Paramour 1 upgrade

puicheng · 24844

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
on: June 02, 2020, 07:52:36 AM
Got a pair of Paramour 1 (Hammond PT) from a friend. Love it. Want to upgrade the irons with the Iron Upgrade Kit for S.E.X. Kit 2.0. I noticed some owners also bought the C4S. Is this also a good upgrade option? What's its purpose and which version should I get? Thanks.



Offline Paul Joppa

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 5833
Reply #1 on: June 02, 2020, 08:41:36 AM
Do you not already have the C4S driver? Only the very earliest Paramours came without it, and many of them were upgraded as soon as the kit came out.

Perhaps you could post a photo of the underside of the chassis to help us know exactly what you have?

Paul Joppa


Offline Paul Birkeland

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 19750
Reply #2 on: June 02, 2020, 11:14:40 AM
Got a pair of Paramour 1 (Hammond PT) from a friend. Love it. Want to upgrade the irons with the Iron Upgrade Kit for S.E.X. Kit 2.0.

This is not 100% straightforward, but it's totally doable.  I'll attach the photos that I took the one time I did this.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #3 on: June 02, 2020, 08:48:16 PM
Here's the photo.

Thanks.

Clifford Cheng



Offline Paul Joppa

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 5833
Reply #4 on: June 02, 2020, 09:23:15 PM
Wow! That really is a pristine first-run Paramour! Beautiful construction, too.

PB is The Man when it comes to these upgrades, but we can fix you up one way or another.

Dang, that takes me back. That was my first design for Bottlehead; I hadn't even retired yet.

Paul Joppa


Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #5 on: June 08, 2020, 07:39:30 AM
What should be my next step? Sorry it's been very hard to post to this forum.



Offline Paul Birkeland

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 19750
Reply #6 on: June 08, 2020, 07:58:26 AM
You could do the iron upgrade or install C4S boards. 

A SEX 3.0 upgrade kit can be cut in half with tin snips and some resistor values changed to put into your amps. 

The SEX iron upgrade package would be the other item.   

I can help you here with installing either one.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #7 on: June 08, 2020, 08:04:06 AM
Thanks Paul. Can I do both? If not I prefer upgrading the irons. Is Iron Upgrade Kit for S.E.X. Kit 2.0 what I should be getting?



Offline Paul Birkeland

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 19750
Reply #8 on: June 08, 2020, 08:10:26 AM
I would do both, but please only do one at a time, as it's so much easier to debug things that way!

Yes, SEX 2.0 iron upgrade is what you want to go for.  The instructions will give you secondary wiring instructions, but you'll need to wire for one impedance higher than what you're using.  So if you have 8 ohm speakers, wire the OTs for 16 ohms, etc.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #9 on: June 08, 2020, 08:29:56 AM
I see. Shall upgrade the irons first but I'll go ahead and order both anyway. The Paramour is currently driving a pair of KEF LS50 (8 ohm).



Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #10 on: June 08, 2020, 08:53:52 AM
Ordered. Shall let you know once the parts arrive. Thanks.



Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #11 on: July 12, 2020, 05:17:27 AM
Hi Paul. Parts finally arrived.



Offline Paul Birkeland

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 19750
Reply #12 on: July 12, 2020, 12:20:05 PM
You'll need to buy a pair of tin snips, then cut the board in half right between the two solder pads at B-A/B.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man


Offline puicheng

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Posts: 8
  • Clifford Cheng
Reply #13 on: July 15, 2020, 03:15:49 PM
Cut into two pieces.



Offline Paul Birkeland

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
    • Posts: 19750
Reply #14 on: July 15, 2020, 03:29:09 PM
You can stuff those boards with all the parts from the SEX C4S upgrade kit.  You will need a 1.5K cathode resistor for each amp. 

In one Paramour, send the green twisted pair of wires to pins 4 and 9 on the 9 pin socket.  Wire the 1.5K resistor from pin 3 to ground.  Signal in from the RCA jack goes to pin 2.  Output of the C4S (the "O" terminal) goes to pin 1.  Pin 1 also leaves and feeds the coupling cap.  The "I" tab on the C4S board needs to be fed by B+ (ask if you aren't sure where that is) and G goes to ground.

In the other Paramour, send the green twisted pair of wires to pins 5 and 9 on the 9 pin socket.  Wire the 1.5K resistor from pin 8 to ground.  Wire the incoming signal from the RCA jack to pin 6.  Wire the "O" from the C4S to pin 6.  Pin 6 also leaves and feeds the coupling cap.  The "I" tab on the C4S board needs to be fed by B+ (ask if you aren't sure where that is) and G goes to ground.

Voltage on 3/8 should be about 3V.  Voltage on 1/6 should be about 180V.

Paul "PB" Birkeland

Bottlehead Grunt & The Repro Man