Last Of The Paramour (one) Mods

[Grainger49]

The caps arrived a few minutes ago.  Maybe I should have read the dimensions?

Only one cap will go in each Paramour.  But there is no room under the hood.  These are the largest caps I have for the Paramours.  I'm going to have to figure something out.  Even if I drill a BIG hole in the back I'll need something to mount and support the caps.  They would tip the Paramours backward without something under them.

 

[Alonzo]

Wow, those are big.  Glad I didn't take the bait and get them, imagine me shoving them in here...

 

[Grainger49]

Alonzo,

That is full of caps.  Is it the Paramour II footprint?  The Paramour (one) is the size of a FP 2 or Seduction.  So I already have it full with 10uF Obbligato film/oil Parafeed caps (with KK Teflon 0.1uF@600V bypass), film and oil power supply caps and KK Teflon 0.1uF@500V interstage caps.  The cathode bypass caps are the only ones that haven't been replaced.  This thread, one post, shows it:


Paramour Blivit  [dead link]

You guys know what a capacitor junkie I am but these have stunned me.  When Paula got home last night I showed her the caps they  are replacing, I have some in my stash, and then the replacements. 

She agreed, I would have to support under the caps to keep them from tipping the amps over. 

The voltage on it isn't too high so I will just use stranded wire to connect it to the cathode resistor and leave it behind the amp.

 

[Alonzo]

Grainger,
It's a Stereomour box, CLCRC with 100Uf/100Uf/70Uf for the power supply.  The last 100 is bypassed with the 10Uf Obbligato film/oils above the 70Uf's.  The parafeed caps are 10Uf Obbligato golds, the cathode bypasses are 350Uf Jensens, 15Uf Solen's across the 45's heater pins, 3.3 Uf Obbligatos on the grid chokes and a 0.1Uf on the PS input.  I think that's all of them, there may be some buried under stuff that I forgot. Way too much overkill in caps' but I had them so why not use them.
Let us know how those 200's sound.

 

[Grainger49]

If you got 'em smoke... No that isn't a good idea, USE them!

 

[Grainger49]

If you got 'em smoke... No that isn't a good idea, USE them!

 

[Paul Joppa]

Grainger, you have to get rid of the green! It's invisible quotes.

 

[Grainger49]

I hope that is better.  I edited this thread on break at work today.  I hadn't realized that I greened a quote.

It is ok for posts, isn't it?  It looks good on my two computers at home and at work.

 

[VoltSecond]

The caps arrived a few minutes ago.  Maybe I should have read the dimensions?

Only one cap will go in each Paramour.  But there is no room under the hood.  These are the largest caps I have for the Paramours.  I'm going to have to figure something out.  Even if I drill a BIG hole in the back I'll need something to mount and support the caps.  They would tip the Paramours backward without something under them.

Have you ever try a capacitance multiplier?  I've used them in low level applications, but I haven't tried them at power.

 

[Paul Joppa]

...
Have you ever try a capacitance multiplier?  I've used them in low level applications, but I haven't tried them at power.

VS, it's way back at the beginning of this long thread, but the application is a bypass capacitor on the 2A3 cathode bias resistor. I can't see how a cap multiplier would work there. Unless you have something new? It wouldn't be the first time!

 

[VoltSecond]

Have you tried the cathode mod? 

http://www.siteswithstyle.com/Voltsecond/Paramour_cathode_mod/Paramour_cathode_mod.html

With the speaker ground attached to Single Point Ground (SPG), 60V on varnished magnet wire inside a transformer is fine.

-Corona doesn't start until ~205V peak ( JPL D-8208 ) at 20kHz at room pressure. However, I wouldn't trust 60V on magnet wire used for point to point wiring because of the higher amount of abrasion on the enamel from handling.
-Should Murphy cause a short, the wire to SPG keeps anyone from being shocked. Output rtn to SPG is even a point where I would use Ying-Yang diodes if I needed to break a ground loop.

You may want to also play with a power on delay.
http://www.siteswithstyle.com/Voltsecond/B+_Paramour_delay/Paramour_delay.html

Using a  capacitive multiplier on the cathode, sounds like an OUCH project that could be fun!

 

[Grainger49]

V-S, Yes, I returned the OPT to the top of the cathode resistor/capacitor when I upgraded to MQ Iron. 

Does this make a better Cathode bypass cap irrelevant?

 

[VoltSecond]

Does this make a better Cathode bypass cap irrelevant?

"Irrelevant" is too strong of a word.  If it sounds better, do it. 

My concerns is that a physically large cathode bypass cap can cause coupling to adjacent parts that could be hard to fix. 

 

[Grainger49]

Check the picture in reply #20 on the second page.  I think those would have to sit outboard to the base.  There is no room under the hood to put much of anything.

There are no children to worry about, you know my age.

 

[Paul Joppa]

Because of the finite inductance of the plate choke, you do get deeper bass with the bypass cap in place. It may make more difference in theory than in practice (most of the effect is below 40Hz) so try it and see, as VS says!

 

[VoltSecond]

The cathode cap also helps flatten the frequency response in the presence of parasitic capacitance (Transformer primary to Secondary)

Externally mounted  with twisted wires from the cap to inside should solve any coupling problems.

Insulate the leads on that external cap, I know adults that can't resist touching every thing or who can't point at something (instead of touching it) and say "What's that do?"

 

[Grainger49]

    .  .  .    Insulate the leads on that external cap, I know adults that can't resist touching every thing or who can't point at something (instead of touching it) and say "What's that do?"

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I was fine till the last sentence.  Then I thought of way, way too many people I know.  Most are afraid of touching my stereo, but then....

 

[JamieMcC]

Grainger how are those Icar 200uf's working out?

 

[Grainger49]

They are still sitting on my shelf.  I intend to wire them in with long wires coming out the back of the amps.  I just have been working in the yard so much I spend all audio time listening rather than tinkering.

I will report back.