The sound of silence : lowest-noise RIAA phono-amps : designer's guide

There is a wide field of tasks left that can only be satisfyingly attacked with the help of old-fashioned analog technology. One of the most important fields is that of amplifiers for analog signals - such as for audio purposes. The content of this book will lead to affordable phono amplifier design approaches which will end up in lowest-noise solutions not far away from the edge of physical boundaries set by room temperature and given cartridges - thus, fully compatible with very expensive so called "high-end" or "state-of-the-art" offers on today markets - and, from a noise point of view, in most cases outperforming them! In this 2 nd edition it is demonstrated with easy to follow mathematical treatment that theory is not far away from reality. Measured signal-to-noise ratios of solid-state and valve designs, both alternatively driven by transformers, will be found within 1dB off the calculated ones and deviations from the exact RIAA transfer won't cross the ± 0.1dB tolerance lines. Additionally, the book presents measurement set-ups and results. Consequently, comparisons with measurement results and test approaches of test magazine will be discussed too. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Amps, Pre-amps, Pre-pre-amps....Pages 3-8 RIAA Transfer/Anti-RIAA Transfer....Pages 9-16 Vinyl Record Reference Levels....Pages 17-27 Front Matter....Pages 29-29 Noise in Components and Other General Noise Effects....Pages 31-53 Noise in Bipolar Junction Transistors....Pages 55-76 Noise in Field Effect Transistors....Pages 77-94 Noise in Valves (US: Tubes)....Pages 95-152 Noise in Operational Amplifiers....Pages 153-164 Noise in Instrumentation Amps....Pages 165-178 Noise in Transformers....Pages 179-199 Noise of Vinyl Records: On How Much Phono-Amp SN is Needed?....Pages 201-224 Noise Basics: Mathcad Worksheets....Pages 225-280 Front Matter....Pages 281-281 Noise of MM Cartridges....Pages 283-305 Noise of MM Cartridges: Mathcad Worksheets....Pages 307-317 Noise of Solid-State MC Phono-Amps....Pages 319-343 Noise of Solid-State MC Phono-Amps: Mathcad Worksheets....Pages 345-366 Noise of Triode Driven Phono-Amps....Pages 367-418 Noise of Triode Driven Phono-Amps: Mathcad Worksheets....Pages 419-503 RIAA Networks....Pages 505-534 RIAA Networks: Mathcad Worksheets....Pages 535-556 Front Matter....Pages 557-557 System Overview....Pages 559-571 Measurement Amps, Noise Generators and FFT Noise Measurements....Pages 573-590 Measurement Filters and Networks....Pages 591-615 The Hum Figure of Linear Amps....Pages 617-629 The Hum Figure of Phono-Amps....Pages 631-644 Mathcad Worksheets of Chaps. 22–25....Pages 645-667 Front Matter....Pages 669-669 Overview....Pages 671-677 Modules 1–4....Pages 679-691 Engine Performance....Pages 693-704 Back Matter....Pages 705-752 There is a wide field of tasks left that can only be satisfyingly attacked with the help of old-fashioned analogue technology, and one of the most important are amplifiers for analogue signals. The strongly expanded content of the second edition of "the sound of silence" leads to affordable amplifier design approaches which will end up in lowest-noise solutions not far away from the edge of physical boundaries set by room temperature and given cartridges - thus, fully compatible with very expensive so called "high-end" or "state-of-the-art" offers on today markets - and, from a noise point of view in most cases outperforming them! With easy to follow mathematical treatment it is demonstrated as well that theory is not far away from reality. Measured SNs will be found within 1dB off the calculated ones and deviations from the exact amplifier transfer won't cross the ± 0.1dB tolerance lines. Additionally, the book presents measurement set-ups and results. Consequently, comparisons with measurement results of test magazine will soon become easier to perform. This new edition includes a new chapters about reference levels, Noise in Amp Input sections, Humming Problems, and much more.