Bob Cordell Interview: BJT vs. MOSFET

GK

Disabled Account
Joined 2006
AndrewT said:
Hi Gk,
how does that fit the conventional description of ClassA?

Surely a different description would be more appropriate.


Well, when discussing the individual stages of which the amplifier is composed, there are class A stages and class AB stages.
When Technics made amplifiers using this concept a couple of decades ago, their marketing guys called it "A+".
 
Hi,
.....Technics....called it "A+"......
implying better than ClassA, when in fact (as reported by many commentators) it was at best worse than ClassA and some said the equivalent to "rubbish".
Typical of what salespersons will resort to when attempting to increase profit rather than improve the product and many of these far eastern products could do with some serious improving.
 
The one and only
Joined 2001
Paid Member
The patent is #4,115,739 Sano, Hirosha, Hirota 4/18/77.

It seems to me, however that there were two versions of
the Technics Class A product - one of them was simply a
nonswitching output stage, which (interestingly) was about the
same as an amplifier I did once (see the thread "My first amplifier")

I did not take that design to market - and it was notably inferior
to the design discussed above.

:cool:
 

GK

Disabled Account
Joined 2006
AndrewT said:
Hi, implying better than ClassA, when in fact (as reported by many commentators) it was at best worse than ClassA and some said the equivalent to "rubbish".


:rolleyes:
Well gee, you have class A performance with less than half the dissipation. I'd say that's better than ordinary class A, wouldn't you? Oh wait, once upon a time someone called a Technics amp rubbish. Oh darn, I must be building a rubbish amplifier then too.
 
Hi Gk,
you have jumped to a conclusion I did not even imply and had no intention of implying.

I was referring very specifically to the Far Eastern practice of inventing classy sounding names for circuit implementations that do not necessarily improve performance. They often come up with "improvements" to try and persuade the gullible to part with their money, at far too frequent intervals, as they continue to chase profit margin to the detriment of quality. They are very good at making equipment cheaper to manufacture, but not so good at making it better in the sound quality stakes.

I never implied that your circuit or your improvements or your attitude came anywhere close to matching the big Internationals. I suspect "profit" isn't even in your DIY vocabulary.

Remember this started with Technics A+ which is NOT ClassA on which I have read a few reports.
I have not seen any reports on your amplifier.
 
AndrewT said:
Hi Gk,
I was referring very specifically to the Far Eastern practice of inventing classy sounding names for circuit implementations that do not necessarily improve performance.

Andrew, it is unlike you to generalise like that. Accuphase, Luxman, Denon, Yamaha, Sony, Nakamichi, Technics, Pioneer, Leben, Kondo are a few that springs to mind that are not bad by anyones standard.

Kindest regards

Nico
 
Originally posted by Bob Cordell in Nov 2006
The 10 ms safe area line on this transistor is at 2500 watts - very impressive. This would appear to be 8 times the 300-watt rating for the IRFP 240. But I don't know anything else about this transistor, for example, how big is the die, how big are the capacitances, how much does it cost, does it have a p-channel complement?
Is this the datasheet? The PDF I found is for a device which has a JVR suffix, not LVR.
 
Upupa Epops said:
Best of the both worlds give cascode connection of Mosfet + BJT, as was shown in TAA by authors Pass/ Hagard....
Can someone post a copy? I don't even know if the MOSFET or the BJT is on the bottom.

Nico Ras said:
The verdict was that 77% could not tell any difference at all. 8% thought that they preferred the BJT while the remainder thought they preferred the MOSFET.
But did you try pretending to switch the amp but didn't, to see if they would still 'hear' a difference? If not, your results are meaningless.
 
Nixie said:

Can someone post a copy? I don't even know if the MOSFET or the BJT is on the bottom.


But did you try pretending to switch the amp but didn't, to see if they would still 'hear' a difference? If not, your results are meaningless.


I think it is nearly impossible to make generalizations about MOSFET or BJTs in regard to which one sounds better.

Many out there have done a fine job of building poor performing amplifiers in each of these technologies. By the same token, there are many sterling examples in each technology. What matters most is how well the designer applied the particular technology that he chose to work with. Each technology has its own different dragons to slay.

Cheers,
Bob
 
I'm not sure if you replied to the first or second half of my post. In case it was the first, in such a hybrid cascode I would expect there would be some difference depending on which of the devices is in which position, just like in the case of other hybrids (IGBTs).
 
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Just picking up from post 591 or thereabouts in this thread (Glen, Bob, jcx et al on output stage error correction), attached below is some of the stuff I've been looking at wrt to bipolar error correction. I am getting some pretty intersting full power THD-20 results in simulation using an op-amp and bootstrapping the supplies to the output stage. If I understood the circuit and discussion around Glen's proposal, the whole output stage is enclosed in the error correcting amplifier loop but the trick used to overcome op-amp supply limitations was to bootstrap the supplies to the output. In the attached circuit, the output is driven from the VAS and the error correction signal summed at the base of the output stage pre-drivers, so the approach is a little different. Output open loop distortion into 8 ohms is around .005%, and importantly, into 2 ohms around 0.01%. In simulation, this kind of performance can normally only be had by running well into class A. I figure that if this got enclosed in a global -ve feedback loop, THD-20 could go down by another 20db or so.

I was very intersted to read about the possible op-amp power supply interactions and jcx's analysis.

I have a 'test bed' amplifer (Ovation amp - its in another thread so you can take a look there if you want to) up and running so will try this scheme out on it in a few weeks.

Bob/jcx maybe you care to comment

rgds



NB - attachment is for LT Spice