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It's better suited to your application, it's better suited to the first time builder, and it sounds surprisingly good. The SEX kit is cheaper, easier to build, and quieter than the Stereomour. If you want to build a Bottlehead kit, though, the news is good. Honestly, this amp just might not be your best bet for your application. That means that you'll want to put some kind of cap between the amp and the horn tweeter. Running this as a tweeter amp, though, is a different story.
Bottlehead amp review 2a3 full#
Running full range on a 604-8g, the hum was noticeable and obvious from my nearfield listening position (and not any kind of problem with 93db speakers). That's hardly an issue with normal drivers, but it might be a seriously annoying issue with your Altecs. The second thing to keep in mind is that the Stereomour design puts out close to a mV of hum. Everyone's first kit always winds up being a mess.
Bottlehead amp review 2a3 Pc#
If you haven't built kits or stuffed pc boards before, you might want to start with something a bit cheaper and a bit more friendly to the ham fisted. If you built that, you'll probably find the Stereomour to be a cakewalk. I see that you're using a Marchand XM 26. The first question is whether you've built anything other than an amp before. I have heard well over a dozen single ended (mostly triode, mostly filamentary) tube amps (not counting guitar or radio apps) and to date the only one that impressed me in the least for full range use driving anything like normal speakers used 211s, and feedback across the output transformer.Ĭlick to expand.Wardsweb and Burt are talking sense here. Bottlehead and other single ended promoters knowingly sell the vast majority of their amps for fullrange use, and there they don't so often work very well if fidelity and not tone modification is your goal. In addition, I think that a single ended tube amp (triode or otherwise makes no difference) will probably do okay in a true biamped or tri-amped situation for treble driving, but I question that the designs Bottlehead favors are necessarily the best. If you live with famuily members this can be difficult. The key is you need a dedicated place to work where you can leave your stuff and not have it bothered for an indefinite length of time. You will tear stuff up and make mistakes and it's better to make mistakes with free junk than with stuff you have paid good money for. If you do not have a reasonable bench and some good experience building or troubleshooting, the Bottlehead kits are an expensive way to learn. Scratch building is more educational, but a kit saves you the time of finding all the parts, ordering what you need, etc.