John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

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Um, on the HCA1200 schematic, Pchannel source follower transistor Q121 (type = 2SJ200) incorrectly shows the source and drain terminals reversed. The bulk is internally connected to the source, which should be connected to the higher voltage node (R134) while the drain should be connected to the lower voltage node (bottom rail). It's just a schematic symbol drafting error, I'm sure the PCB is routed correctly.

- anxious CMOS guy
 
I spotted something worth mentioning. On the HCA1200 the cascode BJTs on the differential front end have caps on the bases for AC grounding.
This is not so on blowtorch-like schematics where fets are used for folded cascoding. Maybe the caps are not necessary because of much higher gate resistance?

What if we omitted the base caps, would they still behave close to common-base / cascodes?

The same PSU noise is injected at the bases and therefore should cancel out with good matching of the whole front end.
 
Feedback 47k resistor - Caddock TF 020
Cascode 10k (r107, r113) to 5 green LEDs
10pf feedback cap to polystyrene,
C109, C103, C106 to polystyrene
Output zobel cap to film and foil - Rel cap or Wima FKP
Bias bypass caps to smaller film type only - maybe 1 uf with .01 bypass - no electrolytics
Relcaps or FKP Wimas for all bypass caps
Non magnetic metal film Vishay/Dale or PRP for signal path resistors
Lower noise dual op-amp for servo
Refresh board level electrolytics - Silmics for local bypass

Cascode Q9, Q10 - harder to do on existing pc board and some loss of output voltage - maybe a db of maximum output

Soft recovery diode bridge - or correct C / RC snubbing of existing diode bridge (Mark J specialty if I recall)
 
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Ticknpop, you are NOW in dangerous territory! Of course, you and I would agree that your upgrades make a difference, but the 'critics' here will consider it a waste of time and money. Of course, more modern amps have these sort of 'improvements', with my best stuff having all of them, in one way or another.
 
...the 'critics' here will consider it a waste of time and money.

So will any rational designer or engineer if it lacks evidence of the desired improvement. If the desired improvement is, "A good story to tell which will allow a higher price," that's going to be evaluated by a different metric than, "Makes the amplifier sound different in a way that can be discerned and preferred."

It's a tribute to the robustness of your design that people can do willy-nilly changes and not degrade its performance significantly.
 
I like symmetry. In fact, I think that my reliance on symmetry for my designs, when possible, has made my designs stand out and actually work better than many asymmetrical designs.
Normally, I would use two fixed resistors of the same value and a pot in between.
This NODE is very high impedance, so my approach would balance out the capacitance to the case, from each side. A small change, but it would keep me more comfortable. This sort of circuit is compromised enough.
The opposite case is the circuit for the Quad 405. That is a treatise on asymmetry!
 
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