luvdunhill Posted January 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 How would you rate the sound quality between the XONO and Pearl? They both sound great! At the moment, I have an adjustable RIAA filter in the Pearl to select between Decca/Columbia/etc. curves and uses an all polystyrene RIAA filter. I'll be using this with an Ortofon SPU cartridge. Different cartridges, and different applications. I've tweaked both circuits to sound the way I want them to given their intended application. If you're really interested in a comparison, I'm not sure how to really provide that, since from the start I've approached these projects as separate and had a very specific intended use for both. I only hooked the Pearl up once to my LOMC cartridge just to verify the gain for you and give a quick listen, hardly time to form an opinion... I didn't really see the need to do so Congratulations on your purchase though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigiPete Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Congratulations on your purchase though! Thanks! Questioning the tonearm? Not sure what you meant? Did you get the ONO boards from Rahlf Stens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted January 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2009 Thanks! Questioning the tonearm? Not sure what you meant? Did you get the ONO boards from Rahlf S? yes I did. But in fact, I think modding a ONO would be a better route. First, his boards do not allow for the Japanese transistors pinouts and he has substituted the BCXXX critters in their place... this may or may not be an issue for you. However, even if they did fit, many are impossible to find... even harder than the 2SK389. Assuming you get past that, there is one LED in the CCS that has a 1.5V forward drop that is next to impossible to find.. I finally got one from someone that yanked them out of floppy drives and know exactly which ones had this drop. Now, of course you could play around with the values and what not, but again, this may be an issue for you, depending on how faithful to the original spec you want to be... it was more trivial than just changing a few resistors though, I do remember that. Also, the DDPAK MOSFETs in the balanced portion of the circuit in the original design are installed on the bottom of the boards and coupled to the case. This is very hard to do with these boards and they are hard to keep cool unless you are very creative. Also, these really need to be matched, and heck if I know a good way to do that with this form factor. Finally and most importantly, matching the quad of 2SK170 at the very low end of the Idss range is very hard to do. I'd guess you will get one tightly matched quad out of 50 devices, given the sum of the devices current needs to be below some number. If not, then there are issues with the gain jumpers working properly and the second stage doesn't bias properly. Again, there may be ways around this, but who knows. It was a very fun project and there are benefits to these boards, such as DC coupling the output and being able to really tweak the RIAA filter with yummy parts. It's a well thought out design and layout as well, got to give him credit for that, and sounds fantastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigiPete Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Thanks for the info on the DIY ONO boards. Listening to the Zyx Airy3 now Big step up from the Denon DL160. Bigger soundstage, much more resolving, deep bass, more extended highs, and much cleaner sounding. When I installed it I forgot to switch the loading resistor and still had the Pearl set up for the 47kohm. I think the cart is almost unstable electrically (feedback) with this load. Just moving the tonearm I could hear vibrations coming out of the speakers. And putting it on the record and off I got huge pops, one of them put my amp into some sort of thermal protect mode I think (got a loud popping noise repeating about 1-2 times a second, scared the sh*t out of me.) Anyway I let the amp rest for about 20 minutes. Then I remembered the loading resistor. Switched to 100ohms, and everything worked normal again when I turned it back on. No more loud needle noise/feedback from vibration and the amp was okay, as well as my speakers. That was spooky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 DigiPete I'd love to see your Pearl build, as well as the rest of your vinyl setup. Congrats on the new cartridge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigiPete Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 DigiPete I'd love to see your Pearl build, as well as the rest of your vinyl setup. Congrats on the new cartridge! Here is the TT setup http://www.head-case.org/forums/off-topic/1488-post-last-thing-you-bought-437.html#post198812 I posted some pics of the Pearl in progress in this thread http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/3931-pass-pearl-pcbs-related-parts-10.html#post156714 http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/3931-pass-pearl-pcbs-related-parts-18.html#post178218 Ill try to snap a few pics of the completed unit when I button it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Cool, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Pass labs Unveils XP-15 Phono Preamp | AV Guide "The extremely low-noise/high-gain structure of the XP-15 is capable of delivering more than 0.5 Volt of line-level signal output with a cartridge input of 80 micro-volts (0.08 mv). Pass Labs believes these to be the best performance figures in the industry for a phono-stage." I'm guessing it's pretty similar to the Xono, to get those gain figures... