2. amps-preamps
  3. 140029-80294

Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.

I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.

I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.

I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.

I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.

On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.

I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.

Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.


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ramtubes's avatar
ramtubes OP
460 posts
 
@atmasphere 

Does anyone find this interesting or alarming that we call the RIAA curve the big one and not make much mention that it is for velocity transducers only?

Ralph please explain your comment below.
No. Its well understood that is the case. There has been some controversy over other types of transducers as you point out, won't be properly equalized. IMO/IME the producers of such cartridges should offer their products with an equalizer to set things right.


Would readers care to comment that this is news that the RIAA curve is only 12 db not 40 db bottom to top.

Producers of amplitude cartridges do provide EQ, they have to in their box that powers the cartridge. Sao Win tried to EQ mechanically with little success. I built the equipment so he could measure his cartridges (which he did not before). Soon after he gave it all up from frustration of lack of uniformity. 
 
A year or two ago the Panasonic cartridge was reviewed with its"box" and there were great errors found in the resulting frequency response. The reviewer was a bit disappointed that these people could not get it right. 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,590 posts
 
There have been a few other strain gauge cartridges offered with similar issues.
So what is the cutting curve? Can you show us please?
Yes. The RIAA pre-emphasis is the algebraic sum of the ordinates of three curves, each expressed in dB:

A parallel L/R network with a TC of 3180 milliseconds

A series RC network of 318 milliseconds

A parallel RC network of 75 milliseconds

From top to bottom the range is a bit over 35 dB.
ramtubes's avatar
ramtubes OP
460 posts
 
 @atmasphere 
Ralph, How about a curve. People here cant understand what you said, can anyone?

Can you ever give a simple answer?

From 500 Hz to 2000 Hz the response on the record is lifted at a rate of 6 dB/octave for two octaves. Thats 12 db total. Is this your understanding?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,590 posts
 
I'm sure someone can understand my prior answer. I know you can, therefore to your first question, 'yes'.

To the second, also 'yes' but the question you asked didn't have a simple answer- some questions are like that :)


To the third, a correct answer requires a correct question- the **response** is not raised; the **pre-emphasis** is, and by about 5 db (so the simple answer is thus 'no'). Remember that the curve is just that and is the amalgam of three timing constants. The range of frequencies to which you refer is the area where the response is relatively flat compared to the rest of the curve. It isn't flat because of the ordinates of the timing constants. So its a gentle curve in that range, and the **pre-emphasis** is 'lifted' by about 5 db over that range, not 12.


There are plenty of images on the web.  Fig. 2 of the article at the link below is pretty good- you can see the 5 db or so rise in the pre-emphasis in the range of frequencies about which you asked:


https://www.stereophile.com/features/cut_and_thrust_riaa_lp_equalization/index.html



ramtubes's avatar
ramtubes OP
460 posts
 
Ralph

Thanks for the link. It is clear to me that above and below 1 KHZ there is 6 dB of EQ on either side of the red line, making a total of 12 dB as stated before.

To be clear I am not talking about what is fed to the velocity sensitive cutting head but what is actually in the groove and what one must compensate for with a constant amplitude cartridge. It is interesting to note that in the better RCA consoles of the 1950s RCA actually applied this 12 dB shelf to their crystal (amplititude sensitive) cartridges. I dont know anyone else who did. 

The time constants are indeed 2 octaves apart at a rate of 6 dB/octave. Of course the corners are rounded but the eventual preemphasis is 12 dB starting at 500 Hz. 

See figure 2...  https://www.stereophile.com/features/cut_and_thrust_riaa_lp_equalization/index.html

This is also interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization

Since the readers here dont seem too interested, I am going to sit this one out. 
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