en fs published my sem APY senate tooo pres some ten years ago,! I never tou woul ty to mae abe ver Slot hs hard enough wo seal wh the vcesnry low aoe eel for MC {imoringcoll) pickup ising semicon ductor, but mina pure abe MC phono, ice praticaly impossible to Chie he Se pay ie pe. formance that extn the es se tas avin the Yves sesh the ECSG with an equivalent noise Serer them ifalwaye sound oy mated semicon “tis wen ott ue te glen days of tbe au, boca the pep sro ine moa MAT Cin me ni hdmi hie opts a he Cavrent Ms, So: when the Mes Spear, people fad te inp ras itimers, Some ofthese were of ih ually, ponding vey satiny pe tenance, bt they tended to be expen she ator everyone col ator hem Ti slain by of cau, combine oid and ne technology tf JPET to menage the apne pr fem, ane ues mane he age sie tals Then you wil et he bes ofboth torts: ow nose and high oven Capa And sounds pod, oo MC-Preamp Considerations Tao felieve much has happened a terms of ploy sevity Tie ls ‘Src yous Mout MCS fn hat Stine dim opt stegor, which means an output of approximately OS a Semis BO inter veloc This abow 2008 ower than the nor hl evap of on Natura ere Ie ower ouput pups dan 0 bor they need an adioval gan. The Minontput MCs ane wry cle to the nsdn ocx an Over Kt gan of upto sod can be nec Sry int afte MM np fo nal all MCs on the market." to advantage of tubes are that thay work with very high supply sale des un that sel senathandting Capability sguncay beet than th of worsen, hi ey to enone smo wage of 30-100 RNB fom fee sage, companc to te ots HOV of wansstor ampli o the Spper limi ofthe apliers yma MEE very eo wh tes Dut wht about the omer hich is normaly reacted by noe? Here, 32 GLASS AUDIO 2/97 AN MC/MM PREAMPLIFIER tubes, Suppose you want an 800B signal tonoise ratio in an MM system, Referred to Sm, the input noise of a phono stage _must be less than 0.5uV. This is just about the limit of shat is possible with simple tube circuitry. However, if you watt the sume sigtabtosivise rato ina MC system with 0.5mV output, the input noise must he less than S0nV, which ‘would be very difficult with tubes. In, fret, such noise levels are not easy even with semiconductors Clearly, a compromise 1s necessary, and the best one Ehave found is 0 use semiconductors to handle the low noise and tubes to work with the large BY ERNO BORBELY signals. This is done in a cascode cir ‘cuit, where the lower part of the cas. code 18 a lownoise, dual JFET, and the ‘upper part isa low-noise dual triode, ‘The MC/MM Phono Preamp ‘The FB-1195/221 MC/MM phono pre- amp is a high quality, two stage tube pre amplifier with approximately 6348 gain fon the MC input and 4B gain on the MM input. The circuit uses three tubes and one dual, low-noise JFET per chan. nel, and works without feedback (Fig. 1). ‘The MC input stage is a low-noise, hybrid circuit made up of dual (or two matched) JFETs and 2 6922 double tei PHOTO 1: Prototype of phono proam, with enly MC input tubo intalled. Note the two HV rogulstors ‘and duseflanet roger on te thal side, Tu LEMO connector are used Tor he AC cane ‘aetons from tha transformer.FIGURE 1: MO/NI phono preamp. ode. The two JFETs and the two halves Of the double triode are connected in parallel and then in cascode. The cas- ‘code circuit derives from high-frequen: cy amplification, where low noise. wide bandwidl, and overload capabil ty are the major requisements, ‘The current in the inpit stage, deter. ined by the JFET source resistor Rf, is set to about 10mA to optimize noise ‘The reference voltage for the triodes develops across a 20V zener diode. ‘The voltage drop across V1 is 90Y, the