Ceramic Phonostage Build

[Record Player]

FYI...

Was reading through a good thread on RIAA Equalization.

RIAA equalisation for Ceramic cartridges? - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

 

[reubensm]

So finally it was time for the test run of the ceramic phonostage today. Powered it up using a switchable German Friwo Power Supply, set at 6volts. Sound was coming from only one of the channels. Ran some checks and noticed that the transistor of the other channel was faulty. Got a spare one from the store this evening and will be replacing the faulty one tomorrow morning. Initial sounds coming from the working channel were quite pleasant sounding. Solid bass and adequate highs. Noticed that there was a significant reduction in the surface noise (probably due to the rolled off highs of the RIAA equalizer) when using the phonostage, compared to wiring the ceramic cart direct to the Aux input of the amp. Listened to some 78s and the sound was more than pleasant. Thrilled with the outcome.

 

[reubensm]

Changed the faulty BC109C and now both the channels are working well. Listened to some 78s and 45s this morning. Sounding really nice. The highs are not as enhanced as when listening to my Shure M44-7 but the marginal roll-off actually helps cancel out a lot of the back ground noise on the 78s. Overall, I think the choice of circuit for the phonostage was good. Currently phonostage is burning in and we are currently working on a powersupply for it.

Will post photos in a day or two. Camera is not with me today.

 

[MAYHEM_METAL]

Thats Cool !! Awesome :clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping:

I myself wanted to built a Ceramic Phonostage but was not sure where to start. Now I will give it a shot. What about the output when connected to the aux input

Eagerly awaiting the photos

 

[alwayslogo]

Recently got a Sonodyne jetline stereo amplifier with ceramic cartridge input. It has also got a Filter button, which when turned on significantly reduces the noise of the scratchy records. There is separate Bass and Treble control for 2 channels. The sound is very sweet and the getting good bass.

Logo

 

[reubensm]

Thats Cool !! Awesome :clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping:

I myself wanted to built a Ceramic Phonostage but was not sure where to start. Now I will give it a shot. What about the output when connected to the aux input

Eagerly awaiting the photos

I ran the phonostage on a 0-12 volt adjustable power supply made by Friwo, Germany. Did all the listening in the 6volt position. Ideally the stage should run at 12-16 volts. Obviously at that point, the gain will increase. We ran all the trials on a NAD 3020A amp and it sounded as loud as the MM phonostage with the volume control in the 9 o'clock position. I chose the single transistor config as when we connected the cart directly to the Aux input, noticed that the gain was very high and thought we would not require amplification, just RIAA equalization. The phonostage produces good bass and highs, sounds pretty good on Columbia and Stateside 78s.

 

[reubensm]

Recently got a Sonodyne jetline stereo amplifier with ceramic cartridge input. It has also got a Filter button, which when turned on significantly reduces the noise of the scratchy records. There is separate Bass and Treble control for 2 channels. The sound is very sweet and the getting good bass.

Logo

Yes, contrary to popular belief, ceramic carts with good equalization can produce good bass response. I thought the highs were less when compared to magnetic carts, however this is noticed while using this ceramic phonostage. The cart by itself produces ample highs which the RIAA equalization rolls off. Guess if I can play around with the roll-off percentile, the highs can be increased. On another note, its better to have a bit of roll off as this acts as a good filter of surface noise.

 

[reubensm]

Working on the powersupply today. Again, since we are talking about a RC210 Garrard here, don't want to do anything expensive or complicated. Keeping it very simple and straight forward, with all locally procured components. Have decided to go in for a simple full-wave rectifier with a 1000mfd filter capacitor, based on a 9 volt power transformer. Noticed that there was absolutely no hum with the Friwo powersupply but that is an expensive one, made in Germany. Lets see how the home-brewed one works. That's a project for new year's eve.

 

[reubensm]

Welcomed the New Year with some serious LP listening on the Garrard RC210 with EEI CS2000 and my ceramic phonostage and I must say that I was quite impressed. Overall, the highs were not shrill but very smooth and relaxing, cancelling out most of the ticks, pops and surface noise. The bass was tight and deep, did not tonk at all. Had to mount up the turntable to demo it for some friends, hence could not take pics of the phonostage. Shall open up the turntable and take some pics over the weekend. I have designed a plinth for the turntable and the phonostage is to be included as in-built. The amp used was my 3020.

 

[reubensm]

Here are some pics of the mounted TT. Pics of the phonostage to come over the weekend:

http://www.hifivision.com/phono-tur...restoration-tragedy-ecstasy-5.html#post558768

 

[reubensm]

Did some long listening through the night running from New Year's eve, until when BBC was showing the New Year's celebration live at London Eye (5:30am IST). I was thrilled to note that an ordinary ceramic cart can actually sound good. I was amazed by the imagery, which is something usually not associated with ceramic carts (as they often suffer from the un-even channel output syndrome). I have gone with the approach of soldering the phonostage directly to the tag board where the tonearm wires terminate. Also soldered the grounding tag directly to the board. This eliminates the need of the grounding wire to the amp. The phonostage is dead-silent with the FRIWO powersupply but I am expecting a fight with hum once I introduce the inbuilt powersupply. Also planning to increase the powersupply output from 6volts to 12volts, just to see what happens. I don't think too much gain on a phonostage is a plus anyways as it will lead to more noise. Photos and further updates to follow by this week.

