I've been spending a lot of time with the Paramours. I gotta say that the thing I'm impressed with most is how loud they get. I know that's not the main thing, but really - it sounds like 100 watts or something. Clean. I can think of so many guitar players talking about "tube watts being more than transistor watts." I remember always thinking that tubes just acted differently when they entered clipping, and I still think that is the reason for that belief. But whatever - I can watch movies having the soundtrack piped through the Paramours with such huge impact that I absolutely don't feel that they need more power at all, not even in the bass. Big sound, huge dynamics, and thunderous bass. Just huge!

Those of you that can simply must try the π / Paramour combination. It's really great. Take away all the tone controls, bass boost or anything else like that. Just run it pure, a single 2A3 tube and nothing more. Thunderous bass, stunning range and huge dynamics. Now I'm using all those subjective terms I sometimes found inadequate. If I start talking about "liquid midrange" or "pinpoint imaging" I'll know I've gone too far and become intoxicated. Then again, maybe I'm already there. I can't help but to use terms like "thunderous" and "stunning." And when you consider that I'm used to running hundreds of watts to the same speakers - When I say that the dynamics are huge, I'm not kidding you. When you get 'em up to full volume - not clipping level, mind you - but clean full volume is a level where nobody in the room can talk to each other because it's just too loud.

I have had success with my 2226J's (16 ohm) on Paramours (3 different ones) and Moth S45 amps. All of these were set up for the 8 ohm tap. I did not feel the lack of BASS that some have mentioned. I know the impedance seems to be wrong, and on my SCA-35/ST-70, will not work with wrong impeadance, but the SET's did work well that way. There are those who have heard (they brought their own amps to my house), and they believe.

Glad to hear you like the "Flea-power" amps, "The first watt is the most important one"

Cheers, Ron

I expect most amps will work quite nicely, certainly amps that delivers more than ten watts. And I'm definitely happy with what the Paramours do, so I agree with your observations, 100%. That's an example of a "flea-powered" amp that works perfectly well with the Professional Series line of π Speakers. I'll bet your fours are sweet, a nice size and as pure as speakers come. The sevens are really great too - they've long been my favorites - and I wish I had two corners in my listening room because I'd like to spend some time with Paramours and sevens.

The Paramour is a great amp but the 2226H really likes a push pull 6550 the best, maybe a 8417 amp, I won't go there.

I've run the following amps:

SE:

The Noreaster 572-10 with 811-10 and -3 variations
6b4G
5881
EL34
6550
6L6GC
Sorry no 300Bs but the Noreaster will most likely be refit with 300Bs when the 572-10s go bad.
All with various iron and designs some mine some other folks.

Push pull:

HEath aa-151 stock and moded
Many different Fisher and Scott integrateds and recievers
Eico HF20s stock
Push Pull 6B4G with Scott iron and Eico HF20 iron Interstage and LTP phase splitters.
Dynaco ST70
HK Citation 2
Bogen MO200s stock and modded with EL34s
Bogen KO100s Stock and with minor power supply mods
A EL34 amp using Stancor iron and modified Mulard design to the "T"
Sansui Q50s (A great amp pair if you can find them)
Mac 40s
6C45s on a Seares chassis.
Again some of the amps were\are mine some other folks.

Solid state:

several classic Kenwoods KA601s, KA6100, KA7100
An NAD integrated
Sorry not much solid state comes into my house.

You get the point 7 years of all kinds of tube amps in many topologies in several rooms at several houses.

Just borrow a push pull 6550 amp from someone and stop pussy-footing around. You'll be shopping for one the next day.

The 2226H just seems to click with these tubes, great synergy.

Small amps and SE amps do well but 6550s bring out the most from 2226Hs. Try it you'll like it.

I check this forum only occasionally, maybe once a month or so just to stay in touch with what's going on. I come by today, and here's this great post about my baby - it sure made my day! (For those who don't know, I did the electronic design of the Paramour for Bottlehead.)

Thanks.

I'll have your baby in Lima, and I hope to meet you there.

The Paramours' circuit is so clean and simple that any change to them is readily apparent, especially through high efficiency loudspeakers! Peruse the archives on the Bottlehead Forum and see all the things that folks have done to/with these big/little amps.

Have fun at Lima! Hope I can make it some year!

Garland