Pearl 3 Burning Amp 2023

My cable is 6' long, shielded. When I ran the distortion and frequency response measurements with the QuantAsylum AQ403, I placed the PS the full 6' distance away on the floor, then watched for changes in the measurement screen as I moved the PS up off the floor, then closer to the preamp box. Power supply noise did not noticeably increase until the PS was about 1' from the preamp box, and then more when I placed the PS on top of the preamp box.

In my system, the PS box is 3' to the right, and 3' below the preamp, and there is no audible power supply noise.

It is sad about Anchor Steam - an historic brewery. However, Lagunitas Brewery is located in Petaluma, where BAF23 was held, so you are well supplied with local malty goodness.
 
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It also seems a bit strange to build a two-chassis solution and then place the chassis on top of each other. Then transformer is only a few cm from amp boards. Compared to the one-chassis solution using an internal metal splitter the transformer in that solution is at a longer distance from amp boards.
I have purchased 2m cable so I should be good to go with 1m or so depending on how I will place the two chassis in my rack system.
 
It is sad about Anchor Steam - an historic brewery. However, Lagunitas Brewery is located in Petaluma, where BAF23 was held, so you are well supplied with local malty goodness.
Yes, very sad.......according to my taste it was good quality beers. I like the dark variants. From memory they made even a Porter :)
Good there are other alternatives. I think micro breweries is an American invention there has spread to around the world.
 
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6L6

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I wasn’t able to make a single-box Pearl 3, with a transformer PSU, quiet enough for MC. Now I’ll be the first to admit that my tolerance for hum is essentially zero, when turned all the way up, far, far, past listening levels.

Could it be done? Perhaps. I suspect it would require a couple things… 1) a rack-width chassis, with the PSU as far from the RIAA boards as possible, and 2) at least one layer of steel in between them, maybe even two. Can the PSU, can the RIAA boards. That’s what my experimentations have led me to think would have to be done. I didn’t pursue this line any further as there’s too many other projects on my list and (much more important) the two-chassis solution is gloriously quiet and requires zero hoops to jump through for it’s performance.
 
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Maybe a good quality SMPS with a good filter (AmyAlice?) in a rack-width chassis, with a suitable sub-enclosure inside for the PS and filter. I've done that with a different build and it is quiet. Like 6L6, hum and noise become really intolerable for me, limiting my desire to spin vinyl. A good gauge of how quiet any of my phono preamps are, is how many LPs I want to listen to in a row. With Pearl 3, we've played vinyl 4 hours in the morning, 3 hours after lunch. Basically, I stop when it becomes inconvenient to flip the records, and then it's GASP! - CD time.
 
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It always starts with a feeling? :)
What I am worried about is: noise pickup, DC-resistance (voltage drop) and I think noise pickup is the one I am most concerned about.
You just worry too much :ROFLMAO:
Use math. The power consumption of the Pearl 3 doesn´t qualify for any voltage drop in 3x0,5mm2 cable whatsoever.
About noise, I´ll believe you, when you show me the difference in noise of the suplly voltages inside the Pearl 3 from a ½meter cable
vs a 1 meter.
An example:
On my back wall i have a 15-plug AC distributer. Unfortunately the 2 unscreened 1 meter cables from supply to the X-Ono-clone hang
down in front of it. Also 15cm away is the SUT in lack of a better placement. I have absolutely no hiss, hum or other strange
noises. And this is on 97+ dB sensitivity speakers.
Sorry, but your worries about the length of cable from PSU to Pearl is not based on any kind of science, and feelings are just
waste of time.
Just my 5c ;)
Back to the real problems (if any) on the Pearl 3
 
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I liked the Anchor Steam beer very much last time I was in SF (many years ago). Do you know that beer?

Regarding the power cable between the two chassis. Which length do you plan for?
I can see many place chassis at top of each other. In this case power cable can be like 30 cm. But then it is not very flexible and regarding magnetic noise probably better to place units at a distance from each other. Then maybe best to make power cable 1m or?
But if amp total silent even if top of each other then best to have as short a power cable as possible?

In '78 I lived in Tacoma in a house with some fellow students.

The guy who lived next door was the delivery driver for Anchor Steam... he'd drive up weekly (sometimes twice) to SF and bring back a double semi of beer.

He'd often drop a case of beer for us to enjoy.
 
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@Boydk
this seems to be mostly fallout from "photo op" considerations. people like to take a picture of their new units. when the boxes "match" you demonstrate that... by stacking or putting 'em side by side for the photo.

in reality there is really no reason for either box to be "apparent" or accessible. I figure mine will be in behind the turntable and preamp located to drape cable nicely. I might put the PSU somewhere I can see an "on" light...

BTW... I always kept my Leach "on"... for years at a time. No on-off switch.

I was just wondering... what's the advice on leaving this phono stage on all the time? Not that I plan to do this with my "Wayne" units.
 
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6L6

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I was just wondering... what's the advice on leaving this phono stage on all the time? Not that I plan to do this with my "Wayne" units.

Wayne is a firm believer of “keep it turned on all the time”, as far as I can tell…
I’m judging this by looking at the Pass Labs website and seeing that none of the line-level devices have power switches on the front.
 
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@Boydk
I was just wondering... what's the advice on leaving this phono stage on all the time? Not that I plan to do this with my "Wayne" units.
This is just subjective advice, since most people tend to agree, that warmed up electronics sound nicer, warmer if you will.
I tend to agree. Also my monoblocks have a switch on the backs, that allow me to run either 600watt A/B or 80watt pure class A.
Both my friends and me tend to agree, that in A mode the sound is more relaxed, warmer, more authentic + div. superlatives.
Unfortunately, the prices pr. kilowatt are reaching ridiculous, so mostly A/B for me these days;)
 
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Maybe a good quality SMPS with a good filter (AmyAlice?) in a rack-width chassis, with a suitable sub-enclosure inside for the PS and filter. I've done that with a different build and it is quiet. Like 6L6, hum and noise become really intolerable for me, limiting my desire to spin vinyl. A good gauge of how quiet any of my phono preamps are, is how many LPs I want to listen to in a row. With Pearl 3, we've played vinyl 4 hours in the morning, 3 hours after lunch. Basically, I stop when it becomes inconvenient to flip the records, and then it's GASP! - CD time.
Unfortunatelly smps produce common mode noise that not even amyalice can't filter out. For low signals i'd stay away from.
 
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It was silent to my ears before in stacked arrangement. Now with theoretically MORE silence! Maybe. On top of the Iron Pre probably isn’t ideal, either. I’m continuing to enjoy it VERY much. I’ll likely move both of them again.
 

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WRT location...

it isn't just the relative location of the two boxes. a lot depends on the particular environ of the equipment. as mentioned earlier a room below lighted with an array of old fluorescent fixtures can have a significant detrimental effect. other sites might be relatively "clean". in other words what works for one builder may not work well for others. YMMV.

same with grounding I expect. which might explain the "mileage" differentials we hear about all the time.

just my two cents.