Looking to build stereomour

[Beerfab]

Hi everyone.  I am looking at ordering a stereomour kit.  Disclaimer.  This will be my first ever tube amp and first ever kit.  I have built a lot of speakers but never an amp.  I know this is a bottle head forum so I hope I won’t ruffle any feathers, my questions are coming from a genuine curiosity and also a very novice knowledge of the tube world.  So apologies if I say something wrong.  I considered going with the kaiju and bee pre but realized it wasn’t smart to just jump right to the deep end.  The stereomour fits my needs.  So compared to the relatively cheap (Chinese I assume) 300b tube amps that are on Amazon like the Boyuurange A50 what does the stereo our provide?  Pride of build, attractiveness, sound quality, build quality (all in me with stereomour), superior component quality, superior design? 

I get nobody will say on here “don’t get the bottlehead”.  I wouldn’t want that really.  I’m just curious about people experience, love for the product, strengths and weaknesses etc.  and certainly people’s bad experience with other tube amps. 

 

[Paul Birkeland]

This is a tough question for me to answer without coming across as a biased asshole, but here goes...

So I will fix and modify Chinese amps for local customers, and I've done a couple every year for quite a while now.  I always measure the power and bandwidth of every Chinese amplifier I've had here, and I haven't ever had one rated honestly.  Most make about half the rated power they claim and at far higher THD.  I've seen lots of counterfeit parts, caps that failed after a very short time, diodes that got so hot that they desoldered themselves, and a whole lot of other nonsense.  In a way these products are good job security for me, as these repairs take a lot of time and I'm about the only one doing the work where I live.

Occasionally you'll get nonsense from us, but you'll get a follow-up e-mail about what we are going to do to address said nonsense.  I can't even get the major Chinese amp manufacturers to sell me parts to repair their products.  Even a company like Shuguang who is a major manufacturer ignored my request to purchase a new power transformer for an 845 monoblock I had in for repair that was only a few years old. 

I've attached some random images of Chinese amp repair, including a couple of counterfeit NCC capacitors and a board I hade to make for an Audio Renaissance 845 amp that kept blowing up (50% from fake/bad parts and 50% from poor design).

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Here are some blown caps.  The tubes the amp came with outlasted these.

 

[Beerfab]

No you don’t come off as a biased asshole at all.  Thanks for the information and opinion Paul.  That is what I asked for.  Basically looking at some reviews you’d think some of those amps are gods gift but I know that can’t be the whole story.  Thank you.   

 

[Paul Birkeland]

If you're looking at something like a push-pull EL34 amp, there are some Chinese options that aren't so bad.  Push-pull output transformers aren't as tough to make and there are tons of vintage designs that are well documented and easy to copy, so the results tend to be a bit better. 

With the SE amps, it has been interesting to go through them with their owners watching, then perform the measurements, then see how those opinions change rather quickly!

 

[Beerfab]

Thanks Paul.  As I said before. I’m not here to stir anything/one up trying to compare apples and oranges.  I am quite impressed by the level of support bottlehead buyers receive.  Seems to be quite a cool operation.   

 

[Karl5150]

Love that board PB.
Karl

 

[johnsonad]

I'll share a couple of things.  A close friend is a tech with his own business.  He's had a Chinese amp on his bench for a month now for repair.  The transformer blew as it wasn't rated correctly.  He wasn't able to get a replacement and has had to use three separate transformers to get the thing back up and playing again.

I've build a few scratch builds and a few from other companies but I've stuck with BH for a long time now.  You won't find better tech support of a product.  Additionally, their products are refined and rarely replaced. My oldest BH gear is over a decade old and going strong.

 

[Beerfab]

thanks Aaron.  that good stuff to hear

 

[Tubegopher]

I recently built a BeePre preamplifier and got great support from Paul Birkland. I purchased a used Eros phono preamp.  I have been into high end audio for about 30 years and when I switched to Bottlehead.... It was a huge difference in sound quality. They know what they are doing!