doesn't matter what lettering or lack of lettering they have. But, you pursue whatever you think you need. Lettering is the least reliable way of buying tubes, IMO.

I buy tubes by structure and year produced. There were only minor differences in the early 50's black plate tubes and they all sound alike. The GB's and JHS's both sound the same, however you'll almost always pay more for GB's.

I'll shoot you a PM tonight.

H9

heiney9

Another 5751 to consider is the early Tung Sol 5751. I personally think it's even better than the Sylvania or atleast on the same playing field. A very transparent and liquid tube, very focused and ballsy. I don't know, it's hard to explain. It just sounds so "right" in every aspect.

H9

Thorton

If you don't get Bent this may be an option!

F1nut

The gray plates suck in the Joule. Black plates with yellow lettering are da bomb.

heiney9

I find that hard to believe since in the end there isn't a huge difference between the same generation black and grey plates. Meaning late 50's black plates, early 60's gray plates. As you start to move to the late 60's and beyond for gray plates, they go down hill progressively.

Again label color has very little to with it. Some are GB, some are JHS and some are USN and some are USAF labeled, all the same damn tube if it was produced at the same time (late 50's, early 60's).

But, I'm not here to argue, because hey, what do I know.

H9

tonyb

You guys are funny, arguing about tubes like it's a cable thread. lol

Brock,
I think what Jess is trying to point out is, synergy. You as well as any other tube owner knows certain tubes work better than others in certain gear. Joule, given their circuit design, is more tailored to accept certain tubes over others. Nothing new there, we all know that by now I hope. A good tube can sound great in a Cary, horrible in a CJ....know what I'm sayin' ?

I'm reading what I can find from people who own or have owned Joule pre's and the proper tubes they have used. Jud himself has said he tried many other tubes also and the ones that came with the unit seemed best to him and others who auditioned his pre's. From what I gather reading up, most keep the same tubes in there that Jud had originally shipped them with. I'm pretty happy with the sound as is so It's hard to argue Jud's thoughts on the matter.

Speaking of tubed pre's....how's yours blowing you sack back ? Last I remember, you upgraded, and were tube swapping to tailor your sound. Success finally ?

tonyb

Thorton wrote: »

If you don't get Bent this may be an option!

Somebody gives me own of those things and I'm grabbing them by the nuts and throwing them out of my house. lol

tonyb

Jess,
I realized Jud was out after you posted that he was. I guess Rich over at Signature Sound is the man to see and ask questions about Joule pre's.

.....and Mr. Wagner, Rich says he's never selling his Joule 300.

heiney9

tonyb wrote: »

You guys are funny, arguing about tubes like it's a cable thread. lol

Brock,

Speaking of tubed pre's....how's yours blowing you sack back ? Last I remember, you upgraded, and were tube swapping to tailor your sound. Success finally ?

It was a little daunting at first having 6 tubes to try and mix/match up for the best sound. With me, I have several favorites combo's and part of it for me is to keep from getting bored, I can swap in tubes and subtly change the "flavor".

This is far and above the best sounding pre-amp I've owned to date. The main things I notice is more tuneful bass and the ability to "see into" the recordings more. There is also more sense of "effortless" sound. It never calls attention to itself and it does respond well to tube rolling.

There is a total of 8 tubes, 1 of the tubes is solely for the balanced section of the pre-amp which I don't use at this time. There is 1 6x4 rectifier and (2) pairs of 12au7's and (1) pair of 12AX7's.

My main concern was integrating this pre w/ it's 8 tubes with the dac and it's single tube. I've finally got both dialed in and it sounds superb! The best my system has sounded. It all sounds so cohesive and effortless and the SDA's just disappear even more than before.

The current tube compliment for general use is:

Dac has a single 1963 Sylvania 5814, 3 mica, gray plate, sq getter. Among the best 5814's out there and has a very similar sound to it's 5751 cousin.

Pre-amp has a pair or 1956 Tung Sol 5751's, can't seem to take them out, they are that good. a quad of 1956 Lansdale (Philco) JAN-CBRZ 12au7, gray plate, sq getter. (1) 1949 Tung Sol 6x4, black plate, double vertical D getter's rectifier.

These tubes together have superb dynamics, great scale, a soundstage to die for and a very extended and sweet top end. Bass is tight, deep, well extended and delineated. Scary good! And I find myself listening at insane levels for hours with zero fatigue.

Even better tube combo is same rectifier with the other tubes all being early 50's Valvo Hamburg tubes. But those tubes are scarce and expensive so I only roll those in for special listening sessions.

Another favorite is to put in a quad of 1951 Westinghouse 12AU7's (the real ones). Holy smokes

Next up is to try a quad of 1961 Siemens 12AU7 silver plates, dual post halo getter. And 1949 12AX7 Tung Sol long black plates.

So many great tubes...................

H9

heiney9

One last comment, the most underrated tubes out there are made by Brimar. Another of my absolute favorites is the early Brimar long black plate w/sq getter. The long gray plates are equally as good too. The later short plates aren't in the same league, but still a nice option.

H9

tonyb

LOL....so many great tubes, so little time. Glad to see you got it were ya want it. Maybe time to stop hunting down tubes and save that coin for other things....like a ring maybe ? Just sayin'...the girl ain't gonna wait forever bro.

tonyb

Funny, I was reading some discussions on another forum about the Joule pre's and one guy referred to Joule pre's as being "stone age".

Now, I realize mine is probably the first iteration of an LA-100, but dang if it doesn't sound as good if not better than many current pre's I've heard....least for my tastes anyway.

heiney9

I have not quite completed the collection yet, but close.....lol.

The girl approves (even if she doesn't quite understand) and she's well taken care of .

I have actually scaled way back on buying..........just a few here and there...lol