Oztayls build - Stereomour II primary & secondary voltages

[oztayls]

Hi guys, I started on soldering today and completed the primary and secondary voltage tests. They are all on the high side, so I'm wondering if I should configure the PT for another voltage range? Measurements are:

Primary voltage test: 234VAC (Hence I selected the range "225V AC and LESS than 235V")

ACSecondary tests:
T12-T13: 3.48VAC (Ideal 3.3)
T11-T14: 3.48VAC (Ideal 3.3)
T9-T15: 6.71VAC (Ideal 6.3)
T19-T20: 169.4VAC (Ideal 161)

Any thoughts before I go further?

Cheers.

[Paul Birkeland]

I would proceed with the build with that configuration.

[oztayls]

Great, thanks Paul.

[oztayls]

I finished by build last night and spent much of this morning checking my build from beginning to end. Lucky, because I'd missed a red wire and a couple of joints were not soldered.

After a nice home roasted flat white Ethiopian Ardi out of the Vibiemme, it was time for some tests.

The resistance tests were all good!

Powered on and the tubes all glowed, no smoke! Well, a win there.

The voltage tests revealed no faults but they all read a bit high. I'm not sure if these are too high? See PDF I uploaded.

[oztayls]

Build went well, no parts missing and none left over! Superb quality control, so thank you to the Bottlehead team for such a great job.

First fired up with a pair of Guiguang 2A3Cs and the supplied GE 6201s. The amp sounds wonderful and it’s still less than an hour! Wow.

Here’s the obligatory glamour shots.
(Sorry, no glamour shots as forum won’t accept jpeg. I’ll try converting and try again later)

[Doc B.]

jpegs are fine, but there is some bug that won't allow big image files even though we have the size settings at unlimited. Might try reducing the image size. Seems like images up to around 4000x3000 pixels or so will upload OK. You can also try to up the compression a little to reduce the file size.

[Paul Birkeland]

You have a couple of voltages that are a few % high and your 2A3s seem to have very high emission, but there's noting too concerning about any of this.

[oztayls]

Ok, Thank you Paul. It’s sounding very good. I’ll take some voltage readings tomorrow with the OEM Psvane 2A3s.

[oztayls]

The SII is really sounding quite lovely with the 15ohm Leaks, especially the funky Minis which just seem to bloom with tube amps.

I've tried a few times to post the obligatory glamour shots, but for some reason the site returns messages that it "can't perform that function at this time". Anyway, here's hoping it works this time!

No, they just don't want to work. I even converted them all to jpg, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I even tried a different browser and disabled the AV. I'll try again later.

[Paul Birkeland]

Try reducing the image size to 25% of original.

[oztayls]

Finally, the promised glamour shots!

[oztayls]

Over the weekend I installed the shunt regulator that came with my Stereomour II kit. It went without a hitch thanks to the accurate packing of the kit and the great instructions.

How does it sound? Well, my S-II sounded great before and it still sounds great. As to whether it made an improvement to the already stellar sound, I haven't yet decided as of course it's not possible to to an AB test. I'm not sure if the shunt regulator even needs any break in time. I do seem to be listening with the volume control at a lower setting though. I'm at 12 o'clock now, whereas before I was at 1 o'clock, so I guess that means output is now higher?

As my speakers are all quite sensitive, 96dB and above, I decided to get the DC Filament Supply kit with my S-II order. However, I'm not experiencing any audible hum, so I'm wondering if it's worthwhile going ahead with implementing that kit as well?