I bought a stepped attenuator (actually, two of them) from ebay seller hanshare-electronics. As always with eBay, I was a little worried about what would show up.

I'm happy to report that this is a nice job. The included resistors are clearly labelled, and the documentation, while spartan, is sufficient.

The only negative is the rotary switch is a bit "clicky". Better quality units I've seen are more damped.

On the positive side, though, the resistor values are very elegantly selected, to give a smooth response of about 4 dB per step from -60 to -40 dB, and 2 dB per step from -40 to -3 dB. Having been-there, done-that, I can say that I'd happily pay the asking price to get those resistors sourced and sorted for me. Next time, I'd also pay to get it assembled. Soldering was more painful than I imagined it would be, and the pre-assembled units much neater-looking than what mine ended up as.

B-board vs. 0247.

Comparison of the noise baselines, measured at the circuit output using a NI USB-6215 DAQ. Unloaded for the preamps, and with a 6 ohm load for the 0347 amplifier.

• B-board: -139 [300Hz-100kHz] 0 dB gain (-139 - 0 = -139 dB, 110 nV sqrtHz input referred). The actual B-board output noise is below this measurement threshold.
• 0247: -124 dB [300Hz-100kHz] 14 dB gain (-124 - 14 = -139 dB, 110 nV sqrtHz input referred).
• 0347: -109 dB [300Hz-100kHz] 31 dB gain (-109 - 31 = -140 dB, 100 nV sqrtHz input referred).

See the attached plot for the FFT data. Note the peak at 28 Hz is an artifact of the measurement apparatus.

By way of comparison, a typical audio opamp has an input referred voltage noise figure of 3-8 nV sqrtHz (-170 ~ -160 dB) and can be expected to return this datasheet specification in most well-designed circuits. In other words the output noise is going to be about -160 dB + the circuit gain.

The 0247...

Nor the remake, the original. Good film. Story shakes out something like "Twelve Angry Men in the desert": Put together a small, random group of people and pressure them to complete a task. In the case of "The Flight of the Pheonix" this is to make an airworthy plane (this one) from the crashed remains of another (this one).

So. We start with my old red Gainclone case, and a pair of these buffer boards , and a Takman resistor, 24 position stepped attenuator from eBay, unassembled, and start working to transform something old into something new.

Here's my LM3875 gainclone. Served me well, but it is time to bid adieu! (at least to the guts):


Opened up, we see the circuit board, such that it is, and my home-built 11 position attenuator:
...

The original stereo VSPS project is now quite mature. I did a couple of minor tweaks on the last re-spin of the layout, removing the pads for the old Black Gate coupling caps (long gone), adding thermal isolation, and making room for a pair of optional ceramic bypass caps next to the op amp.

The new boards are matt black. Quite cool. I have a small stack if you need any.

All the info you need to build one is attached.

Once in a while I get emails asking after the X-reg evaluation boards. These are handy little 5x8 cm test boards for the X-reg voltage regulator - or they would be, if I had ever bothered to get a set made.

Since the circuit is built into the VSPS300 and Phonoclone 3, it wasn't really a big priority.

Anyhow, yesterday I re-drew the evaluation boards and I'll be getting a batch made in the near future, along with some of the stereo VSPS that people were also asking after recently. They won't exactly fly off the shelves, but I started to feel bad for those few people who actually wanted them.

I posted this earlier today, but I think it deserves to be put in the blog - if nothing else so I can find it again next time ... and there always seems to be a next time when it comes to calculating headphone amplifier gains.

Starting at the beginning, the encoded data on a CD goes from 0 to 1 in 2^16 steps, but in a typical CD player or soundcard, the DAC output is -2.8 V to 2.8 V or 2 V rms or 6 dB. Many sources, such as phono stages and portable audio, are lower, perhaps as low as 250 mV.

How loud the sound is depends on the source signal amplitude, the position of the volume control, the circuit gain, and the impedance and sensitivity of the headphones.

As a practical matter, most people would want the volume control at the 9-10 o'clock position for "normal" listening.

For standard "line level" source, the gain required to keep the volume control at a 9-10 o'clock varies depending on the impedance...

I did get a couple of responses to my invitation. Well, two, actually.

So congratulations! Free boards will be heading your way in about a month, and I'll throw in most if not all the parts, too.

First was simonov's entry. He's clearly done this several times before. His confident layout ticks all the right buttons: ground plane (check), thermal isolation (check), clean, geometric layout (check). One jumper required, but that's a very minor offence.



While I allowed modifications of the circuit, simonov went and redesigned pretty much the whole thing. CCS replaces the source resistor, current limiter and capacitance multiplier blocks added. The BOM was starting to spiral, and no longer uses my standard parts set so I'd have difficulty supplying kits based on his design. His modifications, although certainly improvements, ended up counting against him....

I tell people: "Buy a nice, heavy power transformer. It will sound better."

They are skeptical, because the circuit only draws a couple of watts, and less than 100 mA current.

The image below shows how the power transformer, and rectifier diodes, actually work much harder than you would estimate from looking at the output power.

It shows a zener regulated supply with a load drawing 100 mA at 20 V. That's 2 W.

As a result of the capacitor input filter directly after the diodes, however, the diodes and transformer do not conduct current all the time, but instead for just a couple of milliseconds twice every cycle of the AC wave. They have to supply all the output current in just that short space of time. As you can see in the simulation, the diodes are pushing peak currents well in excess of 1A or 10x the output current. This is a typical "normal" power supply with a initial ripple ratio of a modest 1/40, things...

I was fortunate to stumble across this place on a trip to Yokohama earlier this week.

https://g.co/maps/nzebr

I was walking around the area near Sakuragicho Stn. after dinner, and, through the windows I could make out a back wall filled with LPs, two turntables built into the bar countertop, and a pair of giant multi-way speakers. The sign out front said "Modern Jazz and Coffee". So, naturally, I went in.

First, the history of the place as it was explained to me:

First opened in 1933. Destroyed by American bombs during the war, 6000 SP records gone, re-opened, and was in business until the owners death in 1994, then taken over and run by the owners younger sister until 2007, when, at the age of 77 (!) she gave it up. Volunteers somehow managed to preserve the records and furnishings, including the sound system, and, some 5 years later, decided to relocate and reopen at a nearby location just, if I've got this right, a...

I just remembered I hadn't announced it here on the blog. Time to change that.

I'm holding a little contest, to encourage people to get into circuit board design, and to showcase the talent on tap here at diyaudio.

The idea is pretty simple. I hand out a circuit schematic, you design a circuit board based on the schematic. It's all done in Eagle CAD software, which is free to download and available on Mac/Windows/Linux platforms.

The circuit is a headphone amplifier of my design, and fairly simple. It's easy enough to come up with a workable layout, the trick is to come up with a really good one, that is small, convenient, clear, logical, good looking and that follows sound electrical design practice.

Winner will get a pair of boards, complete with all components, built by me. Runners up get sent pairs of the winning board design.

Deadline is the end of the month, so get on it!

All the info is here....