Pearl 2 PCBs
Anyone knows if Pearl 2 boards with matched JFETs are still available from www.passdiy.com store?
Anyone knows if Pearl 2 boards with matched JFETs are still available from www.passdiy.com store?
The website says there in stock. Hit the order button and find out.
It's weird though, when I put them in my cart there's an additional $15 charge thats added with no explanation.
Could be Pizza money for the crew, I don't know.
If they were out of stock Pass probably would have let you know...So no news could be good news.
How long does it usually take for a package to come overseas?
It depends. When I order something from digikey or mouser it usually takes a couple of days. It doesn't matter, I'm not in a hurry, just expected to get an email saying that my order has been despatched or something like this...
Don't worry, it's normal.
When I ordered my PCBs, I did not get any response about shipping my order. Shipping to Russia took a month. And when I started to worry after 3 weeks, I wrote letter to Passdiy and received a reply about my order only week later, in the same day, when I received a parcel. Seems they are very busy people
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Seems they are very busy people
I thought that may be the case... Good job I ordered this way in advance
Thanks everyone for the answers.
No increase in distortion. The circuit is running around easily at all cartridge input voltages.
There will be a minor increase in noise, as you are increasing the total gain, and by that the noise floor will be brought up as well a little bit... but any and all phono stages will do this, it has nothing to do with the Pearl.
There will be a minor increase in noise, as you are increasing the total gain, and by that the noise floor will be brought up as well a little bit... but any and all phono stages will do this, it has nothing to do with the Pearl.
You definately notice an increase, like bumping up the volume control 2-4 steps on a stepped attenuator.
Come on guys, of course there will be an increase in THD, but will it be noticeable?, probably not, only the THD/fft-analyazer/simulation will be be able to quantify it. Probably the THD will be buried in the noise, as the gain increases.
It is not the same as adjusting the volume control, unless your volume control has active gain.
You would be better off to have the increased gain after the Pearl phono pre than modifying it. There is lots of information/proof saying that it is better to have more gain stages than lumping it into one alone!!
It is not the same as adjusting the volume control, unless your volume control has active gain.
You would be better off to have the increased gain after the Pearl phono pre than modifying it. There is lots of information/proof saying that it is better to have more gain stages than lumping it into one alone!!
Can you point to that proof of more gain stages better than less? That's pretty new to me.
I think the idea here is that by having an extremely high gain stage one runs the risk of exceeding the linearity limits of the active device. I think it would easier to design a very linear high gain system by cascading two or more stages that are conservatively designed.
A very clean single very high gain stage design may be possible, but it always takes great design talent to push active devices to their limits and still retain linear behavior. In addition, unit-to-unit variation in electronic parts will make precision parts matching and testing much more important in a design where active devices are being used near their theoretical limits.
A very clean single very high gain stage design may be possible, but it always takes great design talent to push active devices to their limits and still retain linear behavior. In addition, unit-to-unit variation in electronic parts will make precision parts matching and testing much more important in a design where active devices are being used near their theoretical limits.
I run mine at about 66db gain with my fidelity research fr1-mk3f and about 62db for my koetsu black - both settings are just fine. - no trouble. As 6l6 said, the noise floor comes up a tad but no distortion changes from what I can tell - and even still the noise floor is low.
Story:
Initially, I had noise above desirable levels and wondered if it was because I had installed switches and several gain settings up to 66db. It turned out that I mixed up the matched input fets and once I sorted that mismatched input fet problem the noise dropped significantly. Now I enjoy on the fly input resistance and gain selection with no problems. Soldered in , noise wasn't significantly different.
The pearl is a wonderful sounding, warm and natural phono stage. The pearl performs just fine at 66 or 64 db. 64 may be better. The only thing to better it would be the addition of a step up transformer but that wouldn't be necessary - I'd rather buy music. My reference is a Mitch cotter step up - which has zero transitor noise ... But as far as active amplification the pearl is truly wonderful . Set the gain where u need and don't worry too much.
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