Stereomour vs FPIII / ParamourII

[Natural Sound]

Houston we have a problem.

It looks like I may have to move my listening space into a smaller room. It's a long story and I won't bore anyone with the details.

I'm looking at options to downsize without giving up too much in terms of quality. Here is something I'm considering. Replacing my FPIII / ParamourII combination with a Stereomour. This will allow me to consolidate three boxes into one. That will also allow me to go with a smaller audio rack that I have my eye on. My FPIII has the extended kit but the ParamourII's are stock with the exception of being wired for 45's. Oh yeah, and I upgraded the .1uf coupling cap.

So, has anyone done any comparisons between the pre-amp / mono-block combination vs Stereomour all in one? Will I be losing anything?

[Paul Joppa]

The first question is whether you will have enough gain. I think you probably will, but you can substitute your SEX amp for the FP/Paramour combination to be sure - they have very nearly the same sensitivity. Probably the Seduction is your lowest-output source; put on a relatively quiet record and see if you can get enough gain. If so, then Stereomour will have enough gain without any preamp.

Some people like a preamp anyhow; most often I hear comments like "better dynamics" or "punchier". It has not struck me that way, but we all have different ears and I do not doubt that others are hearing what they say they are hearing. The extra two stages in Foreplay do add some "flavor". Usually I prefer my electronics as unflavored as possible. It may depend on what music you like.

Not much help, I know!

[Natural Sound]

The first question is whether you will have enough gain. I think you probably will, but you can substitute your SEX amp for the FP/Paramour combination to be sure - they have very nearly the same sensitivity. Probably the Seduction is your lowest-output source; put on a relatively quiet record and see if you can get enough gain. If so, then Stereomour will have enough gain without any preamp.

Some people like a preamp anyhow; most often I hear comments like "better dynamics" or "punchier". It has not struck me that way, but we all have different ears and I do not doubt that others are hearing what they say they are hearing. The extra two stages in Foreplay do add some "flavor". Usually I prefer my electronics as unflavored as possible. It may depend on what music you like.

Not much help, I know!

On the contrary, it helped a lot.

My SEX amp has plenty of gain. And don

[Paul Joppa]

Excellent! That would be perfect; I almost suggested making a passive but thought that was a little over the top. Guess I forgot, if you aren't an over the top kind of person, you probably aren't here!

Stereomour is basically the same circuit as Paramour, but with (much) better iron. So you should get a good idea. Keep the interconnect short between the Whispers and Paramours.

[Natural Sound]

Tried the passive set-up last night. It sounded very good and I had plenty of gain, even with vinyl. But it seemed to be missing something. That "something" returned when I wired the FPIII back into the system.

I figure that the stereomour will sound better than my passive-paramour arrangement due to the better iron. I was very tempted by Doc's Cyber Monday sale and came close to pulling the trigger. In the end I've decided to keep what I have and move forward with my plan to upgrade the paramourII iron. I'll manage to shoehorn my existing audio rack in the smaller room somehow.

I'll also be calling Clark about an Orca / Stand / Sub system for the new room. But first I'm going to give the room a fresh coat of paint and put up some crown moulding.

Thanks for the advice, PJ.