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DIY High or Low Ouput Moving Coil Phono Stage

After my initial listening session the other night I got up in the morning and gave it another whirl. Thinking that sometimes I can get overly excited and may have exaggerated a bit.

I put on Side 4 of The Beatles Love album, first track the remake of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

I honestly heard things in this song I hadn't noticed before, George Harrison sounded like he was right in front of me, the musicians spread wide behind him. It was so real it made me feel as if I could reach out and touch them. Every instrument sounded real, you can literally feel the fingers on the strings.

My wife said, you have the left to right thing going on but now you also have the front to back thing going on, she said she had never heard it like that before.

I am sure there are other phono stages out there that may equal it, but those would have price tags resembling phone numbers.

I pulled the RCA's and power leads off last evening as I bought a nice case for it at Fry's. I have all the RCA's, switch, LED and ground screw installed. Just need to put the board in this evening and wire it up.

I am going for the 4 x 6v lantern batteries which will be in another box out of sight, I got some 3 pin molex connectors on the cable at the battery end.

I told myself I am not going to mess with other components and op amps and will leave it as is. Well that's what I told myself.:D

I will post pics once it's done.
 
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I'm looking forward to this build, but I have a couple noob questions.

Will this circuit eliminate the need for a step up or head amp? It sounds like you can custom load it for any given LOMC, yes?
 
nu2toobs said:
I'm looking forward to this build, but I have a couple noob questions.

Will this circuit eliminate the need for a step up or head amp? It sounds like you can custom load it for any given LOMC, yes?
Click to expand...

It is only for Moving Coil carts either low or high output so you don't need any step up devices.

Yes it has to be matched to each cart but there is a gain calculator that you just punch in resistance of your cart and the output in mv's and it gives the value of R1 and R2. These are the only variables in the circuit.
 
Pics of the case I bought at Frys, it turned out quite well, not as professional as some but my first attempt at putting something I made in a proper case.

I used some plastic plugs for the stand offs, I just drilled holes in the bottom of the case and used short screws to secure them in place. The board just clips on and off. I am using 4 x 6v lantern battery's to give it +12v, 0, -12v so it should go for a long time. I think it sounds slightly better than the twin 9v's, which is amazing to say the least.

Inside.jpg


Front.jpg


Back.jpg
 
HypnoToad said:
Pics of the case I bought at Frys, it turned out quite well, not as professional as some but my first attempt at putting something I made in a proper case.

I used some plastic plugs for the stand offs, I just drilled holes in the bottom of the case and used short screws to secure them in place. The board just clips on and off. I am using 4 x 6v lantern battery's to give it +12v, 0, -12v so it should go for a long time. I think it sounds slightly better than the twin 9v's, which is amazing to say the least....
Click to expand...

Phillip, Your enthusiasm and efforts never fail to impress me. Great work, my friend.
 
nu2toobs said:
Would a Pyramid PS-3KX work as a power supply with this phono stage?
Click to expand...

It would power it but I am not sure about the noise, when you use lomc carts you need a well filtered quiet supply to avoid noise and hum.

I prefer batteries for this reason as you have both low noise and no hum, but that's just me.
 
You guys are just having way too much fun!

Sadly, there are no Fry's anywhere near here, only RS.

Your board looks ready to sing in the box and I like the clean, slick look.

Enjoy - - -

.
 
HypnoToad said:
It would power it but I am not sure about the noise, when you use lomc carts you need a well filtered quiet supply to avoid noise and hum.

I prefer batteries for this reason as you have both low noise and no hum, but that's just me.
Click to expand...
I have one that I'm using with a V-LPS, I may try it, and if it's noisy I'll go with batteries.
 
Fantastic! :thmbsp:

I think I know what the next project in my project queue has to be! :yes:
 
Slick

HypnoToad said:
Pics of the case I bought at Frys, it turned out quite well, not as professional as some but my first attempt at putting something I made in a proper case.

I used some plastic plugs for the stand offs, I just drilled holes in the bottom of the case and used short screws to secure them in place. The board just clips on and off. I am using 4 x 6v lantern battery's to give it +12v, 0, -12v so it should go for a long time. I think it sounds slightly better than the twin 9v's, which is amazing to say the least.

Inside.jpg
Click to expand...



Fantastic!!
 
An interesting find while doing research on pre-amps.

Aurak_22_Schematic.jpg
 

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