lewm

Responses from lewm

Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
I think your experience must be limited, and I disagree with your premise. Not to say those vintage units were better than what we have now, but only to say you might be surprised at the similarities between old and new circuit designs. We simply ... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
What Dover said.  I can give you some "obvious" advantages of a full function preamplifier vs separate line and phono stages. Provided you allow for the luxury of an outboard PS for the full function preamp, I would argue that is the inherently su... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
The fact that most audiophiles used a "full function" preamplifier back in the 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s, rather than a dedicated phono stage does not in my book mean that phono was taken for granted or given the short end of the stick. In f... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
The reason "NFB" goes hand in hand with "active" gain in a phono stage is that by implementing NFB there is an inevitable loss of overall gain. (With NFB, some of the voltage output of the stage is reverted back to the input or some earlier stage ... 
Where's Mijo?
Yes, he’s a dust cover down/ idler hater/ digital room corrector but fun to argue with.  
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
Leben is free to invent jargon but a phono stage with NFB uses C and R to effect the NFB. Hence it’s still a “CR” phono stage. But now I see where you got your idea. Like Dover said, you can also implement RIAA using inductors, plus R and C. There... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
What?  
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
So I am trying to define some terms.  The only meaning of "CR" as applied to a phono stage is to indicate that the RIAA filter is effected with capacitors and resistors.  To say that the phono stage incorporates NFB or does not incorporate NFB is ... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
The term “CR filter” as applied to an RIAA network means only that the RIAA curve is achieved using capacitors and resistors (also including the input or output impedance of a tube as part of the filter). Such a circuit can be passive or active an... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
One could write a thousand words on this subject, but suffice to say that while no one can say that your dissatisfaction with modern phono stages is "wrong" (because you are entitled to that opinion), one might fairly say that your thesis for why ... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
Every phono stage in history up to about 10 years ago used CR type RIAA filtering. The Citation IV was pretty nice for an early SS effort. HP loved it, I think.  
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
I recall driving in the dark in rural northern Virginia with a good friend of mine, also a crazy audiophile, to find the home of a guy who owned the PF C7, so we could have a listen. I think he was a dealer who could also sell us one.  And you are... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
It was the Audio Research SP3, 3A, 3B, 3C, etc, that captivated the premier audio journalist of the 70s, Harry Pearson. Not the SP6 so much.  I remember when a friend bought an SP3, because he worked in an audio salon and could get a big discount.... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
It's no secret that tube phono stages tend to have much higher phono overload tolerance compared to SS ones. However, that is rarely a problem when the driving cartridge is a typical LOMC type.  It's when you pair a SS phono with an MM or high out... 
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
Pani, I don't know what country you live in, but in the USA, when LOMC cartridges were first introduced in the early to mid 70s, most audiophiles owned phono stages with only MM levels of gain.  Everyone needed a gain booster of some kind in order...