Volume?

[denti alligator]

This may be a dumb question, but how to you keep the volume pot on each of the blocks at the same level? Eyeball it?

[Jim R.]

Sam,

The pots you see on the paramounts are hum balance pots, not volume controls.  That said, I did borrow a local guy's (paswen) paramounts which had volume controls on them and they were fairly easy to get balanced, though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to use them like that forever.  Stepped attenuators, maybe, but not normal pots.

HTH,

Jim

[Paul Joppa]

For what it's worth I wanted to put volume pots on the Paramounts. Doc B vetoed it - thought it would cause more problems than it solved. Since (believe it or not!) he lives closer to the real world than I do, I didn't argue.  :^)  He's usually right on these things.

[Paul Birkeland]

For what it's worth I wanted to put volume pots on the Paramounts.

I'll second that 

[denti alligator]

So one has to use the amps with a preamplifier like the Foreplay?

How do the hum pots work?

[mchurch]

There are others more expert than me who can explain the hum balance circuit but for the first part of the question, yes the amps need a preamp or other source with a volume control. For example some CD players have output volume control and can be connected directly to an amp. I currently output my RTR to an amp directly using the output volume control from the RTR to control the output levels.  If you connect anything to an amp without volume control you will get full output of the amp into the speakers and depending on the amp you can say good-bye to the speakers and/or your eardrums.

Cheers;

Mike

[coca]

You could also consider a passive control with any number of inputs.

Bernie.

[Grainger49]

The purist in me says that on top of the line power amps a volume control doesn't belong there.  But I have a remote volume control (old and lazy) between my FP 2 and Paramours.  It is the same thing.  I'm conflicted.

The Hum Balance pot is easy to adjust.  Short the inputs, put your meter leads on the speaker lugs, meter set on AC.  I think there is a hole in the speaker binding post so you can put the leads through the holes and tighten the plastic part down on them finger snug.  

Turn on the amp and let it warm up for 5 minutes.  Adjust the Hum/Balance pot till you get the lowest AC voltage, that voltage is hum from the heater.  You will find that a light torque on the screwdriver will give a small change although you wouldn't expect a change.  These pots are "tweaky."  

I got my Paramours to 1mV and 4mV of hum on the output.  

EVERY TIME you change a tube, driver or output, you will need to make this adjustment.

[xcortes]

I have volume pots on my Paramounts since I use three amps pair channel and I need to adjust volumes for each one. But I onlydo it once and I measure resistance to make sure I get the same for each driver on both channels.

[denti alligator]

So what do people use with their Paramounts to control volume? What options are there?

[InfernoSTi]

I removed the volume from my Stereomour and put a Warpspeed Optocoupler in its place...I use a stand alone box that is battery powered.  Really opened things up a lot...wouldn't go back to volume pots if I could help it. 

Best,
John

[Grainger49]

I would expect that Paramounts are most often used with an active preamp in front of them. 

If you are asking for suggestions for a volume pot to purchase there are a lot to choose from starting at ~$3 and up.

[denti alligator]

What preamps? The Foreplay, I imagine, isn't ideal.

[Doc B.]

We will be releasing a 300B preamp intended to work particularly well with Paramount. Should be out this summer. It will of course cost a bit more than the Foreplay III.

[denti alligator]

Cool. What other info can you divulge on it? Will it also have three inputs? Will it work well with the old SEX, too?