X-Altra Line Level Preamp

What material is the back plate made of? Where have you ordered this, looks really nice manufactured. I see you are using female output signal XLR’s, on commercial stuff I always see male output XLR’s. Using female looks more logical to me as wel.
 
Progress! Making music tonight. The phono board still has to be assembled and tested, but I'll clear the bench tomorrow and set everything up for measurements.

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Hello Carl,

the LSK489 offers dramatically lower input capacitance. But the noise IIRC is not any better. I have a stash of 389’s so that’s why I’ve been using them. And have been very impressed with the noise performance. I guess given the bandwidths (ie audio) we are dealing with, the 389 is still a great fit. For more demanding applications, you of course should go for the 489. I have not tried the 489, so cannot comment on whether there would be any issues in the X-Altra discrete line stage as it stands.

(I’ve been otherwise occupied the last week or so, so progress has been a bit slow - hopefully next week I can get back to it. I’ll be ordering a new front panel with printed lettering etc from Modushop as well to finish the whole thing off)
 
Hello folks

I have been using lsk489 and lsj689 in the Bob Cordell dh-220c design for the input stage.
The lsk389 with its larger die has less noise at the expense of higher capacitance.
The lsk389 is suited for lower impedance sources whereas the 489 is better suited for higher impedance sources such as MM phono