Jan doesn't give the part numbers on the silentswitcher page on his sig, but you can see the measurements. Not at all shabby for something not much bigger than a cloak room ticket that will run off a USB powerpack. It is very impressive the improvements in switching technology over the past 15 years.
Fair point -- I had a go at Linear's site, and there's no lack for parts. In either case, the part I found will help me out quite a bit (have a transformer with a 14.2 V and 0 V tap that I'd like to get +/- 15 V from to drive some front-end opamps)
In the last five years or so really quiet switching supplies have become common. It is also easier to reduce noise at 500 kHz than at 120 Hz.
Way back switchers were hard pressed to do 20-50 kHz.
But let us be clear the modern chips are using charge pumps or ratiometric control. It is still non trivial to get a low noise clean transformer and rectifier assembly to work at those speeds.
So somewhere for line isolation you still need something not quite as clean.
One of the fun bits about doing sound systems in arenas is looking at the clean spectrum you see that AM radios are now obsolete. If the official game carrying station is AM, fans almost never can receive it inside the arena. For some funny reason there are so many switching power gizmos which individually may meet radiation requirements, when massed in a small space the noise level is incredible.
Way back switchers were hard pressed to do 20-50 kHz.
But let us be clear the modern chips are using charge pumps or ratiometric control. It is still non trivial to get a low noise clean transformer and rectifier assembly to work at those speeds.
So somewhere for line isolation you still need something not quite as clean.
One of the fun bits about doing sound systems in arenas is looking at the clean spectrum you see that AM radios are now obsolete. If the official game carrying station is AM, fans almost never can receive it inside the arena. For some funny reason there are so many switching power gizmos which individually may meet radiation requirements, when massed in a small space the noise level is incredible.
Daniel: Or just spent the €59... I seriously would have stocked up on those if I had had the money spare and a backlog that didn't include a tubed phono stage 🙂
Ed: do you ever measure up into RF? Back in the day I was doing cellular stuff covering stadiums with enough bandwidth was a huge pain. With everyone now on facetwit and the internet when at a game the bandwidth requirements are boggling for the area.
Ed: do you ever measure up into RF? Back in the day I was doing cellular stuff covering stadiums with enough bandwidth was a huge pain. With everyone now on facetwit and the internet when at a game the bandwidth requirements are boggling for the area.
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That's the obvious, logical way of going about business, of course. But what fun is that? 😉
The SilentSwitchers I own, include these integrated circuit part types:
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- TPS7A4700RGWT {SMD marking code PXSQ}
- TPS7A3301RGWT {SMD marking code PXQQ}
- LT3741EDD {SMD marking code LBHM}
- TPS63050DSC {SMD marking code QUJ}
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Thanks, Mark.
And Bill, of course -- hence the winky. Good luck with your phono! (Plus, that's not exactly a package I want to solder!)
And Bill, of course -- hence the winky. Good luck with your phono! (Plus, that's not exactly a package I want to solder!)
I don't know why you guys would be down on all audio stuff from the 1950's, at least the later 50's. Consumer stuff may not have been good, but recording equipment could range from ok to superior over a lot of stuff used today. There's too many amazing albums from then, sonically, to go off talking like Wally.
I simply don't think that is true. I have over the last few years started to build up again a small LP collection, and the quality is much better than anything we had 40 years ago. (Of course the price is also much higher than 40 years ago!). I am not talking artistic quality of course, but the actual technical recording quality.
In a certain sense I DO agree that some modern LPs actually sound as good as a good CD, with freedom of noise, wideband spectrum, low distortion and such. And, probably due to better processing and/or material the traditional ticks and pops are almost absent.
Jan
I will admit to having started collecting mono recordings, which was triggered by a DG mono recording a got in an ebay grab bag. There is a certain purity about a single mic pointed at an orchestra that appeals, and the fact that splicing to death was just not done back then so you are hearing a performance.
Oh and it means I can have a second turntable setup for monos 🙂. I wont go as far as a single speaker driven by a QUAD II but I do have my Radford STA-25 which is 50 years old and still not shabby performance.
But loving the old doesn't mean we can't leverage the gains made in silicon recently.
Oh and it means I can have a second turntable setup for monos 🙂. I wont go as far as a single speaker driven by a QUAD II but I do have my Radford STA-25 which is 50 years old and still not shabby performance.
But loving the old doesn't mean we can't leverage the gains made in silicon recently.
The best stuff from the mid-late 50's is way more natural sounding than almost any other time before or since. They had no idea, back then, how good the recordings were that they were making because of the monitoring equipment at that time.
But note 'natural sounding' does not necessarily mean lowest distortion or widest FR.
BTW if anyone wants a copy of the Clifford Curzon trout quintet I have ended up with 2. These are ace of diamonds rather than original LXT but my understanding is same stampers, different label. Just cost of postage.
BTW if anyone wants a copy of the Clifford Curzon trout quintet I have ended up with 2. These are ace of diamonds rather than original LXT but my understanding is same stampers, different label. Just cost of postage.
At any rate, they did not completely screw up voices like they do nowadays all the time. Take Diana Krall, audiophile pet singer. Completely modified voice, nothing natural about it. Ricky Lane, other example.
I'll drink to that!
Although, truth be told, the late 60-ies did bring us the Decca Phase 4 recordings which can be quite stunning, quality wise (even if you don't like Mantovani). In fact, they mostly are across the board.
Try Simon and Garfunkle's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (mine was purchased in the UK at the time) and listen to it.
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