TRL Dude or Joule 150 MKII for Major Pre Upgrade


Thinking of either of these for what I view as a huge pre upgrade in my system. Current system is:

-Celestion A3
-Krell KAV250a (500 wpc/4 ohms).
-Nohr CD-1
-Rotel 995 preamp

I am looking to pickup warmth, depth and much more soundstage. Quality bass is also important to me. I want to keep the Celestions and feel that my current pre is the weakest link. Will also will update my digital source and ss amp down the road.

My thinking is that it will be worth paying up a bit for a higher quality pre that I can grow into.

Also I have a small naive question...with either of these pre amps will the sound difference be that great compared to the Rotel.

Thanks...any comments are appreciated.

-Iggy
iggy7
There is a review of the Dude here with a photo showing dual volume controls, the one on TRL's site has one, are there two models?
The Dude I borrowed for a few days last month had dual volume controls and is a recent model.
$4,000 direct? I like the dual controls!

It is true the Roger is not the fastest responder, but his equipment make the
wait worthwhile - I think he has hired an assistant to handle e-mail and phone
inquiries, but it does seem to take 24 hours to hear back.

Grannyring, do you have photos of the Dudes innards you could share?
I really wanted to try a RM10 and asked about buying two in mono block form. It has now been 5 days and no answer. This scares me. Oh well, I bet it is an awesome amp based on many comments by owners.

The Dude photo on the website is old and the old style. The new Dude can be custom made with dual volume or one volume knob. Paul will build it as you like. Mine has one volume knob and 4 - 6sn7 tubes instead of two for slightly more gain. This 4 - 6sn7 design option is not needed for the vast majority of folks, but worked well with my power hungry Soundlab speakers.

The Dude is not small, but a 70 pound beast . The circuit is Paul's and really simple but robust beyond any other pre I have seen.
If you google Music Reference or try to get there from teh Agon link the web page doesn't seem to exist,maybe that's why you aren't hearing back