Thoughts from Joule preamp owners?

The difference between II and I is much greater than the difference between III & SE, I think II & SE are much more musical than I, there was some change in the tubes used and possibly the circuit in the move from I to II/SE, Is SE an improvement over II, sure, a bit, but after moving from II to SE, I found that it would have been perfectly easy to live with II and be perfectly content - both are very fine preamplifiers that suit my sonic preference very well.

Good information thanks for sharing your experience!!

Thanks to everyone. I think Joule has some more new factory upgrades on the way, and they sell with a 30-day-satisfaction option.

In looking through user comments on the web on many sites over a decade, Joule has voluminous amounts of high user praise and does not seem to be a flavor of the month thing.

My only personal experience with Joule was from the Merlin rooms at the NY Stereophile show several times for long sessions where the sound was very fine in every respect and compelling to the point where I did not want to leave (which was true of very few rooms, except maybe for some megabuck rooms like the VSR VR9, Joseph Audio Pearl, and Dynaudio Evidence rooms). Of course I can't isolate the Joule contribution, but it certainly did no harm.

I had an ARC Ref1 and ML #32 long ago and thought the ARC was too propulsive and the ML lacking some tube palpable-ness that I have come to crave.

I really want a remote so I turned away from Shindo, which I know has high praise. I tried some passives and also missed my tube magic and gave up on them.
Again, thanks for the responses.

I think based on what you are looking for, the Joule will not disappoint. Good luck! Hope you like it.

I would also take a look at the Cary SLP-05