New Phono Amp

What people are working on at the moment
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mainscablesrus
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#1 New Phono Amp

Post by mainscablesrus »

The man's latest project done now thought you may be interested to see it.

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#2 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by simon »

Wot no valves? :-D

Any details of what's inside?
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#3 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by mainscablesrus »

simon wrote: Wed Apr 25, 2018 11:06 pm Wot no valves? :-D

Any details of what's inside?
Nick will oblige in good time I expect, he is probably building power supplies at the moment.
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#4 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by Nick »

simon wrote: Wed Apr 25, 2018 11:06 pm Wot no valves? :-D

Any details of what's inside?
Op amps, transistors, isolated power supplies, cap multipliers, film caps, inductors, the usual things :-)

No magic.

The PH-1 is is a MM stage, 43dB gain, accurate RIAA, channels matched etc. The HA-1 is a 20dB head amp.

£200 each direct from me. If anyone wants to try them just shout, not worried about selling to you lot, but would welcome your feedback.
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#5 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by Ant »

I wouldn't mind giving it a try nick. ive been wondering about it since you mentioned it a couple of months ago
I use mm carts as it is. At150 sa and at440mlb. Have an eroica L mc too, but the comparison for feedback would be with an x-lps mc stage. Mm comparison for feedback would be with the benedict audio hothead
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#6 Re: New Phono Amp

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Ant wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:36 am I wouldn't mind giving it a try nick. ive been wondering about it since you mentioned it a couple of months ago
I use mm carts as it is. At150 sa and at440mlb. Have an eroica L mc too, but the comparison for feedback would be with an x-lps mc stage. Mm comparison for feedback would be with the benedict audio hothead
PM me your address Ant
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#7 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by simon »

Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:02 am Op amps, transistors, isolated power supplies, cap multipliers, film caps, inductors, the usual things :-)
Aha! As I expected :-).

Actually I'd be quite interested to try it too as I'm using a Salas Simplistic Folded phono upstairs at the moment, which is very good, but perhaps a bit of an unfair comparison. It is SS though so might be interesting to see how close they are?

Perhaps I can borrow the one you send to Ant when he's finished as we're local? I'm using the Salas phono with a 103pro so it has a lot of gain - I'd need the head amp too to make it a fair comparison.

Don't want to get in to any "it wasn't me it was someone else that damaged it" games though, so I'm easy. That's not meant in any way as a slight on our Ant BTW, just having read the upset other "loners" have caused when there's been a long chain of users, it's probably best avoided...
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#8 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by Nick »

No problem Simon, may need to get the PM from Ant again as my mailbox was full. I doubt you can do much to damage these in any real way,
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#9 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by RhythMick »

Nick, have you considered a balanced version ?
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#10 Re: New Phono Amp

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RhythMick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:57 am Nick, have you considered a balanced version ?
Not at this point. AFAIK, not many have their tonearm wired for balanced use. I could add a converter on the output to give a balanced output, but it getting away from the simple and low cost idea. May make more sense just making a single ended to balanced converter in the same size box maybe.
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#11 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by RhythMick »

No worries thanks nick. I've always treated the tonearm signal as balanced and kept it as such all the way through the amps as far as I can. I don't know enough about SS to build one but would have been interested to compare.
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#12 Re: New Phono Amp

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Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:02 am
£200 each direct from me. If anyone wants to try them just shout, not worried about selling to you lot, but would welcome your feedback.
Hi Nick

Does the £200 include the PSU?
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#13 Re: New Phono Amp

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gninnam wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:34 pm
Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:02 am
£200 each direct from me. If anyone wants to try them just shout, not worried about selling to you lot, but would welcome your feedback.
Hi Nick

Does the £200 include the PSU?
Yes, but its just a simple 12v wall wart. I have done stuff inside the stage to isolate it from the worst that such a supply can do. Seemed silly to design a stage for a target price that needed a £230 additional power supply :-)
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#14 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by Mike H »

simon wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:27 am
Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:02 am Op amps, transistors, isolated power supplies, cap multipliers, film caps, inductors, the usual things :-)
Aha! As I expected :-).
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#15 Re: New Phono Amp

Post by gninnam »

Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:03 pm
gninnam wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:34 pm
Nick wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:02 am
£200 each direct from me. If anyone wants to try them just shout, not worried about selling to you lot, but would welcome your feedback.
Hi Nick

Does the £200 include the PSU?
Yes, but its just a simple 12v wall wart. I have done stuff inside the stage to isolate it from the worst that such a supply can do. Seemed silly to design a stage for a target price that needed a £230 additional power supply :-)
Thanks for the info. If the phono amp with a wall wart sounds good and with the £xxx PSU sounded even better, then you have the upgrade path like a lot of HiFi kit does ;)
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