stereomour newbie

R

rockdrummer

New member
;D

Okay, so i am a total newbie but a diy-coholic. I built a pair of gr research monitors for my parents. I am onto a sub and monitors for my brother and talked my wife into a stereomour earlier than i thought i would!!! It is presently on order. However, i dont have the right speakers for them yet. Going to build a pair of gr research super v speakers. Anyway....
I am also, like other newbie posters, nervous but excited to get started. I have minimal soldering skills and am working to practice that too. I have a weller 100 watt soldering gun with who knows what kind of tips. Will order solder and possibly some other things to assist as i plan. Anyway, i have already felt welcome and know whatever help i need will be abundant with this great online community. Thanks and more to come.
Ben Young
 
Hi Ben and welcome. My advice is to save the solder gun for big stuff like speaker terminals and get a real solder station for amp kit building. It does not have to be a really expensive one and it could make the difference between a frustrating build and a very pleasant one. You might have a look at the tech tools section of this forum for recommendations.
 
Doc, that was just what Grainger mentioned. I will plan on that as my next purchase. I was very sad ehen i was done soldering the speakers i built and i think the same will go with this build. I will go very slow and enjoy every minute of it. With the right tools that is!
Ben
 
Hi Ben,

Soldering IRONs are really cheap. I like the 40w. The main thing with soldering electronics is to clean the tip frequently with a wet sponge before you solder, and use leaded 60/40 solder. It melts really quick, that way each solder takes 1-2 seconds max.

cheers - Eric
 
I wanted to double-check the solder purchase.  I was under the impression silver solder was best.  If I get 60/40 -- tin/lead solder, is that just fine?

Will practice some soldering this week when my concerts are done.  Elementary music teacher and Music Liturgist wife.  Busy time of year for us, and pretty much everybody.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Thanks,
Ben
 
Lead/tin is a good way to go. Just go to Radio Shack, Fry's or whatever and get their electronic solder, I think the thin stuff is easier to use...John 

PS. anyone know how to make the italics stop when you're done with it? 
 
My amp has left and has probably moved across Montana towards MN by now!!! Yippee!  I'm very excited. 

i also will be ordering my new speaker kit this week.  Don't know how I talked my wife into that, but she is getting to choose yet another Disney vacation.  Not that they aren't fun.  But I digress....

The bulk of the work the stereomour is going to do will be run the coax drivers.  I want to say they are crossed over to the sub amp at 200hz.  Will it be worth putting a high pass filter in the line to take the 200hz and below out of the mix even if the coax aren't going to run it?  I know the bottlehead can take it, I just hear things about making the amp load even easier.  Would it matter?

Thanks,
Ben

PS  CAN'T WAIT!
 
rockdrummer said:
The bulk of the work the stereomour is going to do will be run the coax drivers.  I want to say they are crossed over to the sub amp at 200hz.  Will it be worth putting a high pass filter in the line to take the 200hz and below out of the mix even if the coax aren't going to run it?  I know the bottlehead can take it, I just hear things about making the amp load even easier.  Would it matter?
Click to expand...

Is the sub amp taking the speaker level inputs, or will you wire a line level out from the Stereomour?

The Stereomour has two easy places to implement a high pass filter - in the 0.1uF coupling cap, and the parallel feed cap.

Paul Joppa generally recommends downsizing the parallel feed cap, and I think he prefers this because doing so can drop the physical size and cost of the cap (so you can use a nicer part) and it will kick out some of the 60Hz hum from the DHT filament.  (I haven't asked PJ about this specifically, these are my assumptions).

I don't see why you couldn't also lower the value of the 0.1uF coupling cap (or lower the value of the 249K grid leak resistor) in accordance with shrinking the parallel feed capacitors for an even steeper rolloff (if you want it).

Still, I'd build it bone stock first, then mess around with these things.

-PB
 
I must have mis-communicated - for crossovers, I prefer to put the filter as early in the chain as possible.

Putting it at the amp input means an additional capacitor, so that's a tradeoff.

