Autoranger for soundcards

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Joined 2019
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I have purchased an Autroranger kit from Jan, very excited by this project. Mouser BOMs have been assembled, although they seem to be out of the Neutrik 3-pin XLR input, so that will have to be purchased elsewhere.

I am hoping I can save my poor fingers some trouble by buying a pre-made ribbon cable to connect the attenuator and control board. Could not find an appropriate part on Mouser, but this might do the trick, can be bought in a 4-inch length:

14-Pin (2x7) Female to Female 2.54mm-Pitch 14-wire IDC Flat Ribbon Cable | eBay
 
Unit complete

Hi everyone, a few days ago I finished assembling the MK2 Autoranger (20K ver.) I wanted to update everyone on the modification solutions in order to get the best performance from the interface, I modified the input capacitors (C4-C7) with WIMA MKP 4.7 uF to have a lower high pass cut.:rolleyes:
The opamps I used are OPA1612 for double and OPA1611 for single, it is the best match I could have, I compared these opamps with LM4562, OPA2134, NE5532 and LME49860, in the single opamp I had only NE5534 as a comparison, the OPA1612 is a strange beast:eek:, if not properly compensated it gives catastrophic performance, inserting the capacitors C21-C22 (47pF) is the best of the lot, instead the OPA1611 using C17 (22 pF) turns out to be better than the NE5534.

By running a loopback to the system (0 db setting) I got almost -110db THD and almost -106 THD+N (1Khz tone, on modded :wiz: ASUS STX mk1, REW and ARTA same results).

Instead I noticed a strange thing :confused:, the potentiometer for adjusting the CMRR has no effect, in any position my reading in mV rms remains the same and always below 0.2 mv rms.
 

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Hi everyone, a few days ago I finished assembling the MK2 Autoranger (20K ver.) I wanted to update everyone on the modification solutions in order to get the best performance from the interface, I modified the input capacitors (C4-C7) with WIMA MKP 4.7 uF to have a lower high pass cut.:rolleyes:
The opamps I used are OPA1612 for double and OPA1611 for single, it is the best match I could have, I compared these opamps with LM4562, OPA2134, NE5532 and LME49860, in the single opamp I had only NE5534 as a comparison, the OPA1612 is a strange beast:eek:, if not properly compensated it gives catastrophic performance, inserting the capacitors C21-C22 (47pF) is the best of the lot, instead the OPA1611 using C17 (22 pF) turns out to be better than the NE5534.

By running a loopback to the system (0 db setting) I got almost -110db THD and almost -106 THD+N (1Khz tone, on modded :wiz: ASUS STX mk1, REW and ARTA same results).

Instead I noticed a strange thing :confused:, the potentiometer for adjusting the CMRR has no effect, in any position my reading in mV rms remains the same and always below 0.2 mv rms.

Nice work!

What IC SMT adapter boards did you use? Are they socketed? If so, what DIP-8 sockets did you use?

Cheers,
Bob
 
Hi Jan, I performed the calibration procedure inserted by you in the guide, jumper the balanced input, select It with the button, 1 vrms 1khz signal, AC Meter on output, do you say that is better to carry out the procedure with a true balanced signal?
 
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Jan,
I finally got some time to try out the AutoRanger MkII which I got from you. Small problem and maybe you can point me in the right direction to look (if a schematic is available I can sort this out on my end)
The unit appears functional and works fine on the balanced input when selected. It does not however "see" the single-ended input when it is selected. It must be a assembly mistake or bad part on the single-ended input before the input switch.
Much appreciated, Mike Miller
 
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
Jan,
I finally got some time to try out the AutoRanger MkII which I got from you. Small problem and maybe you can point me in the right direction to look (if a schematic is available I can sort this out on my end)
The unit appears functional and works fine on the balanced input when selected. It does not however "see" the single-ended input when it is selected. It must be a assembly mistake or bad part on the single-ended input before the input switch.
Much appreciated, Mike Miller

There is a relay that switches the inputs when you go from SE to Bal and vice versa. Check the orientation.
If you leave the Bal input connected and then select SE button, how does it work then?

You could also check pin 13 of U1, that should switch between SE and Bal.

Jan
 
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