TRL Dude or Joule 150 MKII for Major Pre Upgrade

Yes TRL has been building great gear for decades an my Dude has been flawless in sound and performance since day one! Both Dudes I have owned.

Paul answers his phone and will always get back right away and help. I must say this is not true of all small "one man" companies. I have still not heard back from Roger at Music Reference and I emailed/called to actually buy his amps - RM10.I decided to buy another amp now. He is one example and unfortunately I know of many others in this business. Paul will respond to customers.

There is a review of the Dude here with a photo showing dual volume controls, the one on TRL's site has one, are there two models?

The Dude I borrowed for a few days last month had dual volume controls and is a recent model.

$4,000 direct? I like the dual controls!

It is true the Roger is not the fastest responder, but his equipment make the
wait worthwhile - I think he has hired an assistant to handle e-mail and phone
inquiries, but it does seem to take 24 hours to hear back.

Grannyring, do you have photos of the Dudes innards you could share?

I really wanted to try a RM10 and asked about buying two in mono block form. It has now been 5 days and no answer. This scares me. Oh well, I bet it is an awesome amp based on many comments by owners.

The Dude photo on the website is old and the old style. The new Dude can be custom made with dual volume or one volume knob. Paul will build it as you like. Mine has one volume knob and 4 - 6sn7 tubes instead of two for slightly more gain. This 4 - 6sn7 design option is not needed for the vast majority of folks, but worked well with my power hungry Soundlab speakers.

The Dude is not small, but a 70 pound beast . The circuit is Paul's and really simple but robust beyond any other pre I have seen.