John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part II

Status
Not open for further replies.
www.hifisonix.com
Joined 2003
Paid Member
Here is an example of 'flexible' compensation of the same op amp. About 1967.

I think it was Robert Dobkin who first proposed F/F to get greater speed out of the LM301 in one of their Linear Briefs. But John, that was 1967 - its now 2013 so why are we discussing this when there are a slew (pardon . . . ) of great op-amps out there that have had all of these issues completely resolved for years? In fact, the NE5534 with its external comp cap had it nailed for the most part in '78!

James Solomon's paper from 1970 (IIRC) which you have referred to a few times, did a lot to explain the inner workings of op-amps at the time, but I suspect today its fully covered in standard 2nd year level EE courses. This is progress.

:)
 
Last edited:
Matti Otala and Jan Lohstroh used something similar in the amp that later became the Electrocompaniet power amp in 1973.
Of course, everybody already knew everything that I put up recently, so I don't have to bother anymore. If you have further questions, just look at the app notes cited.
 
Last edited:
AX tech editor
Joined 2002
Paid Member
A good example, and accurate too!

Yes a good explanation, from the time people where starting to get their head around the issue. For audio that is; in general control systems theory this was already solved, or at least know, way before that.

Now, if you really want to contribute to the discussion, why don't you explain to the people lurking here how designers solved this issue, and why it has been a non-problem for the last several decades?

jan
 
Could somebody comment, whether an amp - speaker interaction is affected by limited speed at GNFB loop, as is said by one of old russian designers (I tried to translate a part of his publication).
 

Attachments

  • Likhnitsky.jpg
    Likhnitsky.jpg
    170.8 KB · Views: 172
Difficult to tell from such a short extract, but it may be that the author does not realise the wide bandwidth occupied by a gated tone. He talks about bass, but then uses a wideband test signal and seems surprised that the HF performance of the circuit affects the result.

Yes, his explainations seem more like a bla-bla, speed limit at GNFB loop can not be visible at 100 Hz range, but, nevertheless, some suspicious transient process is visible at scope's screen, at the end of the flash tone.
 
That is, as DF96 said, because the test signal is not a bass signal. It has infinite bandwidth, and audio amps are not designed to handle infinite bandwidth signals.
jan

Right you are, Jan, no doubt. But this model example could be considered as a very big exaggeration of possible real situations, fast transients in audio signals, etc. And this example gives a hint (I am guessing), how deep GNFB amp-speaker interactions could affect low-level signal constituents.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.