Building a Pearl 2

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Joined 2007
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Hey Eric, I'm back to the Pearl II after going through a bunch of commercial phono stages (XP-15, NuVista Vinyl, JC3+, etc.). It really is a strong performer. It found it's way back into the system because the NuVista Vinyl doesn't get along with the Korg B1 (figure that one out). I'm interested in playing around with the Pearl II a bit.

My entire vinyl playback chain is DIY (except a heavily modified TT).

You build your own cartridges...impressive :D
 
You build your own cartridges...impressive :D

Ha! That WOULD be impressive! I wish I could claim to be that talented :D

Since the Pearl 2 is my first phono stage, I have nothing to compare it to. The last time I spun some vinyl was more than 30 years ago. What a kick going back through my album collection! Every now and then, I toy with the idea of a tube-base phono stage, but I don't think I have any more room...
 
I was checking all my parts for spec today and got to the three picoF caps, 100, 10, and 5pF My DMM was right for everything except these, which gave readings of 0.228 nF, .118 nF and .108 nF. (Yes, nF, not pF.) Are they just too small for an accurate reading or was I sent the wrong values? My DMM is not expensive or a Fluke, but it’s always been reliable.

Also what on earth can 5 picoF do? I realize a Farad is a lot of energy and most of our values are microF, but 5 trillionth? Just curious.
 
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Joined 2007
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Purple is the wire to the internal shield. it goes to chassis ground.

Meter out the green wires to the blue wires (continuity). Take a green and measure it through your meter to one blue at a time, when you hear a beep you have a pair (one winding). Use these pairs to wire to their corresponding rectifiers. Does that make sense?
 
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Joined 2019
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Purple is the wire to the internal shield. it goes to chassis ground.

Meter out the green wires to the blue wires (continuity). Take a green and measure it through your meter to one blue at a time, when you hear a beep you have a pair (one winding). Use these pairs to wire to their corresponding rectifiers. Does that make sense?

This is good advice - I’ve always paired mine visually, and am now kicking myself for not thinking to do this.
 
Hi,

I had bought all the parts to build a Pearl 2 a while ago, but ended up building the new version of the Salas Folded Simplistic Phono first. I would like to build the Pearl 2 now and I am wondering if I can somehow use the same power supply. For the Salas I used a dual mono Salas UBIB supply, which is two separate +32, 0 volt DC lines to feed each board. I am using two Talema 15 volt transformers that I wired in series to get 30 volts out of them, because I had them sitting around.

Is it possible to turn this into a single bipolar power supply by reversing one of the supplies to feed the negative portion of the Pearl boards?

I am thinking not because I can't really tie the 0 volt lines together in such a setup, but thought I would ask.