BH preamp with Steremour?

[denti alligator]

This may be a strange question, but has anyone used a BH preamp (Quickie, Smash, BeePre, Foreplay) with the Stereomour? I'm a bit surprised that I'm maxing out in volume when I play vinyl. (Yes, I wish I could jump on the Eros sale to get some extra volume in that area, but alas!) Digital is fine, since the volume is always louder there, anyway. But with vinyl, if it's a good mastering (not maxed out) then I can turn the Stereomour all the way up. Sounds great, but I can imagine on some days wanting to turn it a notch higher.

[tsingle999]

I use a quickie or foreplay preamps at full volume after my reduction to get good listening levels.
I use it before my sr45's. It works much better than no preamp.

[denti alligator]

So I could put the Quickie in in between my Seduction and Steremour to make up for the gain? I hadn't thought about that.

[johnsonad]

It sounds like you need more gain in your phono stage. I have the same problem in my tape stage and added another gain stage between the Eros and the preamp.

If you can swing it, the Eros is a great phono stage and has decent gain depending on your cart and need.

[tsingle999]

I am having a bit of the same problem. I am opting to buy the eros and sell the reduction. Between the sale of the reduction and the discount of the eros it helps make it an even better deal.

[Rocketman248]

I was in the same boat as you and tsingle999.  I was using the Reduction w/Integration upgrade, and it just still wasn't enough gain with the Stereomour II.  Upgraded to the Eros, and I've been extremely happy ever since.

[denti alligator]

Well, now's the time to upgrade!!  ...but I don't have the money. 

[chard]

 Another approach is to replace your current cartridge with a higher output cartridge. If you have the integration upgrade, a cartridge that outputs 4mv or above should get you to the .4v input threshold of the Stereomour.     

[Deluk]

The AT 150MLX cartridge being used now goes have a 4mv output.

[denti alligator]

Back to my original question: is anyone using a BeePre (or other BH preamp) in front of their Stereomour? I'd love to know how that sounds?

[Natural Sound]

I can answer this in a bit of a roundabout way. I don't have the same hardware configuration as you but I have something similar. First off I have Seduction phono preamp with C4S. Seduction + C4s and Reduction + Integration have similar gain specs of approx 40 dB. My main system is a Seduction plugged into a Foreplay III feeding a pair of Paramour II mono blocks. With this configuration I achieve volume levels that are more than I need. However when I plug the Seduction into my Stereomour II I have to max out the volume control like you describe. (I'm using an Ortofon 2M Bronze with an output of 4mV)

The Paramour II mono blocks and Stereomour II are similar in design. The main difference is that the Stereomour is an integrated design with a volume control. You can also think of the volume control as being a passive pre-amp." Which is a bit of a misnomer since a passive "pre-amp" has 0 dB gain.

Adding an "active pre-amp" such as the Bee-Pre or Smash etc. will add gain to the signal path to the Stereomour. If you try this I'd recommend turning the volume control on the Stereomour all the way up, effectively bypassing it. Then use the volume controls on the pre-amp to adjust system volume.

While I never tried it on my Stereomour I hooked my Seduction to my S.E.X. amp a while back. And the the volume was lower than what I wanted. So I put my FPIII in between the Seduction and S.E.X. amp and I never went more than 50 percent on the FPIII controls to achieve volume levels that exceeded my needs. And it sounded great too.

System gain can be a tricky thing. Too much or too little gain can be problematic. Finding the sweet spot takes a little experimentation in YOUR system.

So, the bottom line is this. Yes, adding a BH Pre-amp such as a Bee-Pre or Smash etc will recover the gain loss from the passive nature of the Stereomour. You will get an additional 8-10 dB of gain. And it my opinion it will sound great too. I hope this helps.

[Doc B.]

FPIII has way more gain than needed. A Quickie would be just about right to add a few dB in the gain chain - or a BeePre.

[denti alligator]

Well, I have a Quickie, which I've retired. Might as well bust it out and see what it sounds like between the Seduction and Stereomour. If course a BeePre would be especially sweet, and then I could eventually upgrade to Kaijus!