Pearl 3 Burning Amp 2023
- Thread starter wayne
- Start date
@debk Not really. Because the heavy lifting (from a noise standpoint) is being done by the input jfet array, noise performance of the opamp itself isn’t as important as it would be if the first stage was straight into the opamp.
Also because of C1 and C12, the opamps live “in a happy zone of midsize impedances”, to paraphrase a semiconductor engineer who is a member here, and with that there is no particular advantage between BJT input or Jfet opamps. So as @ranshdow suggests, try a bunch of them.
Also because of C1 and C12, the opamps live “in a happy zone of midsize impedances”, to paraphrase a semiconductor engineer who is a member here, and with that there is no particular advantage between BJT input or Jfet opamps. So as @ranshdow suggests, try a bunch of them.
Success! Linear power supply completed with LED, switch, umbilical, cable gland (silly term 
), and 4-pin XLR. It sounds wonderful, as expected.
Now I can use those Dell laptop bricks for the MoFo as originally intended.
Thanks to @6L6 for the great build guide that led me to keep the magic smoke in. And thanks again to @rhthatcher for the PSU GB and of course to @wayne for the superb design! I am a very happy audio loony.
), and 4-pin XLR. It sounds wonderful, as expected.Now I can use those Dell laptop bricks for the MoFo as originally intended.
Thanks to @6L6 for the great build guide that led me to keep the magic smoke in. And thanks again to @rhthatcher for the PSU GB and of course to @wayne for the superb design! I am a very happy audio loony.
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Still listening with the stock op amps.. still having some very low level "fssst. fshhhstt " noise on the right channel.
BUT, from 14 feet away...
Vahevala, home of sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Vahevala, home of sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
more cowbell
MORE COWBELL
MORE COWBELL!!!
( Hey, don't bogart that j##nt, pass it to me!!!)
I SAID MORE COWBELL!!!
Was playing Loggins and Messina, Live On Stage... Vahevala. Lots of cowbell, the obligatory drum solo, weird whale sounds, most of the band walks off to the side for a few minutes and smokes a joint, bass guitarist stays playing very quietly until he takes 30 secs to run sideways and squeeze a couple of tokes... You know, THE 1970s.... dude! Brass music, drums, congas, fiddle, sort of a C&W twinge of sorts. Not a single umlaut in the whole world.
Take that, Mötley Crüe!
I was back in the 70s.... where's my bell bottoms dude? Star jeans. CVCC Hondas. Long sideburns. Tequila sunrises. Ford LTDs. Charlie's Angels. Every thing sounds so cool, relaxed, so avocado green. The whole living room feels like its got a gold shag rag with crushed velvet dark brown couches....
You can clearly hear they rode the volume on that recording to compress the loud parts of the song a little bit, even so the mix never collapses into a mass of noise, it always presents the instruments as separate entities.
The cowbell.... so 70s... so immediate. That ringing hollowness... exactly what it sounds like in real life ( good recording too ).
One thing about the P3....
The cymbals are metallic without being abrasive, exactly how they sound in real life.
The bass is fast... you can hear the string plucking ( try MOFI, Alan Parson's The Raven )
The drums are lighting fast.... you can hear the sharpness of the tom tom and the decay of the big drums.
The violin is sweet, meaning it sounds very natural, like a violin should. And you clearly hear the difference in tone when it played honky-tonk or classical. (1)
The brass instruments have that reverberant, almost wet, ripping, metallic tone without abrasiveness.
Vocals are outstandingly clear and you can hear melodies and overdubs very, very, very clearly.
The only problem that I'm running into is that the Pearl 2 is more forgiving of LPs of lesser qualities. The P3 simply outshines it with well recorded, well produced LPs.
Right now, Brothers at Arms, on the MOFI 45LP.... is absolutely, incredibly outstanding. The music comes out of a dark background and can be explosive... listen to the part where the singing and the drumming are playing around each other... The voice on Brothers In Arms (the song) is clearly a person, in the middle, a little bit back... sort of singing, lamenting to himself... and the guitar is clearly RIPPING it out. The song is CONVINCING.
