Boy I was wrong!

[xcortes]

Never thought a system could sound better than mine (and I've heard some).

In the past days I've been working on preparing the Soft start retrofits for my 2A3 Paramounts. Yesterday I fired the first two (I use six Paramounts, three per channel). So I was able to play a mono record sans tweeter. This is an amazing upgrade. The last trace of hi-fi sound is gone (I'm not sure the change would satisfy many audiophiles though -and that's a good thing-).

I hate "destroying" a perfectly good and nice sounding amp to install an upgrade. Particularly since I run the risk of messing up. The first two fired up perfectly, though! Still I’m without a system until I do the other four. Hopefully they'll start up as well as the first two.

I'm almost done with the third and after three I can do the retrofit (have the boards ready) in less than an hour so hopefully tonight I'll have a complete system again.

I'm using some nice NOS Ericsson tubes that were recommended here (I think). I guess eventually I'll try the WE ones.

Since the Smack is essentially this driver stage it should sound awesome.

BTW, my voltages are below those in the manual and I can't get the driver to sit at 1/3 (close enough but a little higher). I'll ask more when I finish the six.

[John Roman]

How does your system sound now. Man, six amps....that's just cool. How do the Paramount's handle the low frequencies? I currently cross passively at 250 hz. You?

[xcortes]

Hi John,

I think it sounds awesome. Actually my horns don't go lower than 80 hz. Please let me refer you to a couple of recent posts of mine in another thread to avoid double posting:

http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,1251.msg17697.html#msg17697

http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,1251.msg17700.html#msg17700

[Doc B.]

We're getting down pretty solidly into the 30s with Paramounts on 7" woofers in vented boxes in my system. The boxes are tuned for the damping factor of an SE amp, and we are also experimenting with running the output balanced, which may possibly improve the bass somewhat.