Edit: the output of the phonnostage is quite adequate with the 6volts powersupply. It plays quite loud with the amplifier volume control in the 8 o'clock position.

 

[reubensm]

Pics till be up later today

On another note, I had a nice conversation with our fellow forum member hildebrand sometime week before last. It was nice speaking to him, we talked out 78rpm records and ceramic carts. He is getting himself a Garrard changer with a ceramic cart and we talked about the different aspects related to using the ceramic cart with modern amplifiers, like the Norge amps. He has been watching my phonostage build and was particularly interested in the results. On the other hand, I offered to save him the trouble of looking around, by building a similar phonostage for him. Of course, as is the case most of the time, got busy with work and there was a week's delay. Was able to pick up the components for him over last week and now its time to build him the phonostage. I shall cover this build in more detail, step by step (unlike my usual style where I tend to cover the finished products). This is to give everyone an insight into how easy this really is (may seem complex as we are not using PCB, the lovely and easy to work with ones, created by Sachin and Mr. Mishra). Will also be testing the phonostage thoroughly and will attempt to give it some burn-in before packaging it. Watch this space for more, later today.

 

[reubensm]

Love to do this old-school. Like back in the days when I was at Junior School. Dad used to insist that we draw out the circuit before any project as it improves understanding of what is connected where (these were the days before DIY PCBs). So here goes, drew out the circuit and categorized the components:

 

[hildebrand]

Love to do this old-school. Like back in the days when I was at Junior School. Dad used to insist that we draw out the circuit before any project as it improves understanding of what is connected where (these were the days before DIY PCBs). So here goes, drew out the circuit and categorized the components:

Thanks a lot for doing this. It should be quite educational.
I see you went mostly for electrolytic capacitors. A couple seem to be disk type ones too.
The circuit reminds me of the scary amplifier circuits once seen for my Linear Devices & Applications paper in college.
For both the Left and right signals, stage seems to have both C-E amplifier configuration and I see you've used a good amount of decoupling capacitors.
You make everything look simple. It takes some efforts to make such things work in my opinion!
Finally must say your Dad was very wise

 

[reubensm]

Thanks a lot for doing this. It should be quite educational.
I see you went mostly for electrolytic capacitors. A couple seem to be disk type ones too.
The circuit reminds me of the scary amplifier circuits once seen for my Linear Devices & Applications paper in college.
For both the Left and right signals, stage seems to have both C-E amplifier configuration and I see you've used a good amount of decoupling capacitors.
You make everything look simple. It takes some efforts to make such things work in my opinion!
Finally must say your Dad was very wise

Yes indeed, decoupling is factored. One little change from the one I've built for myself, I've used a regular el-cheapo ceramic disc capacitor, 47nf, for bias. For your version, I am using a high quality polyester foil 47nf cap. Not that there may be any noticeable difference but thought I'll do this better.

 

[reubensm]

So finally got down to some work last night, had to go out with family last evening so could start only late night.

Made a start by cleaning all the contacts of the components using an old razor blade:

Then cleaned the tag side of the bread board with medical spirit:

Got down to drilling the mounting holes for the bread board, using primitive methods:

The board with the mounting holes drilled:

One final check on the transistors (BC109C), just to make sure:

Got the transistors on-board first (usually not done this way but I took this approach as I am comfortable with it):

Have left the component connectors at full length, just in case they need to be replaced in the future, a simple clip and solder job would do:

Got the bias components on:

And then went on to complete the board by 5am:

Then called it a day. Today's work will include a clean up of the under side of the board using medical spirit (for removing excess flux) and a top-up of the solder to the tags. Then will wire it a do a test run.

Edit: would have gone on but wanted to catch the action from the Ashes Test at Sydney

 

[peace_sells]

So finally got down to some work last night, had to go out with family last evening so could start only late night.

One final check on the transistors (BC109C), just to make sure:

Then called it a day. Today's work will include a clean up of the under side of the board using medical spirit (for removing excess flux) and till top up the solder to the tags. Then will wire it a do a test run.

Great pics! Would love to hear how this sounds. Especially since you're not using the best quality resistors n caps in the world (I'm guessing the resistor's tolerance is +/- 5% right). BTW, i hate that multimeter. I blew it up once

 

[reubensm]

Here's how to connect it:

This is as simple as it gets

 

[reubensm]

Great pics! Would love to hear how this sounds. Especially since you're not using the best quality resistors n caps in the world (I'm guessing the resistor's tolerance is +/- 5% right). BTW, i hate that multimeter. I blew it up once

Already have the other one fully functional, mounted inside the Garrard RC210 cabinet (not calling this plinth as its a box design). I have burnt in over 40 hours on that phonostage and its sounding quite pleasant. The surface noise from the record is masked to a great extent and so are the ticks and pops. Bass is tight and highs have presence. However what caught my imagination was the imagery. I would say its simply superb. Again, obviously cannot be compared with a good magnetic cart but I would dare say that it sounds better than my OEM technics magnetic cart playing through the MM input of my NAD 106 (I have discontinued using this cart). Given the fact that this phonostage is built to work with old cheap ceramic carts, it is just not worth investing in expensive imported components. The difference will be too marginal (if not non-existent), to justify the return on investment.

 

[hildebrand]

wow that looks nice.
Interestingly I have the same multimeter with me at work. I find the leads too thin

I got the TT today and was honored to meet Kuruvila sir too!