MPP

The Fet at the bottom can be a 2SK170 for example. That combined with an ECC88 can make a low noise MC input. Well, not that low noise that we do here but something close to 1nV/qHz. That is the noise of ca.50 Ohm. The Fet has higher Gm to begin with and tubes have a rather high 1/F corner so even if they are steep they have a lot of noise in the bass. The 2SK170 has a somewhat lower 1/F frequency, not as low as bipolars though but sufficient. If you use a tube that can take higher idle current you can use several Fets in parallel or Fets with higher Gm. Then the noise can be rather low. An even better solution can be a folded Fet-Tube cascode like done by JC Morison.
I have published that circuit before here and i think i also explained it.


The only concern I have with this sort of cascode is the introduction of another power supply, and the possibility of its noise or sonic effect (some people don't believe in that...) could be an issue. I do not know that answer... I posted to JC's blog on that, but the comment/question "went away"... so again I do not know.

_-_-bear
 
The question is who did it first ?

Probably someone doing something in industry or the government... but as a front end in a phono stage mine pre-dated Arthur's by something like two years. Thorsten can speak for himself - he's on here - but iirc his design was shown to the world after Arthur's.

No doubt the idea occurred to others, as it must be fairly obvious if I came up with it!! No doubt there... :eek:

Now what year it was will take some thought... it was in the early to mid 90s, in that range. But to pin it down might require some detective work and reconstructing events that related to it. Not sure it is all that important?

_-_-bear
 
Joachim, yeah I see it, good point you can run the JFets current up independently.

But even so the extra supply makes me nervous. I guess one has to try it and see what the real world issues turn out to be (if any). The JFets still have to sink the tube's current, unless I am going blind again, or daffy. Both are entirely possible, even likely!

_-_-bear
 
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Bear, it would be good to find out. I experienced here several times that people claimed to have invented what i posted and did not given them the credit they think they deserve.
Is that important ? I do not know but i do not like to make people uncomfortable.

It's ok for me.

I am satisfied to have gotten to that point before Arthur did. :rolleyes:

My only other claim to any fame at all is that I did a SE Mosfet DC coupled before Nelson Pass did it. Yay!
:xmasman: :sing: :cloud9: :nod: :cheers:

He did inspire me to come up with it because of his Zen idea.


Does any of this get me a plaque somewhere?
How about my footprints and handprints in some concrete in Hollywood?
Hmmm... Silicon Valley... nah...

_-_-bear
 
In the end it plays a role how it sounds. That can be done with various topologies.
I going into bipolars for phono and line lately. There are no more good P-channels and correctly designed a bipolar stage can have less distortion, at least in an open loop circuit.
For low impedances bipolars also have less noise.
I have no problems to share circuits at all. Sometimes i have to be quiet though because i do NDA work. That is where i make my living from mostly at the moment.
 
I assume this counts as fair use?
 

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