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Attn: Paramour & Straight 8 Owners

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Hello,
I've got about 30 hours now on my newly built Paramours. I've found the sound to be pretty much everything that I've read about the 2a3's, at least in the mid's and high's. The mid bass and lower bass, however, has been somewhat disappointing. The bass is there, mind you, it's just inarticulate and bloated. There is no pace or dynamics in the lower end. I've been rearranging my music room placing speakers closer to the rear wall, etc. in hopes of helping the problem, but to no real avail.
Now for the REAL fix.
Got some time this morning to put the amps on the bench and experiment with different OPT taps. Following the manual's suggestion, I removed the 1.25w (yellow) primary connection and replaced it with the 2.5w (orange) connection--16 ohm Straight-8's
Holey Schmoley!
I've got pace; I've got bass... rhythm. I can't believe it. These little amps rock! Not only that, but the midrange/high-end sparkle and air is considerably better too.
The difference to me is profound. If you own the Paramours/-8's do try this. Has anyone else had the same experience? Voltsecond, Maldar, how about you guys?
Happy Listening, indeed!

Follow Ups:

Re: Attn: Paramour & Straight 8 Owners maldar 19:14:14 01/29/01 (3)
I have not tried that one yet. My Foreplay has a larger 5uf output cap and my speakers have 15-inch woofers. The bass is adequate for me. I might try the different taps as you have suggested to see if I notice a difference. Thanks for the tip. I'm not sure if anyone has tried that yet. - maldar
- Re: Attn: Paramour & Straight 8 Owners Scottgi 22:41:23 01/30/01 (1)
  Maldar,
  The results really surprised me. I was needing more bass, or so I thought, and as I understood it the change to the 2.5w tap was supposed to favor the upper end according to Paul J.'s out of circuit measurements in an earlier post "Tap dancing with Paramour". I don't really understand why the 2.5w setting seemingly yields better bass--I'm speculating that it really yields better, much better, dynamics into a 16 ohm load and the improved articulation appears as "more" bass. At least that's what I'm hearing. I'm anxious to read your impressions.
  I am really happy with these amps on the 2.5w tap, even in their pure stock form. What a deal. I can hear and feel the tautness of softly brushed drum heads in jazz recordings and at the other end of the spectrum, Dave Matthews recordings rock cleanly, without imposing any perceptible strain on the amps and the imaging is superb. All within reason of course. To do this on 3.5w of power for $400 makes me want to tour the audio boutiques with them and demonstrate to the unsuspecting populace what real value and engineering sound like. Kudos to Doc & Paul.
  - Re: Attn: Paramour & Straight 8 Owners maldar 12:54:00 01/31/01 (0)
    Scottgi, I'm still using the stock 1.25w primary and the 8 ohm tap w/ 8 ohm speakers. I imagine that option 2 is a better impedance match with the 8's. I might explore option 3 : the .625w primary , 4 ohms on the 8 ohm secondary. My KLH 71's are rated at 8 ohms but when I checked them for impedance, they were 6.7 ohms. I'm glad your happy with your amps. I will post my findings if I learn anything new. - maldar
- Re: Attn: Paramour & Straight 8 Owners VoltSecond 01:23:06 01/30/01 (0)
  You can try this too.

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