Joule Electra LA-150 MK3 vs MK2?

Hey guys - I want to ask a touchy question without starting a flame war. Just an honest question. I have a Supratek Chardonnay (well known here on Audiogon) that was only 2.3k. If I moved up to this pre for 14.8k can anyone who has heard both tell me what I get? Similarly, I use older Pass Amplification that used was in the 2k range, and their current models are 10 - 40k... I know there is a price/performance curve that isn't linear, and I've heard truly amazing things about Joule gear, so what do I get for the 12k difference?

I'll check out the reviews. I'll also see if I can audition them as well just out of curiosity - it will be many years before I can lay down that kind of money for audio equipment. But who knows...

Yes, particularly with MapleShade or other high-end recordings, I hear the same thing - that it sounds live. I even had someone say once that 'it sounded better than live' and at first I was offended in an odd way - it made me think that person didn't understand anything about audio, because 'live' is the ultimate. Eventually, I think I figured out what he meant - had to do with the room. If those 5 musicians were in my living room it would have sounded much worse as we would have been sitting 2 inches from their noses, I was replicating to some extent the space they recorded in, much larger than my puny room, so the room sounded larger and more natural than my actual room.

Its actually funny - the reviews mentioned above sound exactly like what I hear... Perhaps it is similar, but 'more so' for the extra 12 - 15k. Any of you with this pre-amp in California, or northern California? It would be interesting to listen, and I would invite anyone over as well. Send me a message through Audiogon if interested...

Oh - and agreed with the pre vs non-pre. I ran without a pre for years before the Supratek. Its more than acting like an equalizer, they handle voltage increases better than the small pre that comes in CD players. Remember, everthing has some sort of pre, as what 'pre' really means is increasing voltage to some level, even if that level is 2 or 2.14 or 2.4 volts. Except of course passive pre's, which only reduce voltage. So, with an active pre, during loud passages they are better at getting increases in voltage quickly than their small equivalents in source equipment. There are other things that improve with a pre and I don't know why all of them work, but dynamics are improved along the above comments.

iSanches - same speakers, we could have a great comparo but probably you live on East Coast or something :)...

Oh - and my sub gets less and less use as well. Those 3.6s go really really deep after a long break-in period...

It would also be interesting to see what our systems compare like in terms of amps. I am running the 3.6s with 60 watts. You are using something like 800 or 1600 depending on how we count monoblocks. The thing is, I have 60 (well, okay, 90 at 4 ohms) watts from Nelson Pass, and his watts are different than everyone else's watts. I don't feel any lack of slam! On Shostakovitch's 8th on the quick blasts I can easily get to 110/115 db (read from meter, not estimated) without distortion I can tell/hear. (Like I said Nelson watts aren't normal. Try that with a 90 watt Sony or even NAD amplifier!) But it would be fun to hear your system and see what 800 watts sounds like :)...

But I digress - this is a pre-amp thread.

Spectron - to your post of 03-05-09, yeah I'm familiar with how distortion works ergo my use of the phrase I used to distinguish it from the other forms.

The 'magic' in Pass Labs amplification I am referring to, since you are questioning the sorcery, is indeed there. I am familiar with the formulas via sensitivity, 3db and watts doubling and all that, etc. The 'magic' is that companies can rate their systems at 'n' distortion level, there is no universal standard. One company says their amp is 100 watts, but at what level of thd and at what frequency and for what duration? So the Pass stuff is rated quite conservatively as these things go, and thus deliver far beyond what is on the spec sheet for any of their amps. Same goes for a several other top-end companies. The second part of the magic is the continuing doubling down with ohms, I don't have it in front of me, but the Pass stuff doubles down real well (well, in their recent Class A offerings, only in the 0.5 models). The third part that can contribute to the magic is the short term max output, which is wayyyyy higher than rms. The ratio is muuucchhh higher than most amps, so for short periods it can slam with the best of them. (Note, not compared to Spectron amps! those seem to be in their own league in this respect)

So, for 90 watts at 4 ohms, I would indeed consider it magical compared to what else is out there at 90 watts/4 ohms.

What are you using, isn't it like 7000 watts or something peak? Quite a different beast. Anyway, I didn't write this earlier because this is a preamp thread and didn't want to hijack it, but now that the thread has died down a bit thougth I'd chime in with a bit of this off-topic info.

Happy listening!

Is their web site down? http://www.joule-electra.com/ I've been trying to get on for a few days. Is that the wrong place?