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The Boozhound Labs JFET phono preamp kit

Try a shunt regulator for your phono pre

I built the Salas phono and shunt regulator from DIYaudio. If I remember, it's loosely based on the Pacific phono preamp. My limited experience with shunt regulation makes believe it's the real tabasco. Things just seem quieter in the background. I've also used a CCS fed shunt regulator in my tube line stage.

regulator:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/powe...listic-salas-low-voltage-shunt-regulator.html

preamp:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/analogue-source/129126-simplistic-njfet-riaa.html

Enjoy,
John
 
cubby01 said:
Didn't see any of his kits currently available on the epay machine but he did have some matched jfets listed. I probably have most else needed for a scratch build so I grabbed the jfets for now. The kit does look super though. :yes:

Ive got a couple 12V/12 AH sealed lead acid batteries I can series for 24v. That's just a straight plug-in right or do I need to do something to limit current. Suppose a fuse might be a good idea.
Click to expand...

Just a little follow up. It took me what seems like forever to find time to cobble this together but after tracing a minor screw-up on my part (100 ohm resistors where 100K should be) it lives. I used orange drops or similar metalized polypro caps instead of the PIOs. From what I can tell a very nice sounding circuit, certainly better than either the onboard stages I'd been using in my office or the cheap PNP transistor based stand alone phono preamps I've used in other areas. Someday I will have to try the BHL kit caps.

Nate, you still running yours? Any change in sound or opinion?

-Buck
 
cubby01 said:
Just a little follow up. It took me what seems like forever to find time to cobble this together but after tracing a minor screw-up on my part (100 ohm resistors where 100K should be) it lives. I used orange drops or similar metalized polypro caps instead of the PIOs. From what I can tell a very nice sounding circuit, certainly better than either the onboard stages I'd been using in my office or the cheap PNP transistor based stand alone phono preamps I've used in other areas. Someday I will have to try the BHL kit caps.

Nate, you still running yours? Any change in sound or opinion?

-Buck
Click to expand...
Hey Buck, I'm curious as to why you opted to use different caps in your build. :scratch2: The fellas over at Lenco Heaven have gone down that road too, but they're dropping all sorts of boutique-y caps into the kit. It's been fun reading about their... adventures.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've already sent mine down the road to another AKer. Not because it's not a nice phonostage (it most certainly is!), but because the one in my main system is so much nicer. And it should be too, given the multiples of price difference between the two.

I suspect that we'll hear from the new owner soon.
 
Well it wasn't so much that I chose different caps for a specific reason - after you posted yours I went looking for the kit and found that Jason over at BHL was out of stock but he had some matched JFETs for sale and having a double dose of the cheap gene I bought those and figured I'd just do a scratch build with what I could quickly pull together. In hind site that's a nice pcb and parts he has and probably well it for the convenience alone.

In the mean time I saw what the Lenco Heaven folks were doing with the teflons, etc but to tell the truth those boutique caps would be probably be lost on my gear and ears.
 
Nate was kind enough to sell me the BLH phono stage that he assembled (the one in the pics at the beginning of this thread), and it's been in my main system for several weeks now. When I received it, I did a brief comparison with my Acurus P10, meaning to write up my impressions for this thread. Well, other things got in the way, but seeing that there's some renewed interest in it now, I'll take this opportunity to go back over some of my thoughts. It's certainly a piece of equipment that deserves to have something said about it, even if I'm drawing mostly from memory here.

I contacted Nate about the BHL phono because, at the time, the Acurus was tied up and I wanted to be able to use a turntable with my Promitheus TVC, which pairs very nicely with the Odyssey Khartago that I have in my primary system. I should say from the outset that I don't have much experience with the wide variety of phono stages in the BHL's price range (last I checked, the kit, minus power supply, is ~$70), but for the money this strikes me as a very, very good preamp. It certainly has a more lively LF presentation than the Acurus, which tends, to my ear, to be more balanced across the frequency range. Listening to the Fela Kuti 10" reissue (which was the prize of my Record Store Day last year) through the Acurus is enjoyable, with very clear highs, but it lacks the propulsion and driving bass and drums of the BHL. In turn, the BHL gives up some of the air and upper-range clarity of the Acurus, but I found myself preferring its sound, perhaps because of the cartridge/turntable setup I was using: a Systemdek IIX and Audio Technica AT150mlx. I like both the table and the cart a lot, but, to my ear, the AT150mlx can sizzle at the top end, and perhaps the BHL mitigated this a little. If I had to describe each phono stage in a word, for the Acurus I'd say "clarity" and for the BHL, "musical."

Writing all this makes me think that I need to dress it up a little more. Right now, it's buttoned up in a plain black project box, but if I can find some time and the right enclosure, maybe I'll put that wenge veneer I bought recently to good use.

And thanks again, Nate, for parting with yours, and for starting this thread in the first place.
 
Nate,

I was looking closely at the pictures of your build, and took notice of the the RCA "jacks." 'Jacks" seems to be an understatement, can you tell me what you used for the jacks, and where you purchased them?

Thanks,

Alan
 
BHL FET Phono Stage Kit

I want to purchase one of the BHL phono preamp kits can anyone out there
help me. Their site sends me to ebay, but when I go there, all thats offered
is the power transformer. Anyone have a way I can contact them directly.

Thanks,
cws4227
 
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