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    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
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Phono Preamp Misbehaving

4V and not lighted, one or more LED could be reversed bias.
 

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  • 5842 riaa led reversed bias.jpg
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Thanks for running that, what are the specs on the LED used to model? I am thinking that my problem lies there.
The LED modeled is the Lite-On LTL1CHKEKNN as provided by Bob Cordell. But the specific LED isn't all that important since all red LEDs are going to have similar forward voltage drops, in the range of 1.6 to 2.0 volts (see link below). A difference of a few tenths of a volt isn't enough to make the circuit malfunction, but the difference between 2 and 4 volts probably is.

https://www.circuitbread.com/ee-faq/the-forward-voltages-of-different-leds
I looked up the specs for the Lumex SSL-LX5093ID indicated in the schematic (link below) and it shows a nominal forward voltage of 2.0 volts. So if that is indeed the part that you used you shouldn't be seeing 4 volts at the cathodes of the tubes. I'm not sure what to suggest next other than to remove the LEDs and test them for forward voltage out of the circuit.

https://www.lumex.com/datasheet/SSL-LX5093ID.html
 
Thanks to everyone who took the time to help me out with this problem. I put two different LEDs into one channel and the voltages fell dead nuts into spec. I found three of them, so until I come across one more or Friday, one (AMAZON) I'm dead in the water, but at least I know what's up. Again, thanks so much for all of y'all's time and effort. I'm a member of several forums on the interwebs, and this is the most helpful and least critical of any of them. Have a great day.
 
For anyone who is interested, here is a frequency response plot of this circuit as simulated in my post #14. Of course, the accuracy of this simulation is dependent on how accurate the 5842 SPICE model is. I don't have much experience with that particular model so I'll just provide this without comment.
 

Attachments

  • Tritschler Phono Preamp.png
    Tritschler Phono Preamp.png
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