Jule Amps Monique

[Jazzdogg]

Not most active DI's, as the majority of them are unity gain. But there are TONS of other options. The best bet will actually be a mic preamp, as many are designed to be as transparent as possible. There is a certain extent to which higher standards of transparency mean a higher price tag. But if ultimate transparency is not critical, almost any mic pre will do. Another option is a rack compressor or EQ. Again, they will not be perfectly transparent, but most do have enough clean gain to do the job quite well.

Thanks, Bongo. Sounds like the HPF/Pre could fit the bill.

 

[bongomania]

Thanks, Bongo. Sounds like the HPF/Pre could fit the bill.

You'll want to confirm with fdeck whether it has adequate headroom for these signal levels.

 

[rpsands]

Rolls makes a couple straight boost products that'll fit velcro'd inside of a rack.

 

[canelbreath]

Hey Jule and All.

Whatever happened to the line driver Jule had in the works some time ago? Would this work to increase the output of Monique to drive amps with higher sensitivity?

Doug

 

[chadds]

Hey Jule and All.

Whatever happened to the line driver Jule had in the works some time ago? Would this work to increase the output of Monique to drive amps with higher sensitivity?

Doug

I have one of these for testing. It has really hi-end components. It does represent Monique's bad sister. It gives an edge like y'all like of a cranked SVT. It was fun but was more Chris Squire than James Jamerson.

It's supposed to be 1:1 but it overdrove and added grit. It would certainly work with a less sensitive power amp. It was designed for someone who wanted to drive long lines with the line out. This is an interesting discussion. Jule may have already accomplished his mission.

Just don't think the Monique as is, is anemic. This never came up until the bad tube chapter of our show.

If you have always wanted big tube clear full fat bass tone with no distortion the Monique is the deliverer. If you want some edge and grind and bite, the Monique is the deliverer.

Jule said those specs were with a passive bass and the Monique set flat. Add some eq. and an 18v internal bass pre and it's "Number Ten Damage".

 

[JimmyM]

I apologize for the lamest part - my assumption that there was a mis-wiring. Wasted a lot of energy and time on that tangent.

Bah...you launched a new product and a couple had problems and you looked to yourself before you looked anywhere else. A lot of folks don't have the self-awareness to assume it could be their mistake first. That takes a pretty smart and open mind...respek.

They deserve a discussion of their own. I have found that although the have the same technical specifications as a 12AX7, they do not sound or play the same at all.

My expectation is that it all has to do with the increased mass of the elements inside the tube and the larger distance the electrons have to travel. Electrons smashing into metal, based on how we play. Fun to visualize. I'm sure the mathematicians can figure it all out.

As upset as I am right now with this current batch of Shuguang 6SL7 tubes, I have to remember that for about a full year, I have not had a single failure. They are very consistent as to tone and they were consistent as to manufacturing standards.

The Shuguang 6SL7 tubes also have an advantage of a metal base. The spring clip tube holders Monique owners see at the base of their 6SL7 tubes really aren't there to hold the tubes in as much as they make a connection between that metal tube base and the chassis. Makes a significant contribution to keeping the noise out of the picture.

You can, as I've done in the past, simply wrap Copper or Tin tape around the plastic base tubes. That also works, but not as well as a metal base.

NOS tubes are great if we can find any that are not micro-phonic. You can get away with a micro-phonic tube in the Baxandall EQ position of Monique, but not in the first preamp section.

Does that happen a lot? I did get some RCA's a few years back for my B-15 where all of them were crackly. Got some basic Sylvanias in there now...running fine...but is a common occurence with 6SL7's?

EH makes a number of 6SL7 tubes under different names and prices. I feel that I will soon be quite familiar with them all.

When I got my B-15, it had all Sovteks in it and it ran fine for 7 years, although they were pretty beat by the time I had it restored. Couldn't describe their sound since I wasn't able to compare them directly with the Sylvanias, but they were solid tubes. A lot of folks bag on EH, but I don't recall any bad experiences with their tubes.

