Joule Electra VZN-80

For sale is a simply amazing, one of a kind amp that can bring the magic, warmth and richness of tubes and specifically the OTL sound into your system. I’ve had this amp for a few years and it was serviced a little over a year ago by Rich Brkich, who still services the Joule amps and is extremely responsive and helpful and also just a great guy to deal with.

This is the Mk V version of the amp. The variac stopped working and Rich rebuilt that a year ago and also checked out the whole amp and it has been running great since then.

Please read up on this amp if you’re not familiar with it. Not only will you hear people raving about the sound, but you will also hear about the heat it puts off, and some of the fussiness of a big OTL like this, such as the variac (which has a significant hum that you cannot hear when the music is playing), as well as the types of speakers that will do well paired with an OTL (relatively flat impedance curve). If you pair this with speakers that are a good match, the result is unbelievable. The huge soundstage and richness and purity and naturalness of the sound (vocals and horns and reed instruments are just astoundingly real) is amazing.

I’ve had these paired with Merlin VSMs and the match is wonderful. Bobby Palkovich used the Joule OTLs to demo those speakers at trade shows for many years. There are many other speakers that pair well with the Joules, and lots of discussion of that is available online.

If you’ve been wanting to try a world class OTL in your system, this is a great opportunity. I have some spare tubes to throw in as well, including 5 spares of the big output tubes (which are easily available at around $60 each). I also have a Cardas Clear power cord that I’ve been using with this and which I will list separately but would combine in this sale for an extra $400. That’s $820 new and is in like new condition.

This is big and heavy and needs three boxes to ship (amp, variac and tubes), so shipping will be a fair amount and will be added to the sale price at the end.

I am unfortunately downsizing my life right now and that means also downsizing my system. This is a big, beautiful, incredible amp that puts off a fair amount of heat and it simply won’t work in my new (small) listening room.

Rated 7/10 because of age, normal wear and tear and a missing button cover on one of the bias adjustment knobs.