maxi ‘mum permitted for the tube. The stage ‘must be supplied trom +210V, which ‘can be derived frum ue main 260V sup- ply through a 3.3k/4.5W resistor, or from a secondl regulated supply of 210V (ce below), Typical specifications for the MC input stage (all specs measured with 100k load: Gain 508 Frequency response | ~3dB at 80117 ™D 1v 0.08% BY 0.25% Tov 08% ‘ABOUTTHE AUTHOR ton Boraly tat been employes by National Ser Cencac Europe rhe ns 17 Yous Ho was anaes ‘rtecmeal tang ans wate as constant human reeoroe developmen He rceed an Wie dapean tecorc eres fom te nse of Tecmony UUniersy of Nanay 195 areca see yar the Noman Bradetng Corporation desing po tesa! ud equpmert. or 2 na ne ved fe US ard wa rel of erga fe Dyraco ard The Osis Hater Company. Pron 1973-1878 he workes or Noto Canara, Sie, a8 snares serge x eppleaons menage Heeb ak en ‘es rae tom Natal Semeanduioy, nas ec ior OE eutone rw he can sin nd ‘ta equ Ho Ena aloes BuleyAasu rinede Te distortion ie second harmonic, quivalent input noise: 1200 MM Input Stage The MM input stage is a cascode-con- niccted 6922. The reference voltage for the cascode tube is 80V, developed across twa zener diodes. The cirenit Works at around 9MA to get the Dest noise performance. Typical specifications for the MM input stage (measured with @ 100K load): Gain 30d8 Frequency response ~3dR at S0KH7 Distortion 03V 0.027% Vv 0.05% BV 015% lov 05% 20V 1% All distortion is second harmonic. Equivaleat input vise: 0.6:V Both MC and MM inputs have an impedance of 47k. If you need other terminating resistors for your pickups, you can solder the appropriate resistor either on the PCB or on the input con: ncctor, Capacitors Cl and C7 are sol dered on the PCB. Again, you might ‘want t0 leave these off the board and solder the appropriate ones on che input terminal or connector. You can also place hoth the terminating resistor and capacitor on a backpanel switch, Both input stages use the 6H23P- #156922 Russian military tube, which has the lowest noise I have ever mea: sured on any tube. Equally important, it has practically no microphony. You can use other equivalent tubes, but. although they might provide bewer sound, di ‘would probably degrade the circuit's noise performance Que kits are deliv TABLE PARTS LIST FOR PHONO PREAMPLIFIER ep-ies221 Resistors RIT a6 Re az PARI 10 1%, 20, ROE MIS Pe 1240 asst a 10m FS.RIS.F21, Fe" Mt 8,7, 0" tk Ps 3G 450, ROE Wee 9 [Fic 450, ROE Ws ig.nen Reo argo. Ru 100 ie ie air” az Ria ti nig eo ez Heer ean ay 120, ROE Ws rer 180 1 ROE Wi ma 100k 14, ROE re, reo 703,31 NOC WE ‘Aes are, Yo mean unless rasa rte, Capacitors chow pF, e063, PP ClcRon.cis ow eV oraan PP cacao (.2uF 400, WIAA M10 onc ‘Wu, 40, ROE EXO e {TAF 100, ROE EXO 8,018 tu, co, vA Nr -40 o Oar, 1800630, > co Snr, 1% 601, PHE 405 ors SSHF, Vor, PP 8 uF 250, MAA MP0 IFT, Tubes, Diodes a 234081 01 22K EL, malas vive IRRERE0C Rinien 3 ECCAMERIGC Tungsam mt EW seer 2 be 20Y, Wea P20 Miscellaneous 6 pn oa sockets with ga dl eras » ‘arm soder ps 2 emiagezi Poe * Leave cut 6 NL nol tans sxcbeton sep sa, 2100 rela. “A Tava ess up eae tase res, 21 GLASS AUDIO 2/9/ 33cercd with the Russian tubes, but we can The Second Stage network has an attenuation of 25dB also provide them with Siemens ESSCC The second stage, common to both MC and provides an RIAA accuracy of bet fr other equivalent tubes. Please see our and MM, contains the passive RIAA ter than +0.5d8 across the audlo band. price lst for upgrade. ‘equalization and a nmu stage. The RIAA 10 page 38 ie oe gs Te ae as FIGURE 2: Preao copper sido (100%), FIGURE 3: Preamp component sie (858. 34 GLASS AUDIO 2/97