Hello colleagues,
i was recently trying few lavalier mics in combination with Zoom H1 recorder and came to conclusion, that the simple electret mics, which are running from 1.5V LR44 battery or similar are just having too low gain. Therefore best mic - is DIY mic! I hope at least.
Of course OP-amp design would be an option, but i would like to have low noise, low current consumption plus simplicity of old good BJT common emitter. Therefore following schematics was found:
Source: http:// 404 Not Found
But it is designed for 6-30V! And i plan to run my mic from 3V silver-oxide battery.
Therefore i tried to recalculate it for 3V:
What i'm not sure is about the value of R3, as i don't quite understand how it works. For me it looks like Q1 base biasing voltage with negative feedback from Q2 (emitter follower).
Is my recalculation correct? What is confusing me a bit are the voltages at Q1 collector and Q2 emitter - they are off Vcc/2.
Your constructive critics and advise would be appreciated!
i was recently trying few lavalier mics in combination with Zoom H1 recorder and came to conclusion, that the simple electret mics, which are running from 1.5V LR44 battery or similar are just having too low gain. Therefore best mic - is DIY mic! I hope at least.
Of course OP-amp design would be an option, but i would like to have low noise, low current consumption plus simplicity of old good BJT common emitter. Therefore following schematics was found:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Source: http:// 404 Not Found
But it is designed for 6-30V! And i plan to run my mic from 3V silver-oxide battery.
Therefore i tried to recalculate it for 3V:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
What i'm not sure is about the value of R3, as i don't quite understand how it works. For me it looks like Q1 base biasing voltage with negative feedback from Q2 (emitter follower).
Is my recalculation correct? What is confusing me a bit are the voltages at Q1 collector and Q2 emitter - they are off Vcc/2.
Your constructive critics and advise would be appreciated!
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The easy way is to make R3 low enough to have negligible DC voltage drop across it. (Easier to do with high-beta transistors, and you can also raise R5 a lot, reducing Ic and therefore Ib of Q1. Maybe try making R5 ten times bigger, say 56k.)
Do the same with R4 as you did with R3 - make it small enough to have negligible DC voltage drop across it (probably already true in your circuit, particularly if you raise R5 as I suggested.)
With those conditions met, Q1's base is basically at 0.6 - 0.7 volts, and that is also the voltage across R7 (and sets emitter current of Q2).
With R6 having the same value as R7, it will also have the same 0.6 - 0.7 volts across it, so the emitter of Q2 should be sitting somewhere around 1.2 - 1.4 volts DC. If you want to change the DC voltage at the emitter of Q2, change R6 appropriately.
Keep in mind, you've created a high-gain circuit. I would guess a voltage gain of 40 - 50 times in Q2; AC voltage gain of a simple common-emitter stage like this is approximately 40 times the DC volts across the collector load resistor.
You are also running this high-gain circuit off a very small DC supply voltage. This means the microphone can only handle very quiet sounds - anything louder will cause heavy clipping at the output.
It looks like you've simulated this circuit in LTSpice, so you probably already have more accurate simulated numbers than my quick guesstimates.
-Gnobuddy
The H1 input sensitivity should be ample to bring input stage hiss up into the ADC's (24-bit!) working zone. You may have to up the level more to get fully listenable final tracks; but if it is "on the tape" (file) then you can fix it later.
OK, you want a preamp anyway. You need to specify a gain: a little or a lot? You need to specify a maximum output needed (and if you have high gain, the output may be high) *before* you think about a battery. (If you specify nominal 1.24Vrms, you can't directly get that with a 3.0V battery.)
You need to specify the mike impedance to get a good hiss-fit. You need to know the H1 input Z (a low 2K!) to figure the output requirement.
What IS the gain of your plan? Without counting on thumbs, I note that neither plan has any NFB. So it will probably overload with 20mV-60mV inputs and approach 25% THD just before clipping. If your signals are truly tiny, this may be acceptable. Nearly any time I have had to use such a mike input, overload and distortion were issues.
