sex amp upgrade advice

[tlm]

Many years ago I built a SEX amp strictly for headphone use, long story short after a lot of system changes it has become my favorite stereo amp. I am currently using it with some pretty efficient full range open baffle speakers and am happy but would like to be happier... I want to keep what I love about the sex amp presentation (which I can't explain) but add more dynamic punch. I am considering building a moreplay preamp to feed the sex amp or upgrading to the stereomor. Or should I build the moreplay now with the long term goal of upgrading to the kaiju in the future? Any advice from those with experience?

[Bateman147]

Well of course you should build a moreplay regardless!!  😁

I'm currently using a moreplay for both headphones and speakers - it feeds a stereomour for speakers, and simultaneously feeds a sex amp that sits next to my listening chair for headphones in the evening when the rest of the house is sleeping.  I just turn the one appropriate for how I want to listen. 

It drives pretty long rca interconnects going to the sex amp and still sounds awesome.

Looking forward to the upcoming upgrade!

[Mucker]

I would definitely start with the Moreplay. It's very versatile and quite a bit of bang for buck IMO. Try it with your SEX amp and see what you think. Then you can decide if you want to go the StereoMour or Kaju route.

I did just that and ended up with a StereMour because I felt that having an integrated amp would suite my long term goals better than a power amp. The StereoMour is a huge step up from the SEX IMO. I run it both with the Moreplay and without. Bateman147's setup is agood example of the flexibility. You really can't go wrong IMO.

I should mention that my speaker sensitivity is about 96dB. The volume is plenty fine in my 15 x 30 room. Not bombastically loud but really good quality.

[tlm]

Thanks guys, Mucker how would you compare the moreplay/sex combo vs. the steromour alone? I am using a DAC with 2v output and a pro-ject phono preamp with a similar output level. I usually  listen with the volume at about the 9:00 position which is ok for casual listening but when I want to ENJOY MUSIC I find very little volume/dynamic improvement from 11:00 to wide open so I'm thinking that just adding the moreplay may not be enough (or maybe it's exactly what I need??) I've run a bunch of amp / speaker combos over the years and keep coming back to the sex amp (the only SET amp that I've tried) as my favorite amp I'd just like a little more oomph withthout losing the magic if possible.

[Doc B.]

More oomph without losing the magic is exactly what Stereomour2 is for relative to the S.E.X. amp.  A Stereomour2 will put out 4 watts or so, about double what the SEX amp will put out. So your speakers will play louder. A Moreplay/SEX might sound a little more rich or full but your speakers will not play louder cleanly vs. just the SEX amp alone.

[hmbscott]

One thing to know about the Stereomour is that it has fairly low gain for an integrated, about 9dB, and I feel it really benefits from being driven by the Moreplay, which has about 11dB of gain. The combo gets you into the gain range commonly found with most integrated amps.

The Moreplay has two outputs, so can drive both your SEX and a Stereomour. I'm currently using my Moreplay to drive a Crack and a brand new Stereomour. I have also used the Moreplay to drive a Hypex Nilai, and ACA mono blocks. All of those pairings have been excellent, with the Stereomour being the best of the bunch.

Because the Moreplay/Stereomour pairing is so synergistic, knowing what I know now, I'm glad I built the Moreplay first rather than jumping straight to the Stereomour.

[2wo]

I think the Stereomore might give you some DHT magic. You can decide whether you want more gain down the road... John