( Note, I think the CD/digital Tidal version has a longer version of the song. The LPs cuts out the guitar solo at the end.... yet another song where the time limitations of the LPs forced the song to be cut short.. like Lindsey Buckingham's solo at the end of Fleetwood Mack's I'm So Afraid ).
Right now, Brothers In Arms is my current favorite. Living for free in my head, now playing in my home office system... but it sounds like a caricature... excellent musical delineation but missing the emotional explosiveness of the main system - it could be the Sissy and CJ? Digital? I know the AE1 have it in them ).
The P3 allows the music on the LP to shine through and given a system of similar quality (2), it really puts out a very convincing musical performance. Right now I'm searching for all the MoFis and what not. Except for the stuff I really, really like.
Getz, The Girl From Ipanema.... Ay!
Indeed, it makes the music come right through so extremely well.
(1) Tomorrow I'm gonna dig out some country and western. Charlie Daniels baby.. and then we'll do some Old and In the Way and Red Knuckles And The Trailblazers. I'm getting to the point where I know the sound enough that after some classical set pieces I'll rotate to the Maggies and then the opamps...
(2) My P3 is a single box, sort of prototype to roll op amps. Configured for my Grado 1.0mV: 47K load, no capacitance, middle gain. The preamp is a CJ ET3SE, Sissy SIT, small Audio Notes.. and of course, the only way to play records with a belt driven Linn LP12 (hehehe) - Lingo - Ittok - Trampolin 2 - Karousel - Grado Master 2 low output.
BUT, from 14 feet away...
Vahevala, home of sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Vahevala, home of sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
more cowbell
MORE COWBELL
MORE COWBELL!!!
( Hey, don't bogart that j##nt, pass it to me!!!)
I SAID MORE COWBELL!!!
Was playing Loggins and Messina, Live On Stage... Vahevala. Lots of cowbell, the obligatory drum solo, weird whale sounds, most of the band walks off to the side for a few minutes and smokes a joint, bass guitarist stays playing very quietly until he takes 30 secs to run sideways and squeeze a couple of tokes... You know, THE 1970s.... dude! Brass music, drums, congas, fiddle, sort of a C&W twinge of sorts. Not a single umlaut in the whole world.
Take that, Mötley Crüe!
I was back in the 70s.... where's my bell bottoms dude? Star jeans. CVCC Hondas. Long sideburns. Tequila sunrises. Ford LTDs. Charlie's Angels. Every thing sounds so cool, relaxed, so avocado green. The whole living room feels like its got a gold shag rag with crushed velvet dark brown couches....
You can clearly hear they rode the volume on that recording to compress the loud parts of the song a little bit, even so the mix never collapses into a mass of noise, it always presents the instruments as separate entities.
The cowbell.... so 70s... so immediate. That ringing hollowness... exactly what it sounds like in real life ( good recording too ).
One thing about the P3....
The cymbals are metallic without being abrasive, exactly how they sound in real life.
The bass is fast... you can hear the string plucking ( try MOFI, Alan Parson's The Raven )
The drums are lighting fast.... you can hear the sharpness of the tom tom and the decay of the big drums.
The violin is sweet, meaning it sounds very natural, like a violin should. And you clearly hear the difference in tone when it played honky-tonk or classical. (1)
The brass instruments have that reverberant, almost wet, ripping, metallic tone without abrasiveness.
Vocals are outstandingly clear and you can hear melodies and overdubs very, very, very clearly.
The only problem that I'm running into is that the Pearl 2 is more forgiving of LPs of lesser qualities. The P3 simply outshines it with well recorded, well produced LPs.
Right now, Brothers at Arms, on the MOFI 45LP.... is absolutely, incredibly outstanding. The music comes out of a dark background and can be explosive... listen to the part where the singing and the drumming are playing around each other... The voice on Brothers In Arms (the song) is clearly a person, in the middle, a little bit back... sort of singing, lamenting to himself... and the guitar is clearly RIPPING it out. The song is CONVINCING.
