Top

Published in:

2011 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

15. Noise of Solid-State MC Phono-Amps

Author : Dipl.-Ing. Burkhard Vogel

Published in: The Sound of Silence

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Despite the fast growing digitisation of the electronic world the vinyl and analog aficionado is still alive. Moreover, it’s a world-wide growing market with increasing demand for excellent phono amplifiers for moving coil (MC) cartridges. Unfortunately, many so-called high-end (and high-price) products show lousy signal-to-noise (SN) figures, far away from what is theoretically achievable. Table 11.6 gives an overview on some of the good, the bad and best products.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Noise of MM Cartridges: Mathcad Worksheets

next chapter Noise of Solid-State MC Phono-Amps: Mathcad Worksheets

See Chapters 24 and 25 for more on the uselessness of the A-weighting à la ANSI/NAB standard; however, because of comparison reasons, I have to work with it throughout this book.

“stereoplay” 04-1998, measured with an Audio Precision measurement instrument.

Linn Linto data sheet.

MCD-Worksheet 16.1, Chap. 16.

Details see Chap. 23 and MCD-Worksheet 16.2 in Chap. 16.

“Design of moving-coil head amplifiers”, D/S, EW 12-1987.

MCD-Worksheet 16.2, Chap. 16.

The measurement result looks a bit different: approximately 0.3 dB better. This comes from the fact that (15.14) covers the equivalent noise bandwidth (ENB) B_20k only. Additionally, the A-weighting effect SN_ra on the RIAA transfer SN_r becomes: SN_ra = SN_ar − SN_r = −4.289 dB. Because of RIAA’s rather steep frequency cut-off at the high end of B_20k there will be no ENB effect like in the A-weighting case of white-noise. Chapter 23 will dive deeper into the details.

MCD-Worksheet 16.3, Chap. 16.

Same as above.

MCD-Worksheet 16.4, Chap. 16.

EW 12-2004.

MCD-Worksheet 16.4, Chap. 16.

D/S.

MCD-Worksheet 16.5, Chap. 16.

www.jensen-transformers.com.

“Valve Amplifiers”. Morgan Jones, see A6.

Jensen Transformers Application Note AS040.

“Distortion in low-noise amplifiers”, E. F. Taylor, EW 09-1977.

T/S Chap. 4.

A detailed analysis of RIAA transfer producing networks is given in Chaps. 19 and 20.

“Phono preamp”, D/S, Letter EW 05-2001.

“AN222”, National Semiconductor Application Note, Linear Applications Databook, 1986.

Emerson/Vitelec, UK.

L-Com, Inc., MA, USA.

Neutrik GmbH, Lichtenstein.

From www.feg-online.de; I did tests with 5 m cables between cartridge and phono-amp input: no significant differences to the shorter versions (50 cm) could be observed.

Because of the widely use in test magazines it makes sense keeping the reference level of 0.5 mV_rms throughout the whole book. However, with the findings of (3.4), we also could talk about an operational SN_xy.ops for any MC cartridge which would reflect more realistic the real behaviour of a specific cartridge. In the case of the DL-103 this would improve all SNs by ~3.5 dB. This comes from the difference between 0.5 mV_rms “official” amp input reference level and 0.748 mV_rms MC cartridge operating output level at 0 dB DIN 1 kHz/8 cm/s/peak velocity flank modulated (=0 dB at 1 kHz/11.3 cm/s/peak velocity lateral modulated) and at an input impedance of Zi = 421.6 Ω.

“Understanding Capacitors” Parts 1–7, Cyril Bateman, EW 12-1997–EW 08-1998.

“Capacitor Sounds” Parts 1–5, Cyril Bateman, EW 05–11 – 2002.

“Precision Anti-RIAA”, EW 05-2007 and Chap. 23.

Measurement results are heavily depending on measurement set-up: see Chap. 21.

“stereoplay” 04-1998.

Details see Part IV.

Title: Noise of Solid-State MC Phono-Amps
Author: Dipl.-Ing. Burkhard Vogel
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Book: The Sound of Silence
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-19773-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-642-19774-1

Copyright Year: 2011
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19774-1_15