There are IMHO better plans. But this "1 inch" snow is burying the dog and today is not good for an extended essay.
EDIT- Gno beat me by 3 minutes on some of these points.
Thanks for your reply, guys!
Of course, i should have specified technical requirements in more detail.
Here they are: level of my electret mics, connected to H1 is in the region of -30 dB (one is even below -40) with a normal speech. The target is to bring it somewhere between -20 and -12 --> needed gain is about 30 (15 dB), please correct me if i'm wrong.
Noise level and distortion should be kept to the reasonable minimum.
So as the average output of electret mic is only about 2 mVpp then i'm targeting for 60 mVpp output of the amp. Let it be even 100 mVpp, i'm still safe with 3V battery.
Unfortunately i do not have exact data about different mics i have, but the average electret mic output impedance is about 2K (it is defined by FET load resistor, which is typically 2K).
Input impedance of H1 is low, about 2K, therefore emitter follower stage based on Q2.
Optimum input level of H1 concerning noise is about 40 - 55, it produces minimum hiss possible. Of course i could increase the H1 gain to 60-90 to make recording level acceptable, but it introduces a lot of hissing, therefore idea of own preamp.
Here is the the same schematics, but with added values:
And here is the circuit with adjustment, as Gnobuddy suggestet:
Here emitter of Q1 is sitting at about 1.5mV and base is at 505mV, i think it is a bit too low, or?
Here is also gain, simulated with my "original" values - looks like 30 to me, or?
I would greatly appreciate advises regarding improvements, negative feedback in particular, or better circuits, as PRR proposes.
P.S. Somehow i sought that R3 if providing negative feedback..
Of course, i should have specified technical requirements in more detail.
Here they are: level of my electret mics, connected to H1 is in the region of -30 dB (one is even below -40) with a normal speech. The target is to bring it somewhere between -20 and -12 --> needed gain is about 30 (15 dB), please correct me if i'm wrong.
Noise level and distortion should be kept to the reasonable minimum.
So as the average output of electret mic is only about 2 mVpp then i'm targeting for 60 mVpp output of the amp. Let it be even 100 mVpp, i'm still safe with 3V battery.
Unfortunately i do not have exact data about different mics i have, but the average electret mic output impedance is about 2K (it is defined by FET load resistor, which is typically 2K).
Input impedance of H1 is low, about 2K, therefore emitter follower stage based on Q2.
Optimum input level of H1 concerning noise is about 40 - 55, it produces minimum hiss possible. Of course i could increase the H1 gain to 60-90 to make recording level acceptable, but it introduces a lot of hissing, therefore idea of own preamp.
Here is the the same schematics, but with added values:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
And here is the circuit with adjustment, as Gnobuddy suggestet:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Here emitter of Q1 is sitting at about 1.5mV and base is at 505mV, i think it is a bit too low, or?
Here is also gain, simulated with my "original" values - looks like 30 to me, or?
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I would greatly appreciate advises regarding improvements, negative feedback in particular, or better circuits, as PRR proposes.
P.S. Somehow i sought that R3 if providing negative feedback..
I'm still confused by this. I owned a Zoom H1 for a while, and I don't remember having any problem getting adequate (speech) recording levels with the built-in electret microphones.
Are you at a great distance from the sounds you are trying to record?
Is the MOSFET in the electret mic properly biased with the external drain resistor to a small positive voltage? (It looks okay in your schematic.)
Sounds good, you want R3 to be much bigger than 2k, so it doesn't heavily load the electret output. I suggest R3=22k as a starting point.
Your Q1 bias voltages look fine to me. C3 is doing nothing, and can be removed. Actually, I suggest removing R4 as well (replace with a wire, emitter of Q1 direct to ground. Then remove C5 as well.
With C5 removed, you will actually have negative feedback through R3. Your circuit now acts as a current-to-voltage converter, the signal current from the electret microphone flowing through R3 will set the AC output voltage. (And the signal voltage at Q2 emitter will be double that.)