Putting it between the driver and output (the 0.1uF coupling cap) relieves the power tube of bass duties, but does not relieve the driver. The driver (in my designs anyhow) has some headroom, but not a lot. For crossovers below 100Hz it's not unreasonable.

I'd only put a small cap in the parafeed position if it is necessary to protect the HF driver - I've done that in the Bottlehead Big System for the ribbon tweeter. But we have recently moved from the SR45 to a Paramount 300B to good effect, because there is not enough protection for the driver and power tubes with the cap there. I'd prefer to put another highpass filter before the amp, but at the moment that seems to be too much filtering for the crossover integration to work well.
 
Merry Christmas to me!!!  Just unpacked my stereomour kit.  OMG I can't wait.  I also ordered the top half of my GR Research Super V kit today. 

I will have caps to use as a high pass filter, and will need to look into how to implement that.  I am going to look at the manual and start salivating. 

Packed wonderfully!  Thanks Doc B and Queen Eileen. 

Ben Young
 
I will need to look again, if they were there, i missed the chocolates.

Confession time. I knew the dangers or voltage before ordering, but the ample warnings in the manual have since made me nervous. Im still going forward but good job on the attention to safety. Also, the detail and specifics in the manual are awesome. Wonderfully done and simple. First i am going to sand and paint he bells. More soon.
Ben
 
Hello everyone.  It has been very cold here in Minnesota the last week.  No work whatsoever out in the garage:(

I was reading speaker wire posts recently and read about some speakers/amps that don't sound good with braided cables.  About a month ago I bought some Kimber Kable 4PR.  It is their cheap braided bulk cable.  I read it will be better than my monster cable stuff I have.  Anyway, any experience with braided cables and Stereomour I should be concerned about?  I did some searches and found some placement issues concerning power sources but didn't find any about the amp and cable being problematic together.

Thanks, and hope everyone up north here is staying warm!!

Ben
 
Hey Ben - IMO Kimber makes good sounding wire. It will be better than anything Monster makes. In general, wire can be very tricky. Its hard to generalize. You have to experiment. I would try various low cost trusted names and see what sounds best in your system. Most of the high end companies seem to have a certain 'house sound'. I have been happy with the sound of JPS Labs wire. Put them on your short list. - cheers - Eric
 
I'm with Eric, I have both Kimber speaker and interconnects.  The Bottlehead power cord is twisted and braided.  It improved the clarity in my system.  My Paramours are mono versions of the Stereomour.

As I read recently on the internet, Abe Lincoln said, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet."
 
If you are looking to experiment with solid core big gauge speaker cable for a good price, ck Audio Advisor, they run specials on their AudioQuest stuff. I have a pair of 'Granite' cables that I have used for over 10yrs, that were only recently replaced by my JPS Labs wire. Very good sounding wire, in fact, at first I was not sure the JPS Labs were an upgrade, but once they broke in, then I was happy with the switch.
 
Hi everyone.  I have most of what I need to start my stereomour build, maybe a different soldering iron unless practice starts to pay off!!

Can you builders with experience explain why a Fluke multimeter is really the way to go?  I totally understand it really works better, or more consistently, and more accurately, but I am grappling with the added higher expense.  Sure $80 isn't really that much more than the $30 ones, but it makes a difference in my "family" budget.  If it is silly to buy anything less than the recommended tools? 

Has anyone built a kit with a cheapo meter and have advice for me?

Thanks,
Ben
 
Ben,

You can buy a cheap meter for $6-10.  It will give reasonable readings measuring everything except the ones in the manual marked with a *.  Those are hard to determine if they are right.  Look in Grainger's Corner and read the question about meters in the FAQ Thread at the top.  I try to explain the results of meter readings there.  The days of getting a reasonable priced meter from Radio Shack passed a decade or two ago.

If you find this is a hobby you will continue with a better meter is in order.  We have a few doctors here, one said that doctors don't use cheap stethoscopes.  The meter is the second most important tool in kit building.  The soldering iron is the most important.
 
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