Joule Electra

I'm pretty sure that Jud passed away a short time ago. The business is no longer.

Elliot Midwood at Acoustic Image in Studio City California is a long-time Joule-Electra dealer (the brand is still listed and pictured on his website). You could give him a call.

Dohanian,

Please contact LEWIS 441 who is a friend and a member in fine standing on this site!

He has a buddy who was very close to Jud and his wife and has extensive personal repair knowledge of these units and the parts to do so!

I sold Him my Preamp and amp about 4 months ago...

Good luck and tell him Jake gave you this info

Contact Signature Sound in Rochester, NY.

Another endorsement for Signature Sound to assist with this. Correct location is Liverpool, NY.

I'm not sure about Jud passing away, but one of the Joule Electric principals, Simon Thatcher, who was in charge of sales and some design decisions, did pass away not long ago.
The last I heard, Jud just retired.

We can do service if that helps.

I meant to say "Joule Electra", and not "Joule Electric".
And BTW, I used to own Joule LA- 450 ME preamp, probably the last one Jud had ever made.
I know, last Simon Thatcher wanted Jud to make one for him (after hearing mine), and Jud didn't want to make it even for him, b/c it was too labor intensive.
Sometimes I wish, I've kept it.

Hi Folks,

Jud Barber is alive and well. I occasionally e-mail him (and when he feels like it he answers... LOL) with questions about Joule gear. He is retired and not making or servicing gear anymore. I have been fortunate in that some years ago, Jud personally tutored me on the design of his gear (have even visited Jud in N Augusta about 10 years ago while Marianne was still alive - a special lady who I shall always miss) and Jud walked me through how the gear was made and aspects about the design.

I do service, maintenance, and even help customers sell their Joule-Electra gear (on consignment basis) that they wish to find a new home. I have some technical documentation (if you can call copies of Jud's hand drawn circuits [not complete] and some notes "technical documentation") to help (can't really call what I have complete, so some head scratching, circuit tracing, and at times a suggestion from Jud [if he recalls] is necessary to figure things out - keeps things fun an challenging at times!).

While I am a HiFi retailer, my background is that of a engineer (Electrical Engineer to be specific). If someone needs assistance with their Joule-Electra gear, feel free to contact me though my Audiogon account or directly (315-622-4137).

Rich Brkich
Signature Sound

Rich...thanks for the correction on Jud. Glad to hear he is still with us. I could swear that I had read that he had passed away...sorry!

Seems like Rich is the man for Joule-Electra gear.

MoFiMadness...I won't say I am "the" man, because I still can't compare to Jud or folks like Ralph with their breadth and depth of knowledge of tube circuits. As I have been doing much more (repair/maintenance) work with Joule gear in the past several years than before (Joule owners seem to be finding me through the HiFi grapevine and Jud has referred a few folks my way), I am learning the ins/outs/quirks. I'm not he fastest (I am a one man show here, so there is a whole retail end of business that needs to be taken care of as well), but endeavor to be thorough and do the job right.

"He's alive!", like i said...

Strong endorsement of Signature Sound for all Joule Electra needs. Rich is a remarkable reference and does excellent, meticulous and scrupulously honest work. His advice is impeccable and he has helped me with a lot of gear over a great many years.

I still love my LA 100

I have dealt with Rich in the past buying Joule Electra amplifiers and Merlins.  I cannot recommend him highly enough!  He is extremely professional and will help you in any way he can.

Stephen McLeod

New customer here to a joule purchase, happy to read this review. 

Jud is a real audio artisan.  I consider him to be America's Ken Shindo.  I have his LA 150se II and it makes music.  When you look inside you can see that an artisan chose each piece and carefully put it together. 

For folks looking for a information resource on Joule-Electra gear, I have  expanded a page on my web-site with various information I have collected over the years. On this page are copies of various product literature, white papers, show hand-outs, reviews etc from my files or found on-line. I don't have product manuals scanned and uploaded yet, but those will also be added to the page in due time. Here is a link to the page: http://sigsound.com/classic-product-info/joule-electra-info-page/

Rich Brkich
Signature Sound