New Here: Just Ordered Stereomour!

[ebag4]

Jim/John, thanks for the replies.  My system is sounding pretty great now so I am in a holding pattern until I can build up additional funds in my audio piggy bank.

I will look into the Goldpoint unit.  I still want to read more from John on the Warpspeed and Jim on the Final Frontier mod for your Tranquility SE.  I am loving my SE BTW.

Jim, you are correct, MPD won't support integer mode, I do wonder what I am missing out on by using the Alix/MPD vs the Mac and Pure Music, but when I listen to the setup as it stands it sounds good enough I don't loose any sleep.

Best,
Ed

[Jim R.]

Ed,

No, no, you've got this all wron -- you must continue t upgrade and tweak :-).

Well, while not the alix per se, I'm getting an Auraliti PK-100 for the living room system and to be used directly into the spdif connection on the AudioGD NFB-2 (which I just ordered the WM-8805 receiver chip upgrade for so I can go true 24/192.  I wanted something that would be as close to plug and play as possible, which has no user interface per se, and if Linda has trouble with it when I'm not around, she can just reboot it and relaunch the client app and she should be back in business.  It turns out to be about the same cost as a mini with the extra ram and SSD that sI feel is critical to maximizing the sonics, but without the setup and configuration hassles that even the mac can have.

You should seriously consider sending your SE to Dave at Pi so he can do some minortweaks and dunk the thing in the cryo tank -- a very nice upgrade for not much money, and the new output devices (free upgrade for the SE) are supposed to be a really sweet upgrade and will only cost shipping.

I should hear more about the status of my Nagas tonight, my rack should ship anyday now, and my SE, battery buss, and DC converted mini should be back later this week or early next, and then we'll be ready to rock and roll.  BTW, the cornwalls will be going away this weekend -- not sold, just going to Ruben's for crating and short-term storage.  Slowly, slowly it comes together.

Talk to you soon,

Jim

[InfernoSTi]

Jim and Ed,

It is pretty amazing that the Bottlehead Stereomour can stand up to just about everything that I've thrown at it.  With the tweaks, it certainly isn't the weak link yet (by a long shot). 

That being said, the other things that seem to have made a big difference are my converting to a Mac Mini.  I know I'm not all the way there like you, Jim, but the extra effort has been pretty easy to get to where I am. 

Ed, I'm pretty excited about the Warpspeed.  I should have that sometime in the next two weeks or so.  I just confirmed which feet it will have (low or high profile...a pretty big choice!), so I know it's getting close to complete.   At this point, I'd find it hard to beat just the two resistors and the DAC volume control, but you never know.

I've got another item coming in over the next week or two: a Prime 37 diffusor panel for my front wall.  It's 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide!!!  I had it made with a custom base that let's me avoid wall mounting it...I can move it from here to there pretty easy, I think.  I will post a couple of comments once it arrives.

Also, I'm running full dipole based on converting my compression drivers to an open back configuration.  I've got a "forum friend" making a set of hardwood "extenders" for the Radian compression drivers.  This should help load the driver and avoid any magnetic flux from the mid-woofer.  So pretty much fully custom Radians in a few weeks!

Jim, I agree, Ed needs to keep tweaking or it makes the rest of us look bad! 

Also, I know I've read it a thousand times that AIFF sounds better than Apple Lossless.  Well, I started converting my files with Max for Mac and I have to say how startling better AIFF is than Apple Lossless.  I wish I had done that a long time ago!

Cheers,
John

[InfernoSTi]

Just a quick update: I switched out my 100K resistors on the RCA input jacks to red bodied PRP resistors (Precsion Resistive Products 9372 audio series).  These are a little more "clear" and a little less "soft" but who can really say with this kind of tweak!  I just wanted to try out a second high quality resistor to see what I thought.  I can recommend the Kiwame "greens" if you like a smooth, groovy kind of sound and the PRP "reds" if you like a clean, precise kind of sound.  Both sound great, by the way...they just lean in different directions to my ear. 

John

[InfernoSTi]

Today is my Stereomour's one year birthday!!!!  I love it more today than I did the first day but for all the same reasons only more so!!!!  Thank you Doc and Paul for bringing this wonderful amp to my life.  It's been a joy!

John

Well, I want to give a big "THANK YOU" to Bottlehead for their Stereomour kit!

Excellent instructions, an easy build, and 30 feet of wire!  I put mine together after work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday. 

My resistance checks were all spot on and my voltage checks were tolerable (but not as close as I would have liked...more on this in a bit).  Since everything was within 15% and there wasn't any "magic smoke" released, so I plugged in my OB Hawthorne Duets and oh WOW!!! 

