John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier

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Originally posted by dimitri

remove C4 - it may cause oscillations of the follower


Please see amended circuit attached below.


Originally posted by dimitri
arrange the feedback network to isolate 1uF capacitive load - it also may cause instability


This particular IC can accept capacitive load.


Originally posted by dimitri
I'll also make L3 C3 ten times larger, replace R2 with voltage reference and fed it from the output,


There is no need for it, since the input is well regulated.


Originally posted by dimitri
also your opamp has 2.5uV/sqrtHz, while 2SK170 has 1uV/sqrtHz, I'll replace opamp with AD797 :2c:


This opamp has 2.7nV/sqrtHz, not 2.5uV/sqrtHz – it looks quiet enough.


Originally posted by john curl


What I was trying to point out with C3 is that it MUST be a low impedance at all audio frequencies in order to not see a significant fraction of the 100,000 ohm resistor noise. I would recommend 33 to 220 ohms in that position. As Dimitri pointed out, adding a large capacitor after the follower can make it oscillate, and it won't do much good.


Please see amended circuit attached below.


Originally posted by john curl


The IC is kind of noisy compared to the 2sk170, and maybe something else that has enough output current, but like 1nV/rt Hz or so would be more appropriate. In fact, you don't really need an IC at all, if you just parallel two 2sk170 devices to get more current.


This IC has 2.7nV/sqrtHz, so it looks quiet enough.
 

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Originally posted by KBK


Have at least an inch of space from any part of the circuit, including wiring -being near any aluminum, and use plastic stand-offs if necessary.


Thank you – this is how I intended doing it, following my past experience and reading this thread from post #1 onward.


Originally posted by KBK

Use a Teflon sheet (0.125") for the jack mounting area, and possibly for the control mounts (switches and pots) This, even for the power umbilical.


What's the reason for it?


Originally posted by KBK

That'll get you close enough for horseshoes and handgrenades.


Thank you.
 
It's looking better, Joshua, but you really don't need R3 or C3. If you want to make a really effective bypass circuit, you might replace R1 with a LOW Gm low noise jfet and wire it as a current source. Then, you will have a Vendetta phono power supply buffer reference.
 
scott wurcer said:


Let me change my white hat to black one and say, "square waves are not music". I could not find a non-anecdotal reference to the audibility of a 24kHz anti-aliasing filter. Apogee was modifying Sony PCM-F1's with ANALOG filters to produce "square" waves (their words) almost 25yrs ago.


Anyway Happy New Year.
:drink:

G.Theile did a research about the audibility of anti-aliasing filters. (He compared 20kHz to 40kHz)

http://www.hauptmikrofon.de/theile/HD-Audio_TMT1998_.PDF

Unfortunately written in german, only the abstract is translated.
 
I would not put too much faith in any 'objective' test of anti-aliasing filters, as many early ones were pushed by Sony, and KNOW what do they recommend? (think SACD) They are just a necessary evil with low bandwidth audio systems.
Apogee did make some effort to advance the anti-aliasing filters, in fact a good friend of mine, Richard Steiger, car pool mate for about 1 year, and worked at Ampex on a digital project in 1968-69, worked at Apogee I am pretty sure. Very sharp guy. I learned most of my early digital info from him, but I also heard the the first prototype, and heard the problems as well, with digital, that for me, have not completely gone away.
 
john curl said:
I would not put too much faith in any 'objective' test of anti-aliasing filters, as many early ones were pushed by Sony, and KNOW what do they recommend? (think SACD) They are just a necessary evil with low bandwidth audio systems.

What objective testing would you put faith in ?
Presumably nothing published by Sony.

Noting your signature then, why the condemnation ?
 
Sony has been shown to be self-serving, over the years with audio standards. Now, they promote a more ideal bandwidth, because it is now easier for them to do so, but 25 years ago, they were forcing us to use a 44.1KHz sampling rate, so that it would be compatible with their video recorder, NOT for the highest audio standard, OR compatibility with existing standards at the time. They just forced the AES to accept it.
 
SY said:

Ok, so this set of measurements shows 0.28nV/rtHz 20Hz-20KHz which is very impressive and also consistent with the reported number (8) and Idss of the input JFETs. Amazing result and once again, I am dissapointed by the quality of the Stereophile measurements (Halcro was the other example). BTW, Xono and HPS2.0 are both 0.4-0.45nV/rtHz and use 4xJFET. HPS 3.0 will try to reach the same numbers as the Vendetta, I can parallel more JFETs myself 😀

Which leaves my last question open: how is this thing built to stay stable with 8xJFET at the input? The only thing that I can think of is ferrite beads on the gates, but somehow I don't believe John went this path.
 
Sigurd Ruschkow said:
Did you buy GR or BL or V grade?

I think that GR has lower noise -anyone know more about this?

I am curious:
What was the statistical noise data of your 300 JFET measurements?

I got BL. There's little physical reason why GR should have lower noise.

I have at hand the Idss dispersions for both 300x2SK170 and 300x2SJ74. For the noise, I still have to process the data manually, I couldn't automatize the data aquisition.
 

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john curl said:
Sony has been shown to be self-serving, over the years with audio standards. Now, they promote a more ideal bandwidth, because it is now easier for them to do so, but 25 years ago, they were forcing us to use a 44.1KHz sampling rate, so that it would be compatible with their video recorder, NOT for the highest audio standard, OR compatibility with existing standards at the time. They just forced the AES to accept it.

Interestingly, if they had also specified the anti-aliasing and anti-imaging filter, the system could have been made much more phase correct without the need for all the fancy upsampling bandaids (which only take care of one end of things) and oddball filtering schemes. Less fun for the marketeers, though.

I do note that the top subjective reviewer at that time, J. Gordon Holt, went ape-$#@! with both the first CD player and the F1 recorder, declaring them as close to perfection as anything he'd ever heard. Hmmmm.
 
Gordon Holt could hear well, but he liked digital better than many of us did. It might be interesting that Dr. Diamond also bought a Sony digital recorder for live recording. It was just more practical at the time for him. I asked him about it, and he would roll off the very high response to make it easier listening.
 
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