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepak Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Hot. Do you think there will be any disadvantage to having the power supply in the same chassis as the phono given the microvoltages involved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Hot. Do you think there will be any disadvantage to having the power supply in the same chassis as the phono given the microvoltages involved? hah! I'll ask NP I'm assuming you're poking fun at me? anyways, either it meets the specs or it doesn't. My guess is that it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepak Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 hah! I'll ask NP I'm assuming you're poking fun at me? anyways, either it meets the specs or it doesn't. My guess is that it does. Hehe I'm not making fun of you (not sure why you thought that unless this was about the case discussion in the DynaF thread ) I was really curious, since a selling (marketing?) point of the updated XOno was the dual chassis design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Hehe I'm not making fun of you (not sure why you thought that ) I'm a firm member of team single chassis. Dual chassis is/was FOTM, meaning something the consumer wanted, but something the serious designers saw issues with... perhaps, people are suddenly realizing that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 I'm a firm member of team single chassis. Dual chassis is/was FOTM, meaning something the consumer wanted, but something the serious designers saw issues with... perhaps, people are suddenly realizing that. I think you're over-generalizing just a bit here Marc or perhaps I'm over-reading your comments? Dual chassis designs have their pluses and minuses just like single chassis builds do. Saying that "serious designers" saw issues with it and are now moving away from it because all it represented was some FOTM/fad is pretty presumptuous. I'd love to see internal pics of that preamp to see what sort of shielding the transformer has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsavitsk Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Assuming you get past that, there is one LED in the CCS that has a 1.5V forward drop that is next to impossible to find. Vf is always dependent on current and ambient temperature. Just because it drops 1.5V in one place, does not mean it will somewhere else. MBR1100 is rated to drop 0.68V, but with a little warmth that will increase to 0.75. Use a pair in series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 I'm a firm member of team single chassis. Dual chassis is/was FOTM, meaning something the consumer wanted, but something the serious designers saw issues with... perhaps, people are suddenly realizing that. I think you're over-generalizing just a bit here Marc or perhaps I'm over-reading your comments? Dual chassis designs have their pluses and minuses just like single chassis builds do. Saying that "serious designers" saw issues with it and are now moving away from it because all it represented was some FOTM/fad is pretty presumptuous. I'd love to see internal pics of that preamp to see what sort of shielding the transformer has. Gotta agree with Nate here on the over-generalizing. Plant me firmly in the dual chassis crowd on certain applications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Gotta agree with Nate here on the over-generalizing. Plant me firmly in the dual chassis crowd on certain applications. heh, ok I was being sensational on purpose a bit deepak started it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepak Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 heh, ok I was being sensational on purpose a bit deepak started it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted May 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 hm, lookie what I found: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 hm, lookie what I found: Is that a balanced Pearl? When will you have mine ready? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted May 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 Is that a balanced Pearl? When will you have mine ready? no, it's the new Pass single box phono called the XP-15. Supposedly sounds better than the Xono at half the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 no, it's the new Pass single box phono called the XP-15. Supposedly sounds better than the Xono at half the price. Is mine finished yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepak Posted July 2, 2009 Report Share Posted July 2, 2009 I'm going to offer up my complete Pearl kit for parts cost that luvdunhill put together. I'm making an upcoming expensive purchase, and this phono stage is far better than my vinyl setup warrants. PM me if interested, pictures tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvdunhill Posted December 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 Pearl Two - Page 4 - diyAudio Pearl Two - Page 5 - diyAudio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetoole Posted December 30, 2009 Report Share Posted December 30, 2009 I wonder how hard it would be to DC couple the output. Probably not very, at least with a servo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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