( Note, I think the CD/digital Tidal version has a longer version of the song. The LPs cuts out the guitar solo at the end.... yet another song where the time limitations of the LPs forced the song to be cut short.. like Lindsey Buckingham's solo at the end of Fleetwood Mack's I'm So Afraid ).
Right now, Brothers In Arms is my current favorite. Living for free in my head, now playing in my home office system... but it sounds like a caricature... excellent musical delineation but missing the emotional explosiveness of the main system - it could be the Sissy and CJ? Digital? I know the AE1 have it in them ).
The P3 allows the music on the LP to shine through and given a system of similar quality (2), it really puts out a very convincing musical performance. Right now I'm searching for all the MoFis and what not. Except for the stuff I really, really like.
Getz, The Girl From Ipanema.... Ay!
Indeed, it makes the music come right through so extremely well.
(1) Tomorrow I'm gonna dig out some country and western. Charlie Daniels baby.. and then we'll do some Old and In the Way and Red Knuckles And The Trailblazers. I'm getting to the point where I know the sound enough that after some classical set pieces I'll rotate to the Maggies and then the opamps...
(2) My P3 is a single box, sort of prototype to roll op amps. Configured for my Grado 1.0mV: 47K load, no capacitance, middle gain. The preamp is a CJ ET3SE, Sissy SIT, small Audio Notes.. and of course, the only way to play records with a belt driven Linn LP12 (hehehe) - Lingo - Ittok - Trampolin 2 - Karousel - Grado Master 2 low output.
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^ reread it, I edited the post.
Like it?
Tell you what, you buy me a Lagunitas IPA at BA24 and I'll show up a day early and help you set up and I'll tell you how much I like it.
OK, I'll buy you one too!
Maybe if Randy comes by, I'll tell him too.
We can set up a P3 and play some music. We'll need a cowbell too.
;-D
PS- Today I officially applied for Social Security. Got my Medicare Advantage Plan set up too. So showing up a day early shouldn't present a big deal.
Like it?
Tell you what, you buy me a Lagunitas IPA at BA24 and I'll show up a day early and help you set up and I'll tell you how much I like it.
OK, I'll buy you one too!
Maybe if Randy comes by, I'll tell him too.
We can set up a P3 and play some music. We'll need a cowbell too.
;-D
PS- Today I officially applied for Social Security. Got my Medicare Advantage Plan set up too. So showing up a day early shouldn't present a big deal.
Love it! Some wonderful tunes all in all!
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?
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?
one fundamental design premise is that the PSU will be remote to obtain the desired performance.
this being DIY you can make the umbilical as long as you like (within reason... you don't want to have excessive voltage drop) but not, perhaps, so short as to obviate the benefits of remoteness.
maybe choose a remote location that works for you... and make the umbilical long enough to reach?
this being DIY you can make the umbilical as long as you like (within reason... you don't want to have excessive voltage drop) but not, perhaps, so short as to obviate the benefits of remoteness.
maybe choose a remote location that works for you... and make the umbilical long enough to reach?
There.... again.
You reminded me. One of the few things I miss about the US
Last time I was working in Orlando FL. for a month, the Millers Ale House on the way back to the hotel,
had Lagunitas and JaiAlai on draft
Every frikkin´ day for a month
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I have already prepared for a captured umbilical at PSU end and I am lazy so I wait and let all you all do the "hard job" and then I will pick my solution
But I will at least make cable long enough for at side by side placement. About 0.5m could be a good compromise. I feel that 1 m is too long.
I’m running appx 1.5M twisted wires. No shield. Don’t worry about voltage drop. I may swap for a shielded cable, but there is no compelling reason to do it quickly. The sound is great as-is in my system.
At least 1M. 1.5 is better, more flexibility.
Good for photos, not for noise performance….
Nope.
Dont worry about those, just use a shielded cable, and wire as shown in the guide.