Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => Legacy Kit Products => Stereomour => Topic started by: Thoburn on October 06, 2010, 09:07:06 AM
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Greetings,
I have over 200 hours on my stock Stereomour. After about 70 hours, IIRC, it seemed mostly burnt in and really was a great pleasure to listen to. Last night I replaced the 3.3 uF Solen caps with a 2.2 uF Jupiter NT and the 0.1 non-descript caps with Jupiter 0.1 uF. I probably should of have tried the 2.2 or 0.1 swap first to see what the individual replacements sounded like. O well, I tend to be impatient. In any case, I liked the Jupiter caps right off the bat. They should be killer good after they have broken in. The first thing I noticed was more bass. That may be because of the change from 3.3 uF to 2.2 uF. With my DX4 Lowthers in Medallion boxes the bass is a little weak to start with. I think the $200+ expense of the Jupiters was money well spent. Will report back when they are broken in.
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I have about 80 hours on my Stereomour with Jupiter caps (the new HT models). I don't have the Hi Fi reviewer's vocabulary needed, but I like them. IMHO they are a nice upgrade. The Stereomour runs from 8 to 12 hours a day and they don't appear to have been hurt by the heat. I just turned the amp off and let it cool for a few minutes. Mostly to let the caps drain (I hope). Then I lifted it up and felt the caps. They were just a little warm to the touch, but well under their heat rating. I like what they have done for the bass that my DX4/Medallion speakers.
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My Stereomour with Jupiter HT caps and Mullard continue to improve. Interestingly, it appears to not be completely linear. Could be just me, but I would swear that I noticed a jump in clarity and detail between this Saturday and Sunday. What a wonderful unit it is.
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Your course looks normal to me. The first 70 hours the tubes were breaking in. I'd guess that you got 90% of the changes the tubes would do by then.
The better the capacitor the longer it takes for it to get to 100% formed. The stock capacitors are good, but not great. There are dozens, not an exaggeration, of makes and formations of caps out there that you can try. The better they are, often correlating with more expensive, the longer it takes to burn in.
There is a recent thread here that states that the V-Cap Teflons take hundreds of hours to break in:
http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,1146
The Jupiters will take a while. I would guess between 100 and 200 hours.
So how many hours do you have on the Jupiter caps now?
When did the Mullards go in?
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The Jupiters went in October 5. In that time frame I was running the amp 8 - 10 hours a day. The Mullard went in Oct 12. At first I thought it was a little dull compared to the stock. But, it quickly improved, dramatically. Since about Oct 14 the amp is running more like 4 hours a day. I realize there is a blur between what is the Mullard and what is the Jupiter caps. But, the combination is just wonderful in my system and I don't regret the expense in the least. The whole is the best my system has sounded. Very happy.
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Just a quick observation. I was listening to Pink Martini's Sympathique (CD) yesterday and was just amazed at the sound stage my Stereomour presents. Wide and deep with lots of space between the instruments and vocals. I'm guessing that there is about 140+ hours on the Jupiter caps and a little less on the Mullard. Very happy indeed. I am now lusting after a Lyra Delos for my VPI Scout II table.
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Just a quick follow-up. My Stereomour with the Jupiter HT caps sounds wonderful to me. It is played daily, sometimes 12 hours a day without a break, so by now has hundreds of hours on it. The caps seem to be fine with the temp under the hood. No evidence of melting or deforming at all. I'm very, very happy my Stereomour.
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Just a quick follow-up. My Stereomour with the Jupiter HT caps sounds wonderful to me. It is played daily, sometimes 12 hours a day without a break, so by now has hundreds of hours on it. The caps seem to be fine with the temp under the hood. No evidence of melting or deforming at all. I'm very, very happy my Stereomour.
That is excellent news, thanks for posting!
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This is really great info on those caps sounding great and having no trouble with the heat in multiple 12 hour sessions. Thank you for posting and congratulations!!!
John
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i used the jupiters also but only in .1 configuration--i have used the jupiter ht in other amps -with out problems
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It has almost been a year since my original post and my Stereomour is still used every day, so I thought it might interest some of you to know that the Jupiter HT caps are still looking good as new. The heat has done no visible or audible damage.
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This is a reply to Thoburn post #5 above. Yeah old post but I started reading this thread since I'm still playing with caps. Alligator clips are awesome!
My set is almost the same as yours and the first album I plan to listen to is Pink Martini Sympathique (vinyl). I just discovered them a few weeks ago. Very nice stuff.
My setup is VPI Scout 1.1 with classic platter (shoulda just bought the vpi 2) lyra delos. Manley Chinook > Stereomour > Fostex fe206en in double mouth back loaded horns.
I'm also trying to use all Jupiter caps for coupling,bypass duties. I really like them too.
Eric