Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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RE: DIY'ing

Posted by Duster (M) on February 17, 2015 at 15:46:46

In Reply to: DIY'ing posted by jedrider on February 17, 2015 at 14:08:37:

Here's my 2 pennies worth. I'm a user of a nice sounding solid state preamplifier featuring a few design factors that are important to me:

A vital aspect is the sonic signature (or lack thereof) of the volume potentiometer, since it has a profound effect on the signal. A volume control is by nature a necessary evil piled on top of a second gain stage which already ruins the Audiophile Holy Grail of "straight wire with gain". Perhaps the best one can hope for is the original signal from the source component is not poorly affected, and the signal output circuit of the preamplifier complements the signal input circuit of the power amplification involved.

Another vital aspect is having a separate outboard power supply unit in order to isolate the power supply from the preamplifier circuit board, as well as potentially better optimize the layout of the preamplifier circuit board when the power supply section is eliminated from the scenario. Make sure to build a high performance DIY DC umbilical to use between the outboard power supply and the preamplifier unit. I reckon the power supply is the heart of a preamplifier, which in turn is the heart of an audio system, for better or worse.

Vibration control, power line filtering, and the choice of AC power cord can make a big impact on the ultimate result, IME.

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