The batteries in the Joule preamplifier are under no load and don't really have an effect on the bias settings used for the line stage. They will last many years. You don't really need two meters to set the bias... I normally do it with one DMM. I have LA 100 bias instructions scanned as a jpeg which I can email. They are not easy to make sense of (a diagram of the line stage board with some numbers scrawled on it), but they get the job done. It does require poking leads on points of the circuit board (there are no easy access test points to stick your meter), so one does need to tame appropriate care when poking around inside a live tube preamplifier.