The Sound of Silence: Lowest-Noise RIAA Phono-Amps: Designer's Guide

365 Pages·2008·14.26 MB·English

by  Burkhard Vogel (auth.)

The Sound of Silence
Burkhard Vogel
The Sound of Silence
Lowest-Noise RIAA Phono-Amps:
Designer’s Guide
123
Dipl.-Ing.BurkhardVogel
BUVOCON-BurkhardVogelConsultGmbH
70180Stuttgart,Germany
ISBN 978-3-540-76883-8 e-ISBN 978-3-540-76884-5
DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-76884-5
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2007943155
©2008Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg
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ToBeate

“Noiseanalysiscanbeadauntingtaskatfirstandisanunfamiliar
territoryformanydesignengineers.”
GlenBrisebois
Designnote355
LinearTechnology
“Noise–it’stheamplifier’stinnitus!Nochancetofightit!”
AvalveenthusiasticENTdocin
adiscussionwiththeauthor2006
“Akingdomforapieceofwirewithgain!”
Frustrateddesignengineer

Preface
Itisstillachallengetodevelopalow-noiseamplifier–despitethefactthatnowa-
days(2007)nearlyeverysolutionofanelectronicquestionoftheconsumerworld
canbesolvedbydigitalmeans.Thereisa widefieldoftasksleftthatcanonlybe
satisfyingly attacked with the help of old-fashionedanalogue technology:sensors
that are coupledto the existing and living world around us are always confronted
with analogue signals. Those – in most cases – tiny signals have to be amplified
and treatedwith unbelievablyhighelectroniccare. Therefore,frustrationonnoisy
devices should always be turned around into motivation for the search of nearly
noiselesssolutions!
As a producer of such tiny analogue signals the vinyl record (33 1/3 LP and
45 Single/Maxi) is a typical representative of our yesterday – 20th century – life.
Despite the nearly 100%digitization of the consumerworld it is still alive – with
growingsalesrevenuesaroundtheworld.Oneshouldexpectthatallsecretsofthe
amplifierchainthattransfersthesignalsoutoftherecord’sgroovestoourearsare
wellknown.Yesandno!Muchiswrittenaboutdistortion,overloadmatters,noise,
phase angles, frequency response, etc1. Most technical aspects of amplifiers and
sensorswerewelldescribed.
Butsimplequestionslikee.g.:“mymoving-magnetcartridge–howmuchnoise
doesitproduce?”or“what’sthesignal-to-noise-ratio(SN)ofmyphono-ampafter
A-weighting?”arestillnotthateasytoanswertoday.
World-wide,mathematicsistheonlylanguagethatcanbeunderstoodbynearly
everybody,assumed that there exists a certain talent for it, and, not to forget, the
right software for calculations. In this book calculations were all carried out with
MathCad2. An easy to get for free simulation software would help as well, e.g.
MicroSimv8.03 but,nottoincreasethenecessityfortheuseofvarioussoftwares,
thissimulationsoftwareisnotessentialtounderstandandfollowthemathematical
courses.
1Interalia:“SelfonAudio”,DouglasSelf2000,Newnes,UK,ISBN0-750647655
2MathSoftInc.,USA
3MicroSimCorp.,USA(seealsofootnote3onpage17)
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