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I plan to purcahse a 2A3/45 amp and have narrowed the field down to the Fi X and the Bottlehead Stereomour. Any thoughts or relevant experiences would be much appreciated.
Cheers.
Follow Ups:
Thanks to all for the responses. Both companies obviously enjoy well-deserved reputations for excellence. I'm sure I can't go wrong with either choice.
Some things to consider:
The Bottlehead kit is cheaper than the Fi, no?
There is a 10 month waiting list on Don's products, no?
Both appear to sell quickly on Audiogon at about 2/3 of their price, new, no?
I'll bet the sonic differences are not large, whichever sounds best to your ears.
So, you save money and time by buying the Bottlehead kit, and probably about break even (since you build it yourself) on that deal, or buy/order both, now, and sell the one you like the least once you can compare them: 10 months with neither is worth something, no?
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"
The wait on a Bottlehead kit isn't 10 months. The most I have ever had to wait is 3. One thing I noticed in a review was the Fi amp uses some standard Hammond output transformers as custom are too expensive. And he said they hummed a bit. But the Bottlehead Stereomour use custom designed and built output transformers and chokes. Don't know how much better they are or if that would make a difference in choice. Thought it was worth noting but again, I have never heard the Fi.
All 2A3 amps with AC filament power will hum; most will get it down to 2.5mV or less.
Not sure if Peej is spec'ing Pk-Pk or RMS, but for what it's worth I measured about 0.9mV-1mV rms on the Stereomour production prototype using the stock tubes supplied with the kit, which are Sovtek. Hum level is going to depend somewhat upon the 2A3 used.
So......
Jeff
All I really wanted to say, and should have said, is that Bottlehead manuals are great if you want to build it yourself. Let others comment on the comparison of the sound, transformer quality, and AC filaments. Thanks!
Sorry not to have been more specific about "Don".
I've heard mixed things about the hum in Fi amps. The Bottlehead doesn't seem to hum.
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"
Dead quiet SE 2A3 amp is usually always a dead-sounding amp !!!
Jeff Medwin
Usually <> always.Ideologically, I would prefer an alive sounding amp that is inherently such, rather than relying ('errors' of) commission to achieve the 'impression' of liveliness. We will see whether I can achieve this; some experienced builders seem to have.
Cheers,
Raymond
Edits: 09/07/11
Nt
"You don't need to be a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows"
Cannot speak for the Fi X, but my Fi 2A3 mono's are reasonably quiet (that is to say barely noticeable only during the most quiet musical passages)from nearfield listening position. Fi's are paired with Emotive Eros and Spendor S3/5se's.
With 97dB horn speakers ya can't hear no hum at all. Nada!
Magnequest chokes and outputs, oil caps, parafeed direct-coupled, AC filaments, zillion ohm CCS driver, Tantalums, Kishwames, Solen HV cap, grain matched cabinet and powder coated top plate, teflon sockets.....
$3000.00 cash would take it. Except, you can beg all you want, it's not now and never gonna be for sale!
If Aliens are smart enough to fly all that way through space, How come they always abduct the dumbest people on Earth?
Fi amps are know for being VERY quiet.
The Fi 300B monoblocks are extremely quite, the Fi 421A is the most quiet tube amp I have ever heard. Fi 2A3 amps that use AC on the filament will have some filament hum (you could ask Don to make a pair using DC if hum is a concern).
I use 100db efficient horns.
Fi WE421A here with Fi classic preamp, absolutely quiet, no noise from avantgarde duo or altec A7
Some years ago I had a Fi X 2A3, it was a bit noisy whithout music, no problem when playing some music
FWIW Don is a true gentleman
____________________________________________________I am from Galicia so, when you meet me in the staircase, you won´t know whether I´ll go up or down ...
I got the impression that he doesn't want to mess with he's got. DC filaments solve some problems and create others. The humm is surprisingly low on the pair of 2A3 monos for a DC amp with AC heating I heard.
Mine are maybe a month, or less, away from completion.
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"
When I ordered my Fi 300B monoblocks, Don was willing to do various things as options including using a pair of huge potted NOS power transformers.
Changing from DC to AC (or vice versa) on filaments is as easy as adding a rectifier, resister and two caps. I removed those from my amps and run AC on the filaments because it sounds better IMO.
I went back and read your post, it might have been more me not paying attention. But I have had hum problems with Bottlehead but we have always been able to track the hum down and fix it. So it doesn't seem to be something inherent in the design, usually it has been a wire laid across some AC that I shouldn't have done or a bad solder joint. That sort of thing. And I don't want to come off as bashing Fi as humming, how the heck would I know? I just thought the reviewer statement about the transformers versus the Bottlehead transformers was worth noting because in my experience Paul Joppa's designs are really good. But enough from me.
I don't know Fi X so I won't pretend to be able to offer a comparison. I know Bottlehead sounds great, maybe Fi X does to. My phono pre, preamp, and amps are all Bottlehead. But to my point, if your like me and the instructions make a big difference in the chances of your amp working when you are done I can tell you that Bottlehead instructions, not only due to the great write-ups but also due to Doc's photography hobby, have a well deserved reputation for being the best in the industry. You should see one of the manuals, they are really incredible. You could actually build an amp just from the color pictures.
I will leave the actual comparison of the sound of the two companies to someone who has heard both, I haven't.
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