hifisonix

Author: bonsai

  • RIAA Equalizer Amplifier Design

    This article explores the fundamental’s of phono amplifier design,  culminating in a few practical designs. Special emphasis is placed on overload margins (critical if you want good sonics from your EQ amp), driving the EQ network adequately and noise. RIAA Equalization Amplifiers V2.0 Below is the RIAA Calculator Excel spread sheet.  Please read the article above,…

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  • Ground Loops

    Updated with new material 7th January 2019 This set of c. 70 slides is the culmination of my experience over a period of about 25 years building  power amplifiers and preamplifiers. I first started out in audio around 1975 or 76 as a teenager. Some of my creations were reasonably quiet – through pure luck…

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  • MC Head Amp Circuit Compendium

    Here is the new updated moving coil head amp designs compendium – updated 31 July 2019. The first file is a PDF compendium of about 28 different circuits with noise, distortion and current consumption details. All the LTspice sim files are zipped in the second file. What is immediately apparent from this is that having…

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  • Hifisonix Ripple Eater PSU for the sx and kx-Amplifiers

    The PCB’s are  through hole plated and silk screened and are available from Jim’s Audio here: Ripple Eater PSU for kx and sx Amplifiers (please note these PCB’s are not available from the Hifisonix Shop) Here is an Excel file with the BOM:  Ripple Eater PSU BOM The BOM is provided for assistance – always…

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  • How to wire-up a Dual Mono Bloc Amplifier

    A few people have asked about wiring up a dual mono amp aka dual mono bloc. In a dual mono bloc there are separate power supplies and lots of opportunity for cross channel ground loops and ordinary ‘classic’ ground loops as well. This wiring scheme addresses the situation were unbalanced connections between the source equipment…

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  • Noise in Electronic Circuits

    I’ve gathered a few articles here on noise as a go-to reference for anyone interested in the subject. These articles really focus on Johnson noise and not induced noise which is discussed in depth in the ‘Ground Loops’ post elsewhere on this site. I will update this post with new material as and when it…

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  • Very Simple, Accurate RIAA Phono EQ Amp

    Very High Quality Silk Screened PCB’s for this project are available from Jim’s Audio here:- Hifisonix RIAA Amplifier Here is a simple no-nonsense, accurate RIAA equalizer amp you can easily build.  The design uses an all-active topology and is based around an NE5534A low noise opamp. I make no claims for originality but you wont…

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  • Amplifier History: The JBL SA-600

    The beautifully styled JBL SA-600 amplifier was launched by the James B. Lansing company in 1966, and Bart Locanthi (the designer) wrote the  technical article linked to at the bottom of this write-up in January 1967. I’ve included this in the hifisonix power amplifier library because it is one of the earliest – if not…

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  • Solid State Feedback Amplifiers: A Short History

    “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland     A Future Without Feedback by Martin Colloms There is no mysticism in amplifier design, just serious science. —Andrey A. Danilov Introduction You will recall from the The Theory of TIM by Matti Otala elsewhere on this site,…

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  • Technical Requirements of Phono Preamplifiers by Tomlinson Holman

    The two articles below were written in the 1970’s, nearly a decade before the arrival of the CD and the ‘perfect sound forever’ claim made by Philips. There was a lot of focus on phono amplifier performance at the time which it could be argued was triggered by the arrival of very high performance turntables…

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