Ceramic Phonostage Build

[reubensm]

India Speed Post Tracking Number: EL152787855IN
Can be tracked at: India Post | Tools | Track Consignments
Dispatch: 13:39 / 13-Jan-2014 / General Post Office - Trivandrum

So, on another note, fm hildebrand's ceramic phonostage is now fully tested and ready for dispatch. Increased the gain on the preamp a bit given the fact that he's planning to use Norge. No effect on performance though. Did about 20 hours of listening on ceramic, will get better as the hours progress. Packed up the phonostage very well with bubble wrap and locked it up in an old fast food container. Now its ready for dispatch by tomorrow morning's courier. A whole week later than I intended to ship out, had a very very busy week at work with travel coming up. Here are the pics of the package:

 

[hildebrand]

:clapping:
You really are a gem. Waiting eagerly for its arrival. The Norge shipment also seems to have reached the courier's local office. The plinth has gone for making the dust cover. Hopefully by weekend will be able to have the setup up. Really appreciate your kindness.

 

[reubensm]

I have been receiving quite a few queries on ceramic carts. Looks like there is a resurgence in the use of ceramic carts in the recent past. Many questions were related to ceramic phonostages but one interesting question was whether there's something that can be put together to facilitate the use of a ceramic cart with a Moving Magnet (magnetic) cartridge input on the amp. Did some looking around and found these simple circuits. I've not tried them myself but they look interesting. However my take is that there will be issues with equalization, hence its better to use a dedicated ceramic phonostage. The component list for the first circuit is:

R1 = 1 M? 1 %
R2 = 82 k? 1 %
R3 = 1 k? 1 %
C1-C4 = 1 nF 1 % Styroflex

 

[reubensm]

:clapping:
You really are a gem. Waiting eagerly for its arrival. The Norge shipment also seems to have reached the courier's local office. The plinth has gone for making the dust cover. Hopefully by weekend will be able to have the setup up. Really appreciate your kindness.

You are very welcome hildebrand. I know these ceramic phonostages are very hard to come by but they are extremely simply to build and sound quite decent. Should give you a pleasant listening experience. I used an EEI Ceramic cart with it. Hope your Garrard's cart sounds good with it.

 

[hildebrand]

Yes, I hope it will sound good with my cart too.
I am not getting visibility on connecting it in entirety.
The TT has RCA outputs.
It appears to me the pcb will not connect to the jacks but go inside the plinth.
I need a power supply too? What other cables and items are needed??
My amp+speakers arrive tomorrow btw.
Hopefully schedule will allow me to setup everything by the weekend. Expecting plinth with new dust cover on sunday.

 

[anilva]

India Speed Post Tracking Number: EL152787855IN
Can be tracked at: India Post | Tools | Track Consignments
Dispatch: 13:39 / 13-Jan-2014 / General Post Office - Trivandrum

Reuben,

Shouldn't you be more discreet about sharing the shipment details, tracking number etc. from a privacy standpoint? Such information can be exchanged on PM. No point in posting on a forum.

Cheers.

 

[reubensm]

Reuben,

Shouldn't you be more discreet about sharing the shipment details, tracking number etc. from a privacy standpoint? Such information can be exchanged on PM. No point in posting on a forum.

Cheers.

Noted with thanks.

 

[reubensm]

Yes, I hope it will sound good with my cart too.
I am not getting visibility on connecting it in entirety.
The TT has RCA outputs.
It appears to me the pcb will not connect to the jacks but go inside the plinth.
I need a power supply too? What other cables and items are needed??
My amp+speakers arrive tomorrow btw.
Hopefully schedule will allow me to setup everything by the weekend. Expecting plinth with new dust cover on sunday.

Connecting the phono stage is very easy. You have 2 options. (1) you can mount it internally, in the TT's cabinet/plinth or (2) you can set it up in an external cabinet with RCAs for the input and output. For the power supply, you can start with a battery to make it easy. I have shown illustrations of both methods earlier on this thread.

 

[reubensm]

1) internal wiring:

2) external wiring:

 

[hildebrand]

Got that post now. Thanks.

 

[reubensm]

Got that post now. Thanks.

were you able to wire it up and fire it up?

 

[hildebrand]

were you able to wire it up and fire it up?

No, the dust cover is taking longer than expected to come back.
Other portions of my setup are more or less up. I plan to put up post regarding the whole process once everything is done.
Hopefully the dustcover will come back with the plinth by this weekend.

 

[reubensm]

2 more phonostage builds coming up:

1) Ceramic phonostage build for my good friend FM Record Player
2) CNC Magnetic phonostage build for my good friend FM JK_Chaos

I will be talking about the Ceramic phonostage build for FM Record Player on this page while the CNC Phonostage build will feature on Sachu888's original CNC build thread. Watch these spaces for more.

 

[reubensm]

Got a late night message from hildebrand. He's wired up the ceramic phonostage and its playing well. He said that it is working great. Awaiting a more detailed write up on his listening experience with his Garrard turntable, his ceramic phonostage and his new Norge rig.

 

[hildebrand]

Got a late night message from hildebrand. He's wired up the ceramic phonostage and its playing well. He said that it is working great. Awaiting a more detailed write up on his listening experience with his Garrard turntable, his ceramic phonostage and his new Norge rig.

Yes, will share my whole setup experience once I am a bit free from work. Coming month is going to have some travelling so may take a bit of time. All, I'll say I'm having a good time!

 

[reubensm]

2 more phonostage builds coming up:

1) Ceramic phonostage build for my good friend FM Record Player
2) CNC Magnetic phonostage build for my good friend FM JK_Chaos

I will be talking about the Ceramic phonostage build for FM Record Player on this page while the CNC Phonostage build will feature on Sachu888's original CNC build thread. Watch these spaces for more.

Was extremely busy over the last 2 weeks, plan to start work on the above, this weekend.

 

[reubensm]

Finally, the components are here and its time to start both builds, more updates on the way.

 

[hildebrand]

Good. sorry for keeping very busy. Have to travel again this week for a couple of days to Cochin.
I will post about the setup and experiences soon.
Best wishes for the next build.

 

[reubensm]

Completion at last, the ceramic Phonostage build for my good friend, FM Record Player is now complete and is being tested. Sounds nice but needs break in. This time I have avoided using ceramic disc capacitors and have used more expensive and high quality ones. However, the increase in expenditure for components is only Rs.20, the total expenditure coming to a ridiculously low Rs.60/-

Pics to follow later in the day

 

[reubensm]

So here we go, here is FM Record Player's ceramic phonostage. Did some long listening last night and it sounds pretty good. I have used better quality caps this time but honestly could not tell the difference when comparing it with my existing ceramic phonostage using ceramic disc caps. Guess more critical listening is required (with serious burn-in). Did about 10 hours of listening in all, the stage is working fine and is ready for shipping.

the last picture gives a better view of the layout.

On another note, going to start work on my version of the CNC phonostage. Details of this project will go on to the Sachu's CNC phonostage build thread. I am going to make some radical changes to the approach (not the circuit) in order to keep costs down and also to include a flavour of customization and innovation during the build.