John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

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And yet the claims persist. I'm trying to imagine a suitable experiment to measure the magnitude of the effects.

When this topic came up I was tempted to quip that I joined the discussion with a great deal of variable reluctance 😀

Gee a transducer works both ways. Apply 5 mV at 1000 hertz and look at motion. Probably under a microscope with a calibrated scale to see the rms motion. Compare that to a groove's reference modulation. The efficiency should apparent.

Having used an impedance meter to measure a cartridge and having not observed any motion I suspect you will need a very high power microscope.

For those who have never measured the impedance of a microphone or loudspeaker even blindfolded the difference between that and measuring resistance is obvious.

But as a curmudgeon in good standing I keep around a piece of glass used for making LCDs and a piece of clear anodized aluminum. For rookies I then measure the impedance of the glass surface which is quite low and then the aluminum which does not conduct. The resulting rookies' take on what they witnessed is interesting. If they ask I then used an ohmmeter just off the coated edge of the glass and on the unfinished part of the aluminum. This results in the expected results. Then I demonstrate the real difference on a loudspeaker. Results in a better understand of the actual difference.
 
I tore open a Grado with a broken cantilever the other day to expose the motor assembly, makes those claims look even sillier.

I dissassembled yesterday a B & O MI, Type MMC 2, between the iron cross( holding the sapphire tube cantilever) and the pick up coils is just a piece of rubber and a plastic insulator carrying the rods in the coil cores.
So the rubber is dominating the whole thingie and electrical damping of the motor is veeeeeeeeeeeeery far away from reality. Mission impossible.:judge:
 
On a slightly related issue: just scored the attached. Written in the year I was born.

Jan
 

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On the next visit, I must ask my psychiatrist to up the medication.
It's again my birthday, but that's only once a year according to my calendar book and not just yet.

Happy Birthday Jacco.:birthday:
Don't give up the medication but don't overdo it 😀


Gee a transducer works both ways. Apply 5 mV at 1000 hertz and look at motion. Probably under a microscope with a calibrated scale to see the rms motion. Compare that to a groove's reference modulation. The efficiency should apparent.

Ed
Kinetic energy entering the cartridge
KE=0.5*m*v^2 (m for mass, v for velocity)
For
v=5cm/s (modulation velocity)
m=0.5mg (effective mass)
KE=6.25E-10 Joule
So the mechanical power entering the cartridge in 1s is 6E-10 W

A 1mV/1cm/s MM cartridge when reading a 5cm/s modulation supplies to a 47k load a P(el)=5E-10W
The mechanical to electrical efficiency seems to be ~ 80%, a very high number for such a small generator

What the electrical to mechanical efficiency is, I don't know but trying to figure it from measuring a cantilever motion when cartridge is on air while energising the coils, wil give ironically low results (the moving part of the magnetic circuit is way out of it's proper position)


I don't remember if I have measurements of a cartridge impedance vs frequency. I'll check when I'll be back home.

Because you are

Ed, your father must have been a tough guy 🙂

George
 
I must be alive! Just got back from a hotel near Chitwan, Nepal jungle area. Bed as hard as a rock. Woke up all stiff and aching everywhere. > Working the kinks out now. Hot here. Saw a Rino but no tiger, yet.

-Richard
 
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The Mohr patent does describe something I have remarked on before, which is using a low-Z input structure which feedback enhances, rather than starting with a high-Z input as in a traditional VFB op amp and reducing the impedance with feedback. Some good discussions of the general approaches can be found in a book by an Israeli nuclear scientist Arbel, Analog Signal Processing and Instrumentation. For example for an analog differentiator, he prefaces an op amp with a common-base stage.

There are a lot of other good things in the book, despite not being directly audio-related, and last I looked it was fairly cheap used (unlike some other recommendations of mine, like Cherry and Hooper!).

😎🙂
 
Gee a transducer works both ways. Apply 5 mV at 1000 hertz and look at motion. Probably under a microscope with a calibrated scale to see the rms motion. Compare that to a groove's reference modulation. The efficiency should apparent.

Sorry Ed the coefficient of eletro-mechanical reciprocity varies from ~0 (strain gauge) to some larger number where the point is efficient transmission of power/work. The Grado has a small metal disk weakly coupling the field of some fairly substantial neo-magnets. It's clear that if the coils were free to move and you ran current through them you might get some relay type action. The assumption of large reciprocity for any electrical motor system is a mis-conception. Lucky, I trust his computations/measurements, stated MM carts are in the tiny fractions of a percent. You can compute the work done displacing the cantilever against the suspension and the work done on the disk by 5mV, they are orders of magnitude apart.

Then think the 10Hz tone arm resonance and damping the entire system with a few mV at the coils.
 
Ed
Kinetic energy entering the cartridge
KE=0.5*m*v^2 (m for mass, v for velocity)
For
v=5cm/s (modulation velocity)
m=0.5mg (effective mass)
KE=6.25E-10 Joule
So the mechanical power entering the cartridge in 1s is 6E-10 W

A 1mV/1cm/s MM cartridge when reading a 5cm/s modulation supplies to a 47k load a P(el)=5E-10W
The mechanical to electrical efficiency seems to be ~ 80%, a very high number for such a small generator

Considering the complexity of the whole arm, cart, cantilever system vs frequency I don't see the effective mass telling the whole story.

I recall a review of a bargain turntable where a flexural resonance of the arm at ~350Hz showed up in the frequency response, the motor in that case is definitely working against a lot more than the effective mass you give. I would think the fact that you can easily hear the sound from the cartridge when playing an LP would beg the question that there is more going on.

George,

Another question, maybe I'm missing something, conceptually you could increase the strength of the magnet without changing its mass soon you have >100% efficiency by your argument?
 
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