What do you think of this preamp design?


I've been on the hunt for a preamp and came across the Audio-gd C3 final version:

http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/pre/C3End/C3endEN.htm

It comes with schematic of the signal section. Does it seem to be well executed? Any obvious or subtle design flaws? It has had some positive reviews by owners on the web.
dracule1

Showing 2 responses by kirkus

It looks overly complex... A very competent solid state line stage could easily be built with about 1/3 the components. The op-amp in the feedback loop looks to me like an outright design problem...
The opamp is obviously an integrator (DC servo) used to set the quiescent conditions of the "BPM-7110" module, which appears to use current feedback, and a very high output impedance (current drive). The buffer stages are used to interface with non-CAST components. Really not so complicated.

Atmasphere, there's certainly not enough information here to trash this design so thoroughly, and English is obviously not his native tongue. While this is also not the way I go about designing a linestage, it's about as thoroughly "Power Paradigm" as it gets. To me, his stuff looks interesting, unconventional, and definitely reasonably priced compared to many.
What we're talking about is a textbook integrator circuit . . . the 1 Meg resistor and 100nF cap are even common values, giving a 0.1 second time constant, equivalent to 1.6Hz. The reason behind the extra RC on the input is unclear, as it doesn't create a second-order slope . . . but this is definitely more of a conceptual schematic than an accurate circuit reference. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I think that the Chinese high-end audio industry may be in the same state today as the Japanese industry was in the late 1960s . . . that is, with some interesting designs with their own unique cultural flavor are starting to be available for export. And amidst a sea of cheap manufactured goods and copies of Western legacy gear, I think this is the sort of thing that consumers of high-end audio should take notice of.