Thoughts from Joule preamp owners?

I have an la 150 mark 1 and an La 300 ME. The 300 mated to rites of passage provides the most seductive, involving, and satisfying sound I have ever heard. The 150 resides in the second system where it is not as good as the LA 100 it replaced; i will be updating it to a mark 2 one of these days.

I love the joule stuff. It got me off the merry go round. As stated above, the fact that Jud does not do upgrades of the month but sticks with circuitry and approaches that fit within his philosophy is refreshing.

It does seem many have concluded the MKI was a dud, not typical Jud. The MKII was wonderful, and the SE version even a bit better, but not sure I would bother with that upgrade, unless I simply had the itch, the MKII pretty darn good in its own right.

Hey Car123, thanks for responding to my thread.
I saw your comments from a few year about about Joni M. I've also been attached to Joni's Blue album for forever it seems.
(And Court and Spark).
(I suppose I can digress on my own thread.)

The mark 1 seems to lack the typical joule magic unfortunately. When I took the beautiful la 100 out of the upstairs system and replaced it with the la 150 mark 1, I thought what happened? I guess I need to take the cash I made selling the la 100 and put it into upgrading the la 150, which I just haven't yet done.

RGS92, I love the old Joni. Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, Clouds, the list goes on. I love Court and Spark too, I have a DCC, very nice and a true test for a system.

Back to Joule, they are very good deals used. The 300 is astonishing. I picked mine up used a year or so ago and it brought my system up a notch. I also was considering a 150 SE but the deal came together on the 300 first and Simon told me I should go for the 300 if possible.

My brother, who introduced me to Joule and who has lived on Kauai for the last 5 years or so, was out to Oregon a few months back. He has an lap 150 and a vzn 80, quintessence stealths, and my old aries mark 1 with clearaudio harmony wood. He hadn't heard my system since he moved away. He was very impressed and went away scheming about upgrades.

Insidious hobby isn't it, especially given that the limiting factor typically is the quality of the source material.

Thanks Carl for all that; somehow the right equipment can coax some magic out of the worst recording I have found. Thanks for the Joule story!