Thanks Jule!

 

[chadds]

Bah...you launched a new product and a couple had problems and you looked to yourself before you looked anywhere else. A lot of folks don't have the self-awareness to assume it could be their mistake first. That takes a pretty smart and open mind...respek.

Thanks Jule!

This says so much about the soul of this man.

 

[MarkA]

I've been following this thread with interest for some weeks. While a Monique isn't in my immediate future, it is for sure on my radar as I contemplate a preamp/power amp setup. While the problems encountered are a bummer, seeing the care and effort Jule's put into dealing with them and taking care of his customers makes me feel better about the company, if anything.

Too, unless I've mis-read, while the Monique didn't get a 1.4V out, there were still two improvements implemented, directly or indirectly as a result of this process, no? (The TRS connector, and the "second half of the tube" thing for the D.I., which I vaguely comprehend.)

 

[BurningSkies]

I've been following this thread with interest for some weeks. While a Monique isn't in my immediate future, it is for sure on my radar as I contemplate a preamp/power amp setup. While the problems encountered are a bummer, seeing the care and effort Jule's put into dealing with them and taking care of his customers makes me feel better about the company, if anything.

Too, unless I've mis-read, while the Monique didn't get a 1.4V out, there were still two improvements implemented, directly or indirectly as a result of this process, no? (The TRS connector, and the "second half of the tube" thing for the D.I., which I vaguely comprehend.)

Yes. And I can vouch for Jule, that he's been friendly and approachable throughout my communication with him. At no point has Jule ever discounted what I've said or related to him and he's been a great source of information I find very interesting.

I also knew going in that this was a 'first run' of a small hand produced amp and that as such its similar to 'beta testing', that there could be some shakedown. All along I've been dedicated to following this process through and being patent, no matter how much I can be impatient. We all like instant gratification, and most of our world is designed to cater to that. FedEx on the other hand is the biggest foe of gratification.

 

[juledude]

Memories are good around here.

I like the Line Driver. It can be a handy little tool. My plan is to have some built up here soon. It uses the extremely high end Burr Brown HI FI stuff made by Texas Instruments. The idea originally was to do a 1:1 TS Single Ended to Balanced TRS (XLR) output. It is simplistic to have it adjustable so that we could boost levels too.

A customer in France uses it straight out of his Bass to drive very long cables going straight to his console. A use I never considered, but I like it.

As Chadds has mentioned, the Monique 0db Line Out and -14db Balanced Out really are the very minimum we can expect. Everything goes up from there.

It is always an entertaining challenge to build bass gear that must work with pickups with a range from 0.1 volt to pickups that put out about 9.0 volts. Real close to a 100% difference. The most entertaining part of the task is to make sure she doesn't distort those high output pickups. Monique is content on both ends of the spectrum.

A final note on the tubes is that it became easy to identify the problem tubes that previously made it through the 48 hour burn-in. What is now required (a new test) is that we grab each 6SL7 while it is operating (listening in on headphones) and twist the glass envelope pretty aggressively. The evil ones will make readily identifiable noise. Good ones make no change to the sound at all.

Consider this a sigh of relief. Ahhhh.

Again, I want to thank everyone who helped us all get through this nasty situation. Thank you.

I have one of these for testing. It has really hi-end components. It does represent Monique's bad sister. It gives an edge like y'all like of a cranked SVT. It was fun but was more Chris Squire than James Jamerson.

It's supposed to be 1:1 but it overdrove and added grit. It would certainly work with a less sensitive power amp. It was designed for someone who wanted to drive long lines with the line out. This is an interesting discussion. Jule may have already accomplished his mission.

Just don't think the Monique as is, is anemic. This never came up until the bad tube chapter of our show.

If you have always wanted big tube clear full fat bass tone with no distortion the Monique is the deliverer. If you want some edge and grind and bite, the Monique is the deliverer.