In your circuit as shown so far, R3 is providing only DC feedback, which sets the operating point of Q1 and Q2.
There is no AC (signal) feedback through R3, because all AC signals have been removed by C5, which makes sure there is no signal voltage at the junction of R6 & R7.
Why not try the current-to-voltage version? Remove C3 and C5, short R4, set the AC gain with R3. Since you have actual negative feedback, distortion should be lower, and you can set the gain you want with the value of R3. (Some experimenting may be needed to get the right gain.)
One last comment about small-area microphone capsules: they generate an inherent noise because of statistical fluctuations in the number of air molecules bouncing off the diaphragm. It is the same effect as "rain on a tin roof", or shot noise in a circuit.
So small-area microphone capsules are inherently "hissy". If you add a lot of gain on top of that, they get even more hissy.
-Gnobuddy
There's hiss everywhere.
Gain makes it louder, apparent.
System hiss level is normally dominated by input stage hiss.
So you are asserting that you (we?) can make an input stage with less hiss than the H1. In the past, this was sometimes true. Low-cost devices/designs sometimes fell short of near-ideal hiss performance. Today with modern miracle amplifier chips being promoted by several chipmakers, I am not so sure.
But *first*-- the input stage here is not the H1/DIY preamp but the FET inside the capsule. And these are often picked/biased for low current consumption, not lowest hiss. A higher current in the FET will probably be both a lower hiss voltage and a higher output level, win/win.
Above say 5V, you would not be able to influence the FET current with capsule supply voltage, it current-saturates like a pentode. But at a few Volts the FET is near or in its triode mode, and current falls with capsule supply voltage. IMHO 3V is below optimum. Recording with capsules, I always gave them like 7V. That was years ago and the FETs may be more special-purpose now. I suggest you try the capsule plus resistor on supplies from 2V to 12V (but watch the capsule terminal voltage does not go over rating, maybe 5V). Does the current increase? Does 9V give 2X the current of 3V? If so, that *may* be near 3dB lower hiss and a couple dB higher signal.
Snow to the west of me. Gotta get ready for work.
I had assumed your SPICE FET was arbitrary. 2SK3372 is actually sold for electret heads and is used in some versions of a popular capsule. specs
Indeed the current will not rise much above the 3V level. However the gain spec gets significantly (>3dB) better. However the gain spec does not add up with the gm versus drain load (allow 80K drain resistance). So I do not know what it is telling me.
The noise spec is 4uV which is stunningly high (makes any likely next-stage hiss moot). However this is MAX and typical could be a little less or a lot less.
While pondering that I came across a long essay on this capsule/FET and possible optimizations. Looks very worth a long read. So far I note that in Figure IV the 20K NFB resistor may be 2uV hiss and seems not-negligible to the total; few-K here may shave a little hiss.
These FET capsules distort (bottom-clip) at high level. I have used that to musical effect. I think your use is not at that level. That essay does discuss a clever linearization, as an alternative to the Linkwitz mod. Linkwitz actually moves the limits way further. Conover hardly moves the limits but greatly reduces the ~~5% THD just below clipping.
Indeed the current will not rise much above the 3V level. However the gain spec gets significantly (>3dB) better. However the gain spec does not add up with the gm versus drain load (allow 80K drain resistance). So I do not know what it is telling me.
The noise spec is 4uV which is stunningly high (makes any likely next-stage hiss moot). However this is MAX and typical could be a little less or a lot less.
While pondering that I came across a long essay on this capsule/FET and possible optimizations. Looks very worth a long read. So far I note that in Figure IV the 20K NFB resistor may be 2uV hiss and seems not-negligible to the total; few-K here may shave a little hiss.
These FET capsules distort (bottom-clip) at high level. I have used that to musical effect. I think your use is not at that level. That essay does discuss a clever linearization, as an alternative to the Linkwitz mod. Linkwitz actually moves the limits way further. Conover hardly moves the limits but greatly reduces the ~~5% THD just below clipping.
