300B in Bee Pree or Paramounts

[thdewitt]

So, now that I have my Bee Pree and Paramount operational I am enjoying the music.  I have about 15 hours on the Bee Pre (over 30 on the Paramounts).  Both the Pre and the Amps have the stock electro-harmonix 300B tubes.  I am considering upgrading these in the future.  Right now since adding the Bee Pre the bass seems to be very boomy, saggy, loose.  Anyone else care to comment.  The highs and mids are wonderful.  My question, if I buy something like the Sophia Electric or Psvane tubes 300BWE, would I need to buy 4 or would it make sense to place them in one or the other (amp or pre).  Where would the tubes make the most sense.  or where would they affect the sound more and how.  Of course I can experiment myself and I probably will, just wondering if anyone else has already tried this. 

I currently run two sources.  Thorens TD 160 renovated by Vinyl Nirvana with a Ortofon Bronze needle through an Eros.  I also use Digital River to put my music files though a Objective DAC to the Beepree.

These all flow in to my Blumenstein Orcas Deluxe speakers and Dungeness Sub.

 

[Doc B.]

We don't really have enough info about how you have set things up to be able to give a very useful answer. I'll guess would be that you are running from the speaker out of the Paramount to the speaker in of the Dungeness amp. It may be that you now have enough bass coming into your sub amp that you need to be careful to position the sub where it isn't setting off a bass mode. Turning it down a little might help too if you haven't already tried that. Try moving it around a foot or two and see if things get better.

[thdewitt]

No, the outputs go to the Orcas and then back to the Sub in.  This was recommended by Clark.  I did have them hooked up differently at one point but Clark thought I should go back.  Now, everything sounded great prior to hooking up the BeePre.  Now it is just the bass that was affected negatively.  Everything else is very positive.  You can see from the picture how I have the Dungeness situated.  I can't really move it around.  I have messed with the bass volume and crossover.  When turning the volume down I loose the fullness completely so there is a minimum that it could go to.  To be honest this setup is only temporary.  I am moving the Eros, and Beepre to the main system inside soon to hook up to my Mako Floorstanders.   I guess what I am really asking is will the 300B make a bigger impact in the Pre or the Amp or should I change both.  I am looking for more punchy bass like I had before adding the Pre.  I was under the impression that the EH 300 B is known for not having real punchy bass. 

[Doc B.]

OK, you are driving the sub amps from speaker level rather than line level. That's what I was wanting to ascertain.

When we put the BeePre in my system we definitely had to redo the woofer amp levels and the room tuning because we suddenly had so much more bass. As to the EH not being punchy, that's what I use in all 14 amps and the preamp and it doesn't seem to be a problem in my system. I tried EMLs a while back and went back to the EHs because I felt they were more dynamic sounding. So I'm not going to be much help here.

I would suggest that if the 300B in the preamp is what is making you unhappy and you don't want to try tuning the subwoofer to the room with placement it seems that the 300Bs in the BeePre are the ones you should try changing.

[thdewitt]

Thank you for the response.  I will take your work for it and give it some more time.  Maybe just the newness of the sound is throwing me off.

Thanks,
Tom