A Visit To Joule-Electra

I took a few days earlier this month to make the trip down to North Augusta South Carolina to visit old friends Jud and Marianne Barber of Joule-Electra. The main reason for this trip was to get a serious tutorial on the how the Joule-Electra OTL amps work as well as how they are built. Jud is a serious old skool designer and there are many fascinating twists incorporated into the design of the amps which plays a significant role in why Joule-Electra are one of the very best sounding amps on the planet. These are without a doubt. a labor of love for the Barbers... well over 100 hours of work goes into the build of each amp and then Jud personally commissions each amp through initial power up and tests than several days of listening and break in to make sure each amp is functioning properly before shipment to the customer. These pictures here show a new pair of VSM-MXs in Joule-Electra's listening room which my buddy Bobby Palkovic of Merlin Music Systems conveniently timed  to arrive when I did, so I could lend my expert touch at setting them up for Jud. Big surprise, the recently finished Music Wood VZN-160s made great music through the Merlins.   - Rich Brkich, Owner, Signature Sound

A closer view of the VZN-160s I listened to while at Joule-Electra.

A rear three quarter view of the Joule VZN-160s