Assistance with Choosing Bottlehead Components

[HughFisher]

Hello, I am interested in putting together a “satellite” system in another room of my house and wonder if I am approaching it correctly.  I’m not an expert so I welcome thoughts and opinions.  My listening space is my living room, and I want to also have access to part of my system from my dining room.  My main system consists of a Line Magnetic LM 518IA amplifier, VPI turntable, VTL phono preamp, Aurender A10 streamer, and DeVore Fidelity Gibbon 3XL speakers.  While I can hear my system from my dining room, it is pretty far away and less than ideal. 

I want to be able to access my Aurender streamer and have decent quality sound while seated in my dining room.  The plan would be to use  an RCA splitter off the back of the Aurender and route that cable (about 50 feet) to my dining room.  I’m thinking of then hooking that up to a Bottlehead Stereomour II amplifier powering a set of Pipette speakers.  The room is about 20x15.  This would be background music but I want nice quality.  Do any of you have an opinion about the design of this system?  And about the viability of the signal traveling 50 feet from its source?  Thanks much in advance.

Hugh Fisher

[Paul Birkeland]

Your streamer has insanely low output impedance (1 ohm or so).  You'd probably be fine with 500 feet of cable, 50 feet won't be a problem. 

You may find it helpful to use the XLR outputs from your streamer and to fit a pair of 1:1 input transformers to the Stereomour (10K:10K or 15K:15K would be appropriate and available).

-PB

[Doc B.]

This may sound like audiophile blasphemy, but you might just try an Amazon Echo as the streamer in your dining room. I've been using one with a Stereomour II and Pipette/ Subette setup in our dining room for a while (the image on our home page) and sure, the resolution isn't at the level of the Mac mini feeding a Nagra 7 as DAC that I use in the studio. But the convenience of talking to Alexa to turn on the system via a smart switch and then requesting playlists or individual tracks on various services (I pretty much use Tidal) while sitting at the dining table is pretty nice. And the sound quality is quite nice for background level listening.

[HughFisher]

Paul, thanks much for the advice regarding using the XLR outputs on the Aurender!

Doc, thanks, but I think I'll stick with pulling wires from the Aurender. But I'm glad you jumped on the thread:  What do you think about using the Pipettes--the room is 15x20 and I would have the speakers on the floor in the corners, 20 feet apart.  I really like the Pipette form factor and having the ability to finish the wood the way I want, but wonder about how they would sound given how I would place them.  Thanks again.

Edit:  Actually, I could also put the Pipettes on the floor next to the cabinet that will have the amp on it, so that would be three feet apart.

[Doc B.]

Pipettes are going to work about like any other speaker regarding distance apart. They do sound good up close against the front wall and that can sometimes open up placement possibilities.

[HughFisher]

Hello Paul, I am interested in taking your advice regarding using the xlr outputs on my Aurender to feed my StereomourII amp.  I’m having difficulty determining which transformer to use mainly because I am unsure what you mean by 10k:10k or 15k:15k.  Is that referring to frequency response?  I hate to lean on you to look at this, but I found the Sescom ses-bub-1206 and wonder if it would be appropriate?

As I mentioned in my initial question, I am not knowledgeable about some of the specifications and need some guidance (but I am enjoying building my amp!).  Thanks in advance.

Hugh

[hmbscott]

Here's a couple of links. The first one explains how a 1:1 transformer is used to convert XLR to RCA: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/balanced-to-single-ended-converter-xlr-to-rca-bal-to-se.9506/
and this one is a product made using that technique: https://ampsandsound.com/products/xlr-to-rca-converters

[Paul Birkeland]

10K:10K or 15K:15K is a way to define a 1:1 input transformer that essentially can support a relatively high level of loading to your source components (you wouldn't want to use a 600:600 ohm transformer, just as an example).

You could use a pair of any of these:
https://www.parts-express.com/Jensen-JT-11P-1-Premium-Line-Input-Transformer-11-246-0103?quantity=1
https://www.sowter.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=3575&PN=E_A_Sowter_Ltd_ISOLATOR_BALANCERS_2%2Ehtml#a4

https://cinemag.biz/line_input/PDF/CMLI-10-10C.pdf