The Joules remind me of the Frankenstein movie. They're very large, imposing, hald ultra high end, half a bit unfinished monsters. They give off a great deal of heat as well. There's a large variac that send juice via 4 power cords 2ea to the monoblocks. The cords look to be very cheap, nothing like you would ever use (that is if you believe in power cords) in your system. The interconnects attach to the rca jacks, barely. I mean so loose they just as well fall out!
You slowly crank the giant dial on top of the variac (just as you would when powering up Frankenstein once the kite is flying) slowly to not get too much voltage all at once to the tubes. It's abby-normal. You mean I put the brain....nevermind.
You need to wait some time before playing music. There's a tube that won't bias on the left monoblock. There's a bit of a hum/noise on the right side and a goodly hum on the left that is noticeable at the sitting position. I believe I can mitigate that with a fix of the left monoblock which might be a pot gone bad.
The music plays. You're immediately struck by its openness and immense soundstage. In fact, it is no longer a soundstage so much as you find yourself a part of the performance, or rather, the room is the performance. There is nothing in the way of the music. Transparent. It is nothing like I've ever heard from ANY system.
I was laughing so hard last night I was crying. It was so crazy good. After each song my 2 year old would say "wow". I sh$%t you not. It's so damning. These things should not sound this good. It brings the full measure of the V's into focus. Dac's be damned, power cords puh, home made interconnects that barely connect, ah, so what.
It's not perfect - what is. There's a bit of hardness at the upper treble. Interconnects and power cords should fix that, or a fix of the amps. There's the hum from the left channel.
These are some serious amps. I don't know if we're ready for these. They are big and dangerous for a 2 year old.
I'll post a follow-up on AG.