Rich, smooth, music with amazing detail, special placement/soundstage, silky highs, and buttery mids.   Everything I want in a tube amp!!!  And I can't wait until it breaks in a bit (I'm typing after about 30 minutes of operation on the stock tubes).  My hum is only 0.28 mA on the right channel and 0.33 mA on the left channel.

So my only worry is that a four of my readings are right on the edge of acceptable (the vast majority of reading are either spot on or within 6-7%).  However, I have a handful that are 10-15%, so I figure I'd ask folk's opinions to see if I should worry (or just grab an adult beverage and listen to some music and stop nit picking!).   I need to mention that my mains VAC measures 123 VAC (not the test 119VAC).

Here are the handful of high readings (just the big ones, not the 6-7% readings):

Terminal     Expected     Actual   Variance %

T2             230            207        -10%
T14           230            194        -15%

OA            230            207        -10%
OB            230            194        -15%

Should I worry?  It is on the ragged edge but everything sounds WONDERFUL!!!!

Thanks a bunch!
John

[Jim R.]

John,

Congratulations!   It's a very good sign when you like the amp even better after a year -- very few amps have lasted that long in my house :-).

Anybody who's on the fence about BH gear should see this.

-- Jim

[ebag4]

Congratulations John, I am glad to hear that you are still happy with the BH amp.  I know I am very glad you and Jim Rebman pointed me in this direction, I am loving mine.

Best,
Ed

[InfernoSTi]

My new speakers are almost ready to ship!  Hawthorne Audio References (yes, those are eight 15" drivers and two 16" AMT horns.  I can't wait to hear my Stereomour with these beauties:

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hawthorneaudio.us%2Fforums%2Fdownload%2Ffile.php%3Fid%3D1066%26amp%3Bmode%3Dview&hash=0467bce9eb5cd03c645975057d15918875a24b67)

John

[ebag4]

John, just incredible.  Mike does beautiful work, audio art.  I can't wait to read your impressions.

Best,
Ed

[InfernoSTi]

Well, the shorter baffles that hold the four 15" Augie woofers have been here for a while and they are really everything and a bag of chips!  The main baffles have been at Bound For Sound being professionally reviewed...look for that in an upcoming issue!  They should ship in May so it will be a great summer with the Stereomour and the Hawthorne References.

On an odd note, my system started sounding harsh last week and kept getting worse and worse...I finally asked for a second opinion which was that it really didn't sound clear (grungy, muddy, harsh, rolled off, missing the music, etc were the comments).  So I swapped out my JJ Tesla 2A3-40 tubes just to try to isolate the issue (in go my old Sovteks with 250 hours on them) and bingo...the magic is back!  So when the Sovteks sound WAY better than the 2A3-40s, I know I need new tubes.  But it has only been 1 1/2 years...albeit I listen for hours and hours and hours and there has been way too much moving and turning things on/off etc.  But I figured I'd get 3+ years at least from the JJ Tesla 2A3-40s.  Anyway, I've order new ones and am enjoying the Sovteks very much...they sound so much better than the bad tubes (all things are relative).

Best,
John

[Paul Joppa]

That is distressing about the 2A3-40s. Were they equally tired - not just one of them?

I too would have expected a long life from a 40-watt, 100mA tube operated at 15 watts and 50mA. Have you checked your power line voltage? That would affect the filament voltage, and too much filament voltage can shorten tube life - though I'd expect a blown filament in that case, not a worn cathode.

An anecdote is not a statistic, but I'm going to keep my ears open on this question for a while.

[InfernoSTi]

Paul,

Thanks for the note.  Turns out I'm simply a dumb dumb noggin with a "hashy" selector switch on my Eastern Electric DAC and, by simple coincidence, "tested" my A/B with tubes by "bumping" a dirty switch.  When the switch isn't aligned right, I get a fuzzy, hashy glaze that I mistook for a tube issue.  Figured it out when I switched over to a different input to listen to a SACD and had the "issue" with my RCA tubes.  I was like, "whiskey tango foxtrot" what's going on?"  Then I figured it out.  So now I have a pair of back up JJ 2A3-40's that I won't be using for probably 10 years, as well as a really nice set of 1940s RCAs that sound great!  And I need to clean my selector switch in my DAC.

Sometimes I don't mind being dumb...when it means I figure out that my Stereomour isn't eating robust tubes!

Best,
John

[Paul Joppa]

Oh, man, that's a relief!  :^)

1940s RCAs - sweet! I had a bunch of them when I was a kid (back when the crust of the earth was still cooling...) - pulls from the force balance in the UW wind tunnel (long story). They went to someone else when I went to college, and it was several decades before I realized what I'd lost. Also lost the big power transformers with 2.5v windings - when the tunnel replaced the tubed DC amplifiers.

[Jim R.]

Hi John,

What Paul said!  So glad you figured this out and that it isn't the tubes.

Guess you should be getting the other part of your speakers soon, eh?

Hope you're well,

Jim