High Quality, Buildable Audio Preamp Design On Net?

[abby]

Hi,

Are there any high quality, easily buildable audio preamp designs
available on the net? I found quite a few but I'm not knowledgeable
enough to judge how good they are.

I am upgrading my stereo power amp (PS-Audio A-100 current favorite)
and need a good quality preamp, including phono, to match. I would
prefer to build from a design or kit. I designed a preamp for my old
power amp but it won't be adequate for the replacement.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Rich Grise]

Are there any high quality, easily buildable audio preamp designs
available on the net? I found quite a few but I'm not knowledgeable
enough to judge how good they are.

I am upgrading my stereo power amp (PS-Audio A-100 current favorite) and
need a good quality preamp, including phono, to match. I would prefer to
build from a design or kit. I designed a preamp for my old power amp but
it won't be adequate for the replacement.

Have you tried googling?

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Darren Holdstock]

Most hi-fi preamps use the standard op-amp circuits; if you want them to sound nice, use decent op-amps and capacitors (never electrolytics or tantalums) and pay attention to PCB layout.

As for the phono amp, you can't go wrong with a John Linsley-Hood shunt feedback design. It comes in two flavours, one with transistors, and one with op-amps, and is configurable for MC and MM cartridges. If you can't find it on the web, let me know and I'll see if I can't dig it out for you.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi,

Are there any high quality, easily buildable audio preamp designs
available on the net? I found quite a few but I'm not knowledgeable
enough to judge how good they are.

I am upgrading my stereo power amp (PS-Audio A-100 current favorite)
and need a good quality preamp, including phono, to match. I would
prefer to build from a design or kit. I designed a preamp for my old
power amp but it won't be adequate for the replacement.

Thanks,
Gary

http://sound.westhost.com/projects-2.htm

Michael

 

[abby]

http://sound.westhost.com/projects-2.htm

Michael

Unfortunately, those circuits are similar to those I already found. I
dismissed them because high feedback circuits are deprecated.
Low feedback, very linear circuits are considered superior. Are
there any of those on the net?

Thanks,
Gary

 

[David L. Jones]

Hi,

Are there any high quality, easily buildable audio preamp designs
available on the net? I found quite a few but I'm not knowledgeable
enough to judge how good they are.

I am upgrading my stereo power amp (PS-Audio A-100 current favorite)
and need a good quality preamp, including phono, to match. I would
prefer to build from a design or kit. I designed a preamp for my old
power amp but it won't be adequate for the replacement.

Silicon Chip have published several over the years, like this one:
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_107103/article.html
They have done many individual preamp modules and phono modules etc
too.

The articles usually come with full AP and other test results, so you
know what performance you are getting.

Kits are usually available from Altronics or Jaycar:
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=K5500

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

Silicon Chip have published several over the years, like this one:http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_107103/article.html
They have done many individual preamp modules and phono modules etc
too.

Extra info:
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_105319/article.html
http://us1.webpublications.com.au/static/images/articles/i1053/105319_4mg.jpg
http://us1.webpublications.com.au/static/images/articles/i1053/105319_14mg.jpg

Dave.

 

[abby]

Hi,

Are there any high quality, easily buildable audio preamp designs
available on the net? I found quite a few but I'm not knowledgeable
enough to judge how good they are.

At over 80 and growing this is by far the most responses to any of my queries.
And some actually addressed the question!

Pardon my naiveté. I have seen so many references to the feedback issue (IIRC,
including in this newsgroup recently) I'd assumed it is a given. Apparently,
not.

What I infer from the responses, particular jd_lark's, is that the main culprit
is transient intermodulation, TIM. Given sufficient bandwidth, slew rate, and
power supply voltages the feedback related problems go away or, at least, become
minimal. And current devices can do that. Is that correct or am I still
missing something? I should point out that I am interested primarily in
preamps.

I do agree about audiophiles. While I'm sure there is a rare individual who can
tell the difference between Monster cables and zip wire too many "audiophiles"
are little more than spec-junkies. I guess I am not a true audiophile because
my speaker wires are the zip cord the guy who sold me the speakers gave me.
Some of you might find PS Audio's site interesting, psaudio.com. They offer
some expensive power conditioning equipment (in case your audio designer
couldn't produce a decent power supply) including a $999USD power cord.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[JosephKK]

TIM mostly comes from the dead-band region in a class-B output stage.
It can take a helluva slew rate to avoid. Better attacked by a stable
class-AB bias scheme.

ISTR something about the audio pulses and Fourier transforms showing
that much of the claimed distortion was artifacts of using audio tone
bursts. It seems that the modulation used to create the tone bursts
caused most if not all of the measured distortion.