Paramour II with upgraded Iron & Foreplay III or Stereomour?

[paulw]

I'm thinking of upgrading my current Paramours with MagneQuest Iron, but it has occurred to me that I quite like the single box approach of the Stereomour and have been thinking about selling my Foreplay  III/Seduction/Paramours II to fund the purchase of the Eros & Stereomour combination.  I know its a bit subjective but how do you feel (hope) the Stereomour will stack up against a Paramours (with upgraded iron) and Foreplay combination?

Paul

[Grainger49]

The MQ Iron Upgrade was the largest step up I made with my Paramour Is.  The three dimensionality of instruments and vocalists was pronounced.  Before these images were placed well, side to side and front to back.  After the upgrade the images became more lifelike, they gained depth of the image itself.

That is all I have personal experience with.  PJ is promising that the stock Stereomour iron will be like the Paramount; that is a very fine iron to begin with.  So the step up to MQ iron will not be as pronounced in a Stereomour.

PJ's Post

What do you propose to use for a preamp if you sell your FP III?  Or do I have that wrong, Stereomour may have multiple inputs and volume control.

[paulw]

Well given the Stereomour is intended to have three inputs + volume the only thing that will be missing is the preouts!  This is a bit of a concern as I currently use the Foreplay to drive either my Paramours or the power stage of my PP integrated amp or on occasion my sub.

But as I mostly use the Foreplay/Paramours I'll not be too worried about that so much.

Paul

[Grainger49]

Yup!  I didn't remember that.  You don't need a preamp.  Do you know if it will have a dedicated amplification stage for the preamp or a selector and volume control feeding the driver tube?  Edit, not true.  It could have an active preamp stage if they use a dual triode and a C4S on the driver stage.  If so a pre out might even be possible.  If not, then you maybe you can put an output to a sub right after the volume control.  Edit, not true either.

[Paul Joppa]

The three Stereomour inputs go to a dual 100K pot, same as the SEX amp. This impedance is too high to drive an auxiliary pre output. The pot goes directly to a  single 12AT7 which is the stereo driver tube.

Yes, the new output transformer and plate choke are of similar quality and design to the Paramount iron; there is a slight compromise because the same iron (with a tap on the plate choke) will be used for a revised SEX amp as well. This compromise will result in an estimated 35kHz high frequency rolloff for the Paramour (it's higher for the SEX amp) but somewhat better deep bass performance. I'll know more when we've put the final revision of this iron into the last (I hope!) developmental prototype of the Stereomour, sometime in the next few weeks.

Mike at Magnequest has said he will produce a compatible output transformer with a 4K impedance. Currently we are using the same upgrade transformer for Paramount and Paramour; this is an excellent transformer (derived from the TFA-2004Jr with some technical improvements for Bottlehead), it's kind of overkill for the Paramour. The new transformer will be smaller than that, more well-matched to the 2A3, and a bit less expensive. The plate choke will be identical to the current Paramour plate choke, except there may be an option to use a different version of the choke if the Stereomour is intended for the 45 tube.

Hope that clarifies teh situation a little!