Pearl Two

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nar

nar

Member
Joined 2002
Maybe because Nelson didn't finish the Pearl II paper yet ;)

I work almost every day on the project. I just took the liberty of adapting the original .pdf to real board size, then from now I'm working on 3 real layers in Photoshop-CS : serigraph, components side and soldering side. The result will be as close as the Pearl II original boards, with same drawing and ground planes. As I don't plan to go for metallized holes, I will have to solder-through at some spots, but nothing undo able :D

Question is, I still don't know if the original boards have a second ground plane on the soldering side. I guess there is :cool:

I'll just mod the soldering platforms for input/output sections , because I will use some special minimalistic cabling with "no wire" into the unit. For audio paths to and from the RCAs, I will use special silver ribbon/teflon solution, directly derived from the nAr-cable research and Allen thoughts (thanks again for opening my mind). I will also try to use the best low-mass RCAs, the bullet ones, chassis-female and cable-male. The boards will be tightened on nylon holders with plastic screw instead of metal, and little rubber torque against solid vibrations transmission. Housing will be plain aluminium for best grounding and no magnetic interactions. R-core 24V 300VA with dual mono power, rectifiers and 1st reservoir will be in separate housing :cool:

And yes, I will want my sticker :D

Best regards,

nAr
 
eclectic2k

eclectic2k

Member
Joined 2005
nar said:
Maybe because Nelson didn't finish the Pearl II paper yet ;)

I work almost every day on the project.
Click to expand...
Awesome. I've not had a chance to work much on it at all. :( I need to get back to it soon.
Question is, I still don't know if the original boards have a second ground plane on the soldering side. I guess there is :cool:
Click to expand...
Indeed they do. Full ground fill around the trace routing. Same gap observed between PS & Circuit ground.

I'm planning a little less of a specialty build. Aluminum case, aluminum standoffs, "standard" I/O jacks and such. Definitely mounting the transformer, rectifiers, and first filter cap outboard though. (my current phono, just the transformer is remote, which also seems to work well enough) the challenge now is for me to find some casework that's not too big...

Since it will be remote, I'll likely use whatever E-I core I can dig up. (hard to find R-cores around here) I may have a toroid handy, but that's OK, I also have line filters ;)

best of luck! :cheers:
 
nar

nar

Member
Joined 2002
Russellc said:
Best news I've had all week!;)

russellc
Click to expand...

That is indeed good news :bomb: :)

I have been playing and ripping LPs from my AlephOno clone for some years. However, I feel like that design, which is close to Ono, is simpler and having the 4 x 2SK370 at the input will probably achieve better sounding and higher gain than directly going onto the original 2SK389 ( plus the feedback for the RIAA correction that differs ).

Today, I understand the importance of components placing and proper ground planes, with no loops of course ;)

Silk layer done, components layer done, components routing on the solder side done, I'm currently finishing the ground planes. Every layer is conveniently saved as .psd for my daily work. The finished work will be exported directly into .pdf, so I can conveniently print on transparent before boards exposition and etching :)

Best,

nAr
 
nar

nar

Member
Joined 2002
Nelson Pass said:
It's back in Wayne's hands now.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Very good news indeed :)

From my side, my double-sided board "reverse-engineering" project is finished.

May I post gifs of the board, the 2 sides, for pcb review ?

I just would like to be sure that there are no design flaws other than routing errors (e.g., ground planes, if I can learn more about pcb design, well I'm humble, every expert advice is welcome :) )
Best,

nAr
 
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nar

nar

Member
Joined 2002
nar said:
From my side, my double-sided board "reverse-engineering" project is finished.

May I post gifs of the board, the 2 sides, for pcb review ?

nAr
Click to expand...

Sorry to bump into the thread once more, but I really didn't intend to hijack this thread - untitled Pearl 2, so it's really for the PASS boards of the Pearl and all aspects of the realisation we deal here. Like, substitutes for semi-conductors, ground wiring schemes, choice of resistors and capacitors in series with signal, problems once done and fired up, etc.

I however felt not every one could deal with the 200 bucks and would be tempted do do their own. That was my will, and I am almost done with the project. As I said, I really think layout and PCB has a sonic importance, mostly for noise issues but not only. I won't post anything here until Wayne or Nelson say OK to it. As I said, I don't want to hijack the thread.

I also want to thank eclectik2k for reviewing my big boards mistakes :D as I made some HUGE ones ! But that's how I learn, personally :cool:

I am just sad that this wonderful RIAA stage doesn't interest more people than this. :(
I mean, LPs are so friendly to music :) They really deserve their first class RIAA ;)
And yes, I have a Massive Attack album that is divided into 3 LPs ... but ... you have to play the disc at 45 RPM to get the good music :p funny, isn't it ? It sounds better at 45 RPM than 33 ... treble are better defined and refined :cool:

Best regards,

nAr
 
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