Bottlehead Forum
Bottlehead Kits => Legacy Kit Products => MonAmour => Topic started by: Ivan303 on January 01, 2022, 11:30:10 AM
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No, no.
Whole 'nother amp here.
After quite a few months of listening, power tube changes, system changes, etc. I can confidently say...
Monamour is an absolute winner.
Settled on running GE driver tubes and TJ Globe Mesh Plate 2.5V 300B's I've had laying about for over a decade with but a few hours on them. Running them switched to the higher current setting and they seem to like the impedance of the OT and the EdgarHorns which are an easy 8 Ohm load (doubt many dips) and no kidding 106dB efficient.
This is about as good as there EdgarHorns have sounded since I acquired them 15 years ago from Chris Brady of Teres TT fame. Cocobolo wood vernier and all. Left behind are my nearly 20 year old DIY HIFI Supply 'Billies' with their no-kidding Charlie Whghtner made WE-300B tubes. The MonAmours are MUCH quieter and play with a least as much energy. I can listen for hours without any stress or fatigue.
Might be tempted to 'upgrade' the parafeed caps at some point. My EdgarHorn Mid-Bass bins only go down to 60 Hz, if that low, so a smaller cap might work well in place of those black 12uf Solens. Sub would run off the pre-amp so no need to stress the amp trying to pass 'real' bass frequencies that would only end up going nowhere and wasting energy.
Good work Paul, Dan and crew!
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Looking good!
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Been eyeballing that white Solen .1ufd coupling cap and, though it is a good part (not to be confused with the not-so-good black ones) maybe a green one is better? Sadly, both Solen and Parts Connextion are back ordered on the .1ufd Tin Foil/Teflon Film caps with no early promises of delivery so...
Went with 1/2 the size, a .047ufd. 14 Hz first order seems reasonable for horns that barely hit 6oHz on a good day?
After running in for a couple days (no break-in noticed) sounds great (but it did before). Hard to do A:B evaluation on changes that require lugging to bench and soldering in a new component, twice. Cap rolling is much more difficult than tube rolling, at least for me.
Maybe better resolution without the annoying 'edge' that sometime accompanies better resolution?
Maybe.