The Joule's bass is "fleshed out"... not super loose, not tight or damped down. It works for me! BUT in relation, the Blue Circle's bass/midbass is more neutral. I have ALL SORTS of isolation here, TG cones, Aurios, Neuance platforms, ...
But that goosing of the midbass/Bass of the Joule is why Bobby P loves the Joule with his speakers... Its fully fleshed out, yet clean, detailed, layered, blah,blah,... I like things that soundstage bass correctly, and both the Blue Circle and Joule do that, it's just that the BC bass is more "damped", thus sounding tighter... the Joule's bass is less damped, more fleshed out... (the Blue Circle had more hall info and air too, but that is another story...). BUT I like big bottoms! Thats why I have a Joule preamp! I also like the way the Joule soundstages the back corners of the stage, the way the Joule does voices, and the width/depth/height/layering/cohesiveness and separation at the same time, of a big symphonic work building to a full cresendo! Never looses its cool! (Same as the BC pre before it, just a bigger bottom end). The Joule does the "they are in your room" thing a bit more than BC, where the Blue Circle is more "you are at the recording" than the Joule. Very similar, but that hall info and bass info is where to 2 part ways... I went to Joule from Blue Circle preamps, wanting to keep eveything the BC did, but with a less damped bottom end - and that's what the Joule did here. I gave up some hall info and maybe some depth of stage of the BC going to the Joule, but things like isolation, how you run your cables, room treatments can help bring some of that back...
But that goosing of the midbass/Bass of the Joule is why Bobby P loves the Joule with his speakers... Its fully fleshed out, yet clean, detailed, layered, blah,blah,... I like things that soundstage bass correctly, and both the Blue Circle and Joule do that, it's just that the BC bass is more "damped", thus sounding tighter... the Joule's bass is less damped, more fleshed out... (the Blue Circle had more hall info and air too, but that is another story...). BUT I like big bottoms! Thats why I have a Joule preamp! I also like the way the Joule soundstages the back corners of the stage, the way the Joule does voices, and the width/depth/height/layering/cohesiveness and separation at the same time, of a big symphonic work building to a full cresendo! Never looses its cool! (Same as the BC pre before it, just a bigger bottom end). The Joule does the "they are in your room" thing a bit more than BC, where the Blue Circle is more "you are at the recording" than the Joule. Very similar, but that hall info and bass info is where to 2 part ways... I went to Joule from Blue Circle preamps, wanting to keep eveything the BC did, but with a less damped bottom end - and that's what the Joule did here. I gave up some hall info and maybe some depth of stage of the BC going to the Joule, but things like isolation, how you run your cables, room treatments can help bring some of that back...