You are right, there is no issue with level of built-in mics of H1!
Problems start when i try different lavalier (tie clip) microphones. Some of them have to be powered by 1.5V LR44 cell, some are getting power from H1 (2.5V). What capsules they are actually using only God knows, therefore noise/hiss has to be qualified by ear, there is nothing much to do as to sort them and choose best sounding one.
Typical distance from source for lavalier mic is about 20-25 cm (10 inch for US guys
), which is not very far and built-in H1 mics manage it well.So now i have adjusted the schematics per your advice, and it looks like this now:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
THD results: Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.020929%(0.022341%)
Looks OK to me.
With R3 at 56K i get 24mV output and Total Harmonic Distortion: 0.195695%(0.196154%), which is also OK in my opinion.
Noise performance i will have to evaluate "by ear".
Thanks a lot! The next step would be trying it on the breadboard and tweaking the R3/gain for H1!
P.S. One point, which troubles me a bit is the removed R4 - will we not get thermal instability? Or 60 ohm value of R4 was anyway not of much use?
C3 was there for AC gain of Q1 stage, or?
P.P.S. I was trying to follow the book (Art of electronics) with this design, that's why concerns and questions.
3V is not enough.
1.5V up is enough for the Electret capsule alone, so is 3V but once you add a preamp, 2 large problems arise:
1) transistor biasing and voltage drop, that alone will eat up about half of your meager 3V available, leaving just 1.5V for peak to peak headroom (best case) .
So in practice you gain nothing compared to plain capsule straight fed 1.5V
2) a preamp is supposed to provide *gain* , so combining that to low (terrible) headroom it will distort easily, most of the time, unless picking a hummingbird wing fluttering 100 meters away.
3) in any case, as mentioned above, a Zoom H1 has *ample* sensitivity to be driven by a straight unamplified Electret capsule, so if not enough you are not setting it right.
1.5V up is enough for the Electret capsule alone, so is 3V but once you add a preamp, 2 large problems arise:
1) transistor biasing and voltage drop, that alone will eat up about half of your meager 3V available, leaving just 1.5V for peak to peak headroom (best case) .
So in practice you gain nothing compared to plain capsule straight fed 1.5V
2) a preamp is supposed to provide *gain* , so combining that to low (terrible) headroom it will distort easily, most of the time, unless picking a hummingbird wing fluttering 100 meters away.
3) in any case, as mentioned above, a Zoom H1 has *ample* sensitivity to be driven by a straight unamplified Electret capsule, so if not enough you are not setting it right.
Thanks for your answer. But in this case i do not need anywhere close to 1.5V peak. Regarding distortion i have provided simulation results.
H1 optimal gain is 37-60, after that it gets noisy. And with that gain it's a bit quiet for me at least.
Besides, there are not so many capsules with optimal voltage of 1.5, most of them are 3-5V type.
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Here in Canada, we have a wonderful mix of units. I buy gasoline in litres, but the air pressure in my car tyres is measured in pounds per square inch......about 20-25 cm (10 inch for US guys
The schematic looks good to me. The very small signal level, and the fact that there is now some overall negative feedback, is helping to keep the distortion of the preamp low.
You're welcome, that sounds like a plan!
You still have DC feedback via R3. If, for instance, Q1 collector voltage is too high for some reason, that increases the voltage at Q2 emitter, therefore at the junction of R6/R7, therefore feeds more base current into Q1 via R3, which brings Q1 collector voltage back down.
In fact, if you neglect any DC drop across R3, the voltage at Q1 collector is set to 3 Vbe, which seems to be close to 1.5 V in your case.
Vbe for silicon devices changes by about 2 mV per degree C, so the collector voltage of Q1 will change by about 6 mV per degree C (it will fall as temperature goes up).
So thermal stability is not perfect, but it would take rather large changes in temperature to have any significant effect on the circuits operation. As long as you don't dip it in boiling water or bury it in the Siberian tundra, I think you'll be okay.
-Gnobuddy
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