Bottlehead Forum

Bottlehead Kits => Legacy Kit Products => Paramount => Topic started by: thdewitt on October 01, 2018, 06:20:57 AM

Title: Paramout Whats Next
Post by: thdewitt on October 01, 2018, 06:20:57 AM

So, I decided to buy Mcintosh solid state AMP and Phono stage.  So I took my bottle head Paramounts, BeePre and Eros out of my system.  I also added a VPI Prime Turntable.  After about 30 hours of listening I was very unhappy.  I reconfigured and aligned the turntable, tried headphones and did many things to try to figure out why the sound stage was so small and sound localized to the speakers.  After a lot of experimentation the people I bought the McIntosh equipment told me to put the Paramounts back in the system after the McIntosh Amp.  Wow, what a difference that makes.  Now my system sounds better than ever.  The air in the soundstage and the vastness are what is so appealing to me.  My room now has a wall of instruments instead of two speakers emitting sound.

So, now that I am 100% sure I am never taking the Paramounts out of my system I was wondering what else I can do to improve the Paramount.  I just ordered Silver Cardas RCA Jacks and Speaker Posts.  I also ordered 5 Star GE 5760 Driver Tubes.  I have JJ 300B tubes.  Any other recommendations for upgrades.  I just love to work on these projects.  I already built the BeePre, Eros, Sterormour, Crack, Submissive and more.  So I really don't need any more kits.  Just want to fiddle with the Paramount.  Thanks for your help.  Great, fun projects.

Tom

Title: Re: Paramout Whats Next
Post by: Tom-s on October 01, 2018, 06:25:32 AM

Being called Para-mount, the para-feed capacitor is the first thing that comes to mind.
Don't know if it's direct coupled but if it uses a coupling capacitor, that's worth a shot aswel?

Audyn True copper max appear to be a "budget" best.
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html

Title: Re: Paramout Whats Next
Post by: Paul Birkeland on October 01, 2018, 06:26:04 AM

Well, the Kaiju will give you even deeper/cleaner bottom end response from its larger plate choke and output transformer. 

There's not a whole lot else to mess with though, the Paramounts are still excellent performers.

Title: Re: Paramout Whats Next
Post by: Doc B. on October 01, 2018, 07:36:36 AM

You could try running the speaker outputs in balanced configuration. Disconnect the black binding post from ground. Then run a 75 ohm or so resistor from the black post to ground, another 75 ohm resistor from the red post to ground. Try it and tell me if you hear any difference.