The Phonoclone and VSPS PCB Help Desk

I now solved it with dip sockets

I deliberately left the options open. You can solder the resistors to the board, you can use standoffs (recommended), or pins, or sockets. In principle you can even run wires to a daughterboard or panel switch, though I don't know how well that would work out in practice.

The only problem with chopped up DIP sockets is the resistor leads are often too thick to properly fit.
 
well so far so good. wired everything up and nothing has gone pop or burning. still got a few things to wire up but all in all it's done.

next stage is testing.

one weird thing though, i have 4 LED's 2 inside the power supply running off the unregulated DC and 2 in the 'phonophone' (phonoclone and sapphire) running off the phonoclone regulated outputs on the boards. when i switch the power on the LED's are nice and even coloured but in about 10 seconds the power supply one gets washed out. if i turn everything off and unhook the power supply from the 'phonophone' the power supply returns to normal colour and does not wash out.

any ideas as to why the LED's are acting up?
 
update.

phonoclones are working which means the power is working :)

sapphires i'm still having trouble with :-(

i have wired it up:

phonoclone out+ to in of volume pot
phonoclone out- to gnd of volume pot plus gnd of volume pot to sapphire in-
out of volume pot to sapphire in+
sapphire out +/- to headphone socket

i'm testing with cheep crappy headphones (16ohm i think) and the volume pot is 50k

half way there. lol
 

rjm

Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
The tetra phono preamp is a passive EQ tube phono stage, like this one of mine, but with additional followers on the input and output stages. Fairly standard, solid implementation.

The tetra should sound like a typical well-designed tube phono stage, The VSPS300 should sound like a typical well-designed solid-state phono stage.
 

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no sound from vsps

Hello,

Just finished my Stereo VSPS ,I hooked it up and nothing!!! no sound at all!

I went over all connections and everything looks fine (I did not use C8, C9)

I've checked V between V++ and V--—I get 0.13 VDC
Between V++ and COM—I get 0.13 VDC
Between V-- and COM—I get 0 VDC Is that okay? What else should I check?

Thank you all,
IK
 

rjm

Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
Announcement

As of July 1st, prices on the Phonoclone 3 and VSPS300 kits will increase to $150 and $130 US, respectively. Mouser component prices have gone up across the board recently, whether as a result of the weaker yen or not I'm not sure. The OPA27GP in particular has seen a steep increase.

Grace period for the old pricing in effect until the end of June. Prices on other kits and boards are unchanged.

/Richard
 
The VSPS is a very special phono stage.

G'day all, some years ago I built a very breadboarded VSPS on a piece of copper clad circuit board material using an OPA2134 dual op amp and despite acquiring a number of high quality commercially made and DIY phono stages for MM cartridges in the meantime, the VSPS remains one of my two favourite phono stages of all time with a sense of quiet musicality that I find very endearing.

Yet the interesting thing is that most simple full feedback op amp based phono stages I've heard and/or built sound yuck and very unmusical, so why does the VSPS sound so good? It is a very special phono stage! Regards, Felix.
 
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rjm

Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
Far from me to say, but I think I know where you are coming from.

Based on my testing and research developing the VSPS, the "yuck" factor can be induced by any of the following-

* too much filter capacitance
* filter capacitors/regulators placed too far from the op amp
* using multiple regulation stages
* using film caps as bypass capacitors
* bypass capacitors (the ones closest to the op amp) placed too far away
* absence of 47 ohm damping resistor on the output
* using cheap metal film resistors
 
I have been away from here for awhile. Just wanted to drop by and say that my VSPS just sounds wonderful and draws out the best from the cartridges I have used with it. I mounted a Stanton 681EE along with a replacement stylus from KAB in new Jersey and I can fully understand why these were considered a Calibration Standard in there day. Between the 681 and a Empire 2000E/III with nude hyper-eliptical there is so much 'life' to the sound.
 
Just got my vsps kit in the mail and I can't wait to get started on it. Before I build it though I have a few questions about PS options. Is it really worth while to build the vsps 300 as a true dual mono? Some of the early posts on this thread made it sound like batteries actually performed worse then a regular PS, is that true? My last question is about smps on the vsps.

I have a case or two of these guys laying around. Would wiring a few of them up to give me +/- 10-15V power supply be ok for use with a VSPS. They seem very low noise on my scope but I'm not sure they would be appropriate.
 
VSPS300 - just a bit more gain?

Hi forum followers, my first time on the site so first up a big thank you to Richard for giving us all such a great product in the Phonoclone/VSPS build. A bit of profanity aside caused by my mistakes and it’s all worked out as it said on the tin. I’m only 5hrs in and I can already tell this is something special despite the thin bass/weak mid but as already discussed by Dimkasta I’ve just got to be patient and get a few more hours on the boards.

Anyway to the second point, having run my VSPS300 for a couple of hours I’m looking for some guidance. I’m running a high output Dynavector 10x5 cartridge and would like just a tad more gain as I’m running out of revolutions on my preamp volume control !!

I’ve already adjusted R2/R3 to the 50db gain (220R/2.7K) setting as given in the construction guide and was wondering just how much further the R2/R3 ratio could be pushed as every little bit helps. Or is this the limit of the basic circuit design?