New StereomourII

[butchbass]

I just finished my Stereomour and it is sounding very nice. I can definitely hear the improvement in the bass over my Paramours. There is more of it and it seems to have more authority. The only issue is the volume with 89 db Orcas. My old system is the Foreplay III and Paramours and it had plenty of volume for me with the pre-amp. The Stereomour  does not have the volume of my old system. I was wondering can I replace the 33k resistor prior to  the volume control with a lower value resistor and if so how low? Also I have the Mourquiet yet to install. Will that make any difference in volume over the stock setup? I realize a more efficient speaker will make a lot of difference so I am saving for the new Botttlehead speakers!

Kudos to the Bottlehead team for another great product. I marvel at the instructions. I  know it took a good amount of time to put the assembly manual together with the amount of detail that is in it.  For anyone that is contemplating a kit amp but has not taken the plunge, I don't think you could ask for any better instructions. Practice your soldering before you start and then take your time and stop when your eyes get tired.(Old eyes tire quickly) When you are done you will have a high quality amp that you built yourself and that is very satisfying.
I am listening to the "Stills, Bloomfield, Kooper Super Session" album and I am hearing the kick drum which I haven't noticed much before.  I am sure I will hear more as I get more time on the new amp. I will post a picture or two later.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Your DAC should be able to push the Stereomour into clipping.  Is this something you experience with all your sources, or perhaps just more with your vinyl rig?  If you are experiencing this with your digital rig, be sure all your level settings are all the way up if you're using the USB interface.

I would not mess with the 33K resistors.  Adjusting that resistor will make the balance control quite a bit clumsier to use.  The Morquiet does also have some insertion loss as well.

Generally speaking, we see these kinds of issues when folks have a 5mV cartridge and a Seduction/Reduction (especially when the phono preamp doesn't have the applicable C4S upgrade), but very rarely with a digital source.

-PB

 

[butchbass]

I am experiencing this with all of my sources, digital and vinyl. My phono preamp is a small Audio Technica, I don't listen to vinyl much. With my Foreplay/Paramour setup I can drive the output into clipping. I have a Schiit Bifrost Multibit and Amarra with a Mac Mini.  The only control I have that I know of is in the Amarra software and it is all the way up. Any suggestions?

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Download a 60Hz tone onto your Mac and play it through your DAC, then measure the AC voltage at the RCA outputs on the DAC.

 

[butchbass]

I downloaded the 60 hz test tone and got 1.4 volts on each output of the DAC. I then played a high energy song on Amarra and got 0.2-0.4 volts per channel. I have searched everywhere I can on my computer for a way to increase the gain but have been unsuccessful other than the volume control on Amarra. It seems to be a computer issue that the Foreplay III compensated for. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Paul Birkeland]

Yeah, that's 3dB lower than you should be getting.

Can you try an optical cable into your DAC?

It's also totally reasonable to put a preamp in front of the Stereomour, but I'd put a bit more effort into getting the full 2V out of the DAC (and maybe ask the manufacturer if they have some ideas on getting there).

-PB

 

[butchbass]

I will have to get an optical cable. I will try that if I am not successful getting more output from the computer/DAC.
Thanks for the help. I am loving the Stereomour.