30db, not easy to change.
Sounds really, really good. How does it compare to the commercial products? Thats really subjective and has a lot to do with your taste, but if you look at the input stage of Pearl vs. the earlier phonostages, particularly the Ono, it's going to look very familiar.
I kick myself for selling mine.
Sounds really, really good. How does it compare to the commercial products? Thats really subjective and has a lot to do with your taste, but if you look at the input stage of Pearl vs. the earlier phonostages, particularly the Ono, it's going to look very familiar.
I kick myself for selling mine.
Read the Pearl 1 description (Hikari posted before), page 6, under 'subjective performance'. Wayne Colburn describes his impressions with the Pearl 1 - phonostage compared to the Pass XONO.
I use my Pearl 1 most often with my Thorens vinyl player and a Ortofon cartridge (MC20 MKII). Between the cartridge (Moving Coil) and the Pearl1 I use a transformer or a super simple 'Le pacific' MC-pre.
If I listen to vinyl I prefer the BA-3 preamp (a lot of gain) and then into the poweramp. This is a very good sounding combination. And it can play loud.
With the B1 as a preamp i do not have enough gain.
I also added switchable resistors and capacitances to the input (via dip-switch on a proto-board). Makes adjusting the cartridge to the Pearl 1 much easier.
If your Pearl 1 is back to life - Enjoy it!
I also built a XOno and a Pearl II. My personal ranking of this 3 phono stages is: Pass XOno - Pearl I - Pearl II. But they are very close to each other in soundquality. Before I would exchange one of these Phono stages, I would invest into a better cartridge. My opinion.
Greets
Dirk
I use my Pearl 1 most often with my Thorens vinyl player and a Ortofon cartridge (MC20 MKII). Between the cartridge (Moving Coil) and the Pearl1 I use a transformer or a super simple 'Le pacific' MC-pre.
If I listen to vinyl I prefer the BA-3 preamp (a lot of gain) and then into the poweramp. This is a very good sounding combination. And it can play loud.
With the B1 as a preamp i do not have enough gain.
I also added switchable resistors and capacitances to the input (via dip-switch on a proto-board). Makes adjusting the cartridge to the Pearl 1 much easier.
If your Pearl 1 is back to life - Enjoy it!
I also built a XOno and a Pearl II. My personal ranking of this 3 phono stages is: Pass XOno - Pearl I - Pearl II. But they are very close to each other in soundquality. Before I would exchange one of these Phono stages, I would invest into a better cartridge. My opinion.
Greets
Dirk
Desoldering the tiny legs of the transistors was tricky — to small for the nozzle of my solder sucker and solder wick just didn’t seem to pick up the last bits filling the holes. But I got it done. 2k369 in place of the 2sk389GR and new zeners. It measures close to specs, a little lower at Q4 (13.5 mV). The top of R23 still measures 12.5 instead of 15 (both channels) but I can’t see why and am not sure this is concerning considering every other node is within 5%.
Here’s a picture.
Today I’ll get it hooked up to the turntable, see how it performs and make sure it’s stable.
Here’s a picture.
Today I’ll get it hooked up to the turntable, see how it performs and make sure it’s stable.
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try it as is
if you're interested to pursue that difference - you're having slightly greater current through input JFets; increase all 4 source resistors by notch (thus decreasing Iq) and you'll be there
13V5 instead of 14V at base of Q4 - irrelevant difference
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