Jule said those specs were with a passive bass and the Monique set flat. Add some eq. and an 18v internal bass pre and it's "Number Ten Damage".

 

[juledude]

I'm not sure why folks "bag" EH tubes either. The first year or so of Monique in the real world was driven by EH 6SL7 tubes. They sounded great after being individually selected.

The people at EH are always there to help. Also, I am grateful to them for starting the ball rolling to re-manufacture some of these old tube designs. They are good people.

I burn-in everything. Lots of tubes fail burn-in. It is expected. 10% failure rate is considered good. That is part of my job for my customer - identify problems so they don't have to. Up until recently, none of the Shuguang 6SL7 tubes failed.

The move to the Shuguang from EH was in part due to the metal base, in part due to the individual testing Shuguang does (each tube is current marked) and part for consistency of tone. None of that says that anything is wrong with the EH tubes.

Not long ago, I made the move to the EH 6CA4/EZ81 rectifier because I found that 40% of the JJ EZ81 tubes were failing in the first 12 hours of burn-in. All were failing in exactly the same way - the filament burns out. Then I began to find that Monique customers were experiencing failures of the EZ81 in the real world. I have contacted the distributor about this.

The EH EZ81 rectifier has a thicker glass envelope, and so far I have had none fail.

Since there is no longer any military use of tubes, we can't all rely on "mis-spec" to insure quality of manufacturing. We have to be flexible to take advantage of what is available.

Bah...you launched a new product and a couple had problems and you looked to yourself before you looked anywhere else. A lot of folks don't have the self-awareness to assume it could be their mistake first. That takes a pretty smart and open mind...respek.



Does that happen a lot? I did get some RCA's a few years back for my B-15 where all of them were crackly. Got some basic Sylvanias in there now...running fine...but is a common occurence with 6SL7's?

Yes, I have seen my friend Mark Sampson spend a day going through NOS tubes to find what he wants. I think the last US manufacturing of tubes was 1974. They are now, as am I, out of warranty.

When I got my B-15, it had all Sovteks in it and it ran fine for 7 years, although they were pretty beat by the time I had it restored. Couldn't describe their sound since I wasn't able to compare them directly with the Sylvanias, but they were solid tubes. A lot of folks bag on EH, but I don't recall any bad experiences with their tubes.

Thanks Jule!

Thank you. Let's make some music!

 

[BurningSkies]

EH (part of New Sensor) are actually some of their 'upbranded' tubes, aka the nicer ones out of that facility. New Sensor make some silly percentage of modern tubes, and depending upon the attention to production and testing/QC your tubes may end up branded in a number of different ways. Mostly capitalizing on past name recognition although not necessarily of the same tone or quality. I have no trouble with the EH tubes I have. I've had a few different ones and they've all been solid operating decent sounding tubes.

I have some friends who do tube hi-fi stereo stuff and they swear by the new Gold Lion/Genelex...also out of the New Sensor machine.

 

[metron]

The wait for the delivery truck begins

 

[BurningSkies]

Me too...but not until next monday.

 

[chadds]

I said the line driver represents Monique's bad sister. To be specific that's when you put the line driver between the line out of a Monique and your power amp. Plugging a bass directly into the line driver into a power amp gives clean action.

 

[f.c.geil]

Wish I could afford a Monique, it sounds like it's right up my alley. One day, I'll learn how to play the bass, then I'll get sponsored by Jule and be ecstatic. Until then, I save my pennies.

 

[BurningSkies]

Wish I could afford a Monique, it sounds like it's right up my alley. One day, I'll learn how to play the bass, then I'll get sponsored by Jule and be ecstatic. Until then, I save my pennies.

You can still get in at the introductory discount pricing...

 

[Fretless5verfan]

Random: Monique does a killer...KILLER heavy rock/metal sound...lol.

 

[smeet]

You can still get in at the introductory discount pricing...

Is there really an intro price?

 

[BurningSkies]

Is there really an intro price?

Yes.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Jule is currently selling them at or near to production cost.