Hi Salas. Many thanks for your help there, I will order some parts in today and also build a jig for matching the fets.
I have basically gone with a moving magnet cartridge (well it's a Grado so it's Moving Iron), because I got it cheap, and I will for now have to use my old SME Series III arm, which is not suitable for a moving coil apparently due to the knife edge bearings used.
I am still very new to vinyl replay, and am pretty much using a TT setup my dad gave me which he hadn't used for around 20 years!
I will report my findings on the phono stage.
Lee.
I have basically gone with a moving magnet cartridge (well it's a Grado so it's Moving Iron), because I got it cheap, and I will for now have to use my old SME Series III arm, which is not suitable for a moving coil apparently due to the knife edge bearings used.
I am still very new to vinyl replay, and am pretty much using a TT setup my dad gave me which he hadn't used for around 20 years!
I will report my findings on the phono stage.
Lee.
Hi LeeThomo said:
I am using an SME series II also with knife bearings and it works wonderfully with my MC cart (Benz ACE).
Maybe your series III is too light for the small compliance of the MC cart.... I do not think it´s imcompatibility is due to the knife edge bearing (These bearings are like dual unipivots)
Look and the Roksan Nima... it is a uinipivot and works perfectly with most MC´s....
What make model is your TT ?
Looking forward for your input regardinf fet matching.
Regards
Ricardo
Thank you Salas.salas said:
I will follow your design very closely.
The PSU I am building uses a very good +25v super regulator (the same I am using in my CDP fet discrete output stage).
I believe It will produce very low noise and big dynamics.
In your first post you wrote you are not aiming to high quality sound but I really hope this RIAA can outperform the stock RIAA I am using in my Meridian 101.
Ricardo
salas said:Thanks! Waiting to see your construction with Miniregs, your choice of components, etc. and learn your sonic experience and comparison to the original Pacific soon!
Hi Salas
How much current does this circuit need ?
I am building a PSU with a spower reg (by sercal) but maybe I could do it with a "softer" low current minireg.
Hi RCruz, Lee,
Yes I wasn't aiming high, but the ball rolled and the outcome got really good. To the point that I asked for an old, almost non functioning Colin Walker CJ58 TT from a friend with an abused Mission arm, and decided to fix it so to explore beyond my SL1200MKII. Thanks to my good friend Michael and his practical ingenuity, the TT and arm are up, fully restored, Cardas rewired in proper balanced out and correct GND mode, and plays fantastic. Don't underestimate English 80's TT and arm technology or taste. They had a fresh, pacey musical approach that I don't find in many turntable$ of today. Lee is up for a surprise most probably. No CDP can even hint at the natural way of a good TT, warts an all. Just imagine that the record is picked up only, not synthesized from a code. A TT as a whole does 1-2% of mainly even order mechanical distortions and that's all. The signal starts a cm away from the groove as cut by the production, and gets routed directly to the phono pre. The poor CDP has to read well some modulation in an analogue way (like an optic TT), then translate it to a code, then translate again that code into signal, and then filter it! Its a miracle that a good CDP goes as far as it goes today. But its a digital synth, and it will always hint at that fact.
P.S. RCruz, your circuit needs 20mA per channel. (I plan to look for shunt FET DIY reg enhancement to top 317 class performance at a point.)
THANX MICHAEL!
Yes I wasn't aiming high, but the ball rolled and the outcome got really good. To the point that I asked for an old, almost non functioning Colin Walker CJ58 TT from a friend with an abused Mission arm, and decided to fix it so to explore beyond my SL1200MKII. Thanks to my good friend Michael and his practical ingenuity, the TT and arm are up, fully restored, Cardas rewired in proper balanced out and correct GND mode, and plays fantastic. Don't underestimate English 80's TT and arm technology or taste. They had a fresh, pacey musical approach that I don't find in many turntable$ of today. Lee is up for a surprise most probably. No CDP can even hint at the natural way of a good TT, warts an all. Just imagine that the record is picked up only, not synthesized from a code. A TT as a whole does 1-2% of mainly even order mechanical distortions and that's all. The signal starts a cm away from the groove as cut by the production, and gets routed directly to the phono pre. The poor CDP has to read well some modulation in an analogue way (like an optic TT), then translate it to a code, then translate again that code into signal, and then filter it! Its a miracle that a good CDP goes as far as it goes today. But its a digital synth, and it will always hint at that fact.
P.S. RCruz, your circuit needs 20mA per channel. (I plan to look for shunt FET DIY reg enhancement to top 317 class performance at a point.)
THANX MICHAEL!
massimo said:
Nice to see you too. Good evening. No silicone damping because it mates OK with the Denon DL-160 (to answer RCruz too). The paddles in silicone oil bath are useful mainly to avoid bumpy behavior when there is a bad total moving mass and cart suspension elasticity combination. In arms that have that feature, if not needed to be employed, it just rounds resolution for no reason as far as I have experienced in the past. I will make a paper clip paddle and find some proper oil so to be fully restored in any case, bcs a ULM arm can always kick against a better future cart non the less.
The 774 has excellent transients till today, I can attest. I am chuffed.
Hi Salas et all-
Fantastic thread! Still reading. I've been a tube-centric for years, but this has me convinced I should give this a try.
Presently using Cinemag SUT's into a modded Magus pre. I always wanted to try an FVP-5, but this looks like a MUCH simpler solution. Plus the $$ I would need to spend for good low noise tubes when a jfet will do!
I presently am running an HW19-III using a Benz Glider LO, 0.4 mV. I gather the schematic from post 68 would be the one to use?
Now to figure out what boutique caps to get. Got bunches of ol' Vitamin Q's.....
Thanks again- Kent
Fantastic thread! Still reading. I've been a tube-centric for years, but this has me convinced I should give this a try.
Presently using Cinemag SUT's into a modded Magus pre. I always wanted to try an FVP-5, but this looks like a MUCH simpler solution. Plus the $$ I would need to spend for good low noise tubes when a jfet will do!
I presently am running an HW19-III using a Benz Glider LO, 0.4 mV. I gather the schematic from post 68 would be the one to use?
Now to figure out what boutique caps to get. Got bunches of ol' Vitamin Q's.....
Thanks again- Kent
kstlfido said:
Thanks. It will surely get you very near to a good tube result. I am confident that it will possibly do even better with a FET shunt regulator. I am thinking of a simple one for the near future. I will put it together, test it, and present it if it is worthwhile. Non the less it will possibly play better than I have known with 317 even by using the better ready made regs that people plan to use and mention in this thread.
Your suitable version is the one on post#110. Use vintage caps no problem. Its a system tone match thing. Only be sure they ain't leaky.
jam said:
Hi Jam,
I have a 52dB both stages cascoded version on test. MadK ''urged'' us to test such a version in his thread. Its more sensitive to noise and sonic susceptibility considering the BC550 base bias voltage scheme. I have solved that by using local mini shunt regs for each transistor. A 2SK170 Idss current source feeding a bypassed Zener. Good use for the leftover unmatched JFETs. I have experienced no more noise than the non cascoded version that way. That can be easily calculated for more gain. I want to do some careful A-B subjective tests next week so to know if it is really recommended over the simple version. It is more complex and sensitive, so it has to worth the hassle. Plays very nicely but somewhat different.
PCBs I almost never make, since I am not scared for hardwiring and perfboards due to my tubes practice. If a good fellow likes to make one and present it here, go ahead and do it by all means.