Which tubed pre to "flesh out" my mids???

Hey Jman,

To me I would add a Blue Circle BC3 to your list...maybe an BC3000 version 1...

The Joule (I have a LA150 gen1 here, with the 6c45/6h30 circuit which is the most detailed and neutral of the LA150 gen1 or gen2 preamps I have listened to here, as the gen2 LA150 uses the 6350 tubes to great effect, warming things up a bit, softening the edges a hair - giving everything a little more "wet" presentation...) Anyway, the Joule doesn't really tighten the bass here, if anything it really fleshes it out, from the midbass on down...Big Bottom! But if you are looking to tighten things up, the Joule might not be it. As I hear it, tightening things up means to help clear it up, maybe less bass just more detailed too; which the Joule tends to fill it out more...

I moved from a BC3 Galatea to the Joule to bring the bass out more here. Flesh it out. The BC has great clean bass, and soundstages DEEP into the Bass, but it doesn't add anything. Great Mids!, superb layering and depth with seperation in the stage. Not as wide a stage as the Joule, but better depth... But the Joule adds and fills out the midbass and deep bass here. loosened it up a bit if anything. (which is what I was looking for with my Merlin VSM MXe speakers...). And Gilbert @ Blue Circle has/uses Wadia sources in his test systems. Its worth a Listen, esp as TG and BC play VERY nice together!

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...

Hey Tvad, I hear you on impedance mismastches... but not the case here, as my BC amp has a 100k input impedance.

The one thing with the BC preamps is the amount of gain too, as I do prefer the lesser gain of the Joule. Still dynamic!, quiet,... but more play with the volume pot with the Joule. And remote too!

I am just calling it as I heard it here, over a long honeymoon with both for an extended period of time head to head... really working hard to get the best of both in terms of setup/synergy... but neither is perfect...