Hi spm, on the 4th March you posted that you had ordered some pcb's from Gareth Connor and Signal Transfer. It is now 9 days later and seeing you are in London, I would assume that you should have the order by now.
If so, are the boards good quality and is the documentation package for each design "up to scratch" ?
I have since emailed Gareth twice more and still no response from him at all. I do read that you spoke to him however.
If so, are the boards good quality and is the documentation package for each design "up to scratch" ?
I have since emailed Gareth twice more and still no response from him at all. I do read that you spoke to him however.
I sent email to Gareth on 9th asking if he was seeing my various previous mails and asking if Signal Transfer was still trading. No reply so far. For what is worth the boards I bought some 4 years back now were of very high quality (e.g. gold plated vias) and instructions good also, but that don't count for nought at the moment.
****Order delivered****
Everything, PCBs, heat transfer blocks and a few 2SB737s - perfect. Well packed, well documented. Faultless.
I found telephone (number a few pages back) to be the best way to contact.
Simon
Everything, PCBs, heat transfer blocks and a few 2SB737s - perfect. Well packed, well documented. Faultless.
I found telephone (number a few pages back) to be the best way to contact.
Simon
Just happened to be passing. Let me put the record straight.
My first opamp preamp was the Precision Preamplifier, published in Wireless World (as it was then) in Oct 1983. All 5532.
The Precision Preamplifier '96 was actually an almost completely new design, with a variable-frequency tone-control, also all 5532.
Neither of these were designed in collaboration with Peter Baxandall. It would have been a privilege to do so, but it never happened. You may be thinking of our collaboration on power amplifier design, published in a book by Jan Didden. See Linear Audio | your tech audio resource
The next one was the 'Preamplifier 2012' which is a very low noise design with 1k pots (which do not get warm in normal use) and appeared in Elektor in April 2012. It uses a carefully-chosen mix of 5532 and LM4562.
The latest is the 'Low Noise Preamplifier' published in Linear Audio Vol-5 (April 2013) and which has been ably popularised by Carl Huff
It also uses a carefully-chosen mix of 5532 and LM4562.
It is essentially a development of the Precision Preamplifier '96 but has so many improvements that the pedigree is hard to discern.
All of these designs, plus some discrete-transistor preamps, are fully described in the 3rd eition of Self On Audio, which is a collection of the original articles in full, plus a lot of added commentary in the light of later experience.
See Self On Audio: The Book
Doug, if your still watching this thread then I'm wondering if you're able to enlighten me/us re The Signal Transfer Company situation. You will note my thread where I have from time to time tried to contact the company (which is effectively Gareth I understand) but with no success. Haven't tried lately as sort of gave up but would still like to get some bits and pieces from them. Not sure what your relationship is with the company but any thoughts appreciated.
Sorry for the errors in my post - not sure how those came about - but please accept my apologies for any misrepresentations there - they were quite unintentional.
My interest in the preamplifiers was due to my actually building the 2012 version from the Elector article, but I now do remember that earliest article of 1983.
I had intended to build the 'Precision Preamp' of 1996 when it was first published but ended up using a commercial unit instead.
You may be interested to know that I have also built a three way active system using your Class G design - the 2012 preamplifier is part of that system.
Mr Self, I can’t help noticing on the rare occasions you happen to respond in this thread, it's usually to make reference to a new publication of yours. I think many here would rather know what the situation is regarding Signal Transfer. What good are your designs - afterall - if one can seldom ever get in touch to order them? Indeed, I gave up and went for a different diy kit as I had enough trying to get a response. I wonder how many others have been put of purchasing one of your designs simply because of this.
Is there no way to setup a secondary different source for your pcbs?
Cheers.
Is there no way to setup a secondary different source for your pcbs?
Cheers.
agree with Johnm
...can only say I totally agree with Johnm. Learnt loads from D Self's books but then trying to turn them into reality just doesn't work- see my various comments re trying to obtain Signal Transfer PCBs and then giving up. A weird set up. I can only think that Mr Self is content with the intellectual exercise of writing what are excellent books or maybe he doesn't have the mechanisms to sort the supply problem?
...can only say I totally agree with Johnm. Learnt loads from D Self's books but then trying to turn them into reality just doesn't work- see my various comments re trying to obtain Signal Transfer PCBs and then giving up. A weird set up. I can only think that Mr Self is content with the intellectual exercise of writing what are excellent books or maybe he doesn't have the mechanisms to sort the supply problem?
That is a different company arrangement, try the head person, Gareth Connor,
at his contact point here. He mainly is in pro audio at this time, and is very busy.
GJC Designs Home
at his contact point here. He mainly is in pro audio at this time, and is very busy.
GJC Designs Home
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Rayma, thanks for the comments. I'm familiar with the Signal Transfer set up under Gareth Conner where Doug Self points to Signal Transfer as a source for PCBs etc. What Mr Self's commercial interests are in Signal Transfer I don't know (and is of course not our business) but I recollect he acknowledges a close working relationship with Signal Transfer and promotes them as the source for PCBs etc for his designs. What you are seeing here is the frustration of getting goods out of Signal Transfer. I dare say I could (yet again) try and contact them and may be successful but it shouldn't be like that surely?
I agree with johnm and etlasr. The current store is very difficult to engage with. I myself gave up years ago after several attempts at getting a question answered.
It's also odd that Douglas Self seems disinterested in commenting on this. As other's have pointed out, dissatisfaction with the current vendor is clearly the sediment in this thread, yet he has been completely silent on it.
It's also odd that Douglas Self seems disinterested in commenting on this. As other's have pointed out, dissatisfaction with the current vendor is clearly the sediment in this thread, yet he has been completely silent on it.
To be balanced I have in the past engaged with Signal Transfer and got what I wanted (PCBs at that time that were of excellent quality) and very good support on a few matters. However this is gong back about 7 years or more.
I'm not being funny, but doesn't the fact that people here have been struggling for over two years to get any joy tell you all you need to know?
Does The Signal Transfer Company still want to do business ?
😕
If Not, why not say so and close the website instead of continuing to offer even the latest Doug Self designs ?
😕
If Not, why not say so and close the website instead of continuing to offer even the latest Doug Self designs ?
....scottjoplin's point is well made. My problem is I'm looking for 2 more power amp PCBs to add to the 4 I have. Could reverse engineer what I have if I wanted to go to that much effort but path of least resistance seemed Signal Transfer but as I tried three times and got no where I thought it worth sharing my experience in the, probably naive, hope that it would make a difference.
Given that Doug has commented in this thread, I suppose one can assume he has read and understands the sentiments contained in it.
After getting virtually no success in getting my PCB's (long since paid for), I appealed to Doug via email - he responded to me within the hour and had a courier collect the PCB's the following day - for delivery to me here in S.Africa. But this all happened more than at least 18 months ago - things have clearly changed since then.
After getting virtually no success in getting my PCB's (long since paid for), I appealed to Doug via email - he responded to me within the hour and had a courier collect the PCB's the following day - for delivery to me here in S.Africa. But this all happened more than at least 18 months ago - things have clearly changed since then.
