Phono preamplifiers with 78 EQ

[richardz]

This subject crops up all over LH - and I think it's worth having a thread simply to list what's out there.

Maybe it should be a sticky and a source of reference.

I also suggest that vintage equipment (pre 1960?) should be excluded for a separate thread.

Here's what I've found:

Complete units.

Esoteric Sound

http://www.esotericsound.com/elect.htm

FM Acoustics

http://www.fmacoustics.com/set_domestic.html

Graham Slee

http://www.phonostagepreamp.com/

KAB

http://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/

TDL Technology

http://www.tdl-tech.com/

Vad Lyd MD12mk3:

http://www.vadlyd.dk/English/RIAA_and_78_RPM_preamp.html

Build your own:

DIY Audio Projects

http://diyaudioprojects.com/Chip/Phono-Preamp-Kit/

ESP:

http://sound.westhost.com/project91.htm

Johannes LeBong

http://www.lebong.de/phono-monotube/index-e.htm

Roger Wilmut:

http://home.clara.net/rfwilmut/repro78/circuit.html

I'm sure I've missed some.

[buddy]

Richard......   great idea great thread  I use Slee's jazz club and its well worth the money as a RIAA phono stage its excellent and for playing 78s and pre RIAA records ......I have wasted a lot of money on fixing Pre 60s pre amps just to use the 78eq settings and found them to  pretty atrocious sounding

[Chris65]

Yes. Thanks Richard, good idea. A couple I hadn't seen before. (Use a Graham Slee Revelation myself).

Another two I know of:

http://www.haglabs.com/flugelhorn.html   (Not in production, but could be found second-hand).

http://www.tempoelectric.com/mono_preamp.htm 

[buddy]

Chris

Russell ( rockhopper ) has the flugelhorn one of these days Im going up to St.Andrews to hear it

[Chris65]

Russell ( rockhopper ) has the flugelhorn one of this days Im going up to St.Andrews to hear it

Yes, I do recall that someone here had one, looks like a nice piece of kit.

[Lynnot]

Hi,

let me add another phono equalizer:

http://www.analog-forum.de/wbboard/index.php?page=RGalleryImageWrapper&itemID=4558&type=page

Rgds, Tony

[strata]

Hi,

let me add another phono equalizer:

http://www.analog-forum.de/wbboard/index.php?page=RGalleryImageWrapper&itemID=4558&type=page

Rgds, Tony

This site is forbidden!?

[jloveys]

And please do not forget the Quad 22 vintage preamp, the Quad II alimented brother who has the most extensive equalization curves you can imagine and for a ridiculous price, less than 50€ !!!

[Jaakfrans]

And please do not forget the Quad 22 vintage preamp, the Quad II alimented brother who has the most extensive equalization curves you can imagine and for a ridiculous price, less than 50€ !!!

If you happen to have one for a lithuanian exile keep it for me till the meet.
Thanks,
Jaak

[stiften]

Thanks for your fine research, although I tend to go the cheapskate way by re-equalizing using a a graphic equalizer in the tape loop.

Applause!

[jloveys]

If you happen to have one for a lithuanian exile keep it for me till the meet.
Thanks,
Jaak

I keep it for you Jaak ! 

[syncopeter]

And the cheapest alternative: go to the nearest dump, find a 7 or 10 band equalizer for nothing and put it  in your tape loop. Fiddle with the settings and you will be amazed with the outcome  I got results that bettered many professional transfers that way.

[richard]

Yes, Peter. I like this.

If the equzlizer is decently quiet, this might be a sane way to do it, and I believe that I've already got the equipemnt stashed away to give it a go. It can be done in a crazy-making manner, or in a manner that won't make us craay.

#1: crazy-making.
Run the cartridge into an ordinary RIAA preamp and then use a formula to work out the un-RIAA and re-EQ settings.

#2: calm and composed method:
Use a flat phono preamp. Feed the output into the equalizer and just set the desired curves using the sliders.

My broadcast preamps have two outputs: flat, and RIAA. Both of these methods should work fine. There may be a bit more noise pickup in method #1, but it may be acceptable. A really nice touch using an equalizer is that with the sliders, it can be nice to stonewall the response into the usable range of the record. This will give a bit more flexibility when it comes to choosing a stylus.

[analogadikt]

I have equalisers that have Tape, Aux, Phono and Microphone inputs and also gain controls. I suppose that it should be possible to plug a mm cart in the microphone input and then use the sliders to set any desired equalisation.

Regards

[stiften]

Yes, Peter. I like this.

If the equzlizer is decently quiet, this might be a sane way to do it, and I believe that I've already got the equipemnt stashed away to give it a go. It can be done in a crazy-making manner, or in a manner that won't make us craay.

#1: crazy-making.
Run the cartridge into an ordinary RIAA preamp and then use a formula to work out the un-RIAA and re-EQ settings.

#2: calm and composed method:
Use a flat phono preamp. Feed the output into the equalizer and just set the desired curves using the sliders.

My broadcast preamps have two outputs: flat, and RIAA. Both of these methods should work fine. There may be a bit more noise pickup in method #1, but it may be acceptable. A really nice touch using an equalizer is that with the sliders, it can be nice to stonewall the response into the usable range of the record. This will give a bit more flexibility when it comes to choosing a stylus.

We are perhaps a bit off topic here, if the idea is to point out complete preamps with ready-made curves for shellac and old lp's before RIAA became the standard.

But... if re-equalizers are okay, there is the Rek-O-Cut re-equalizer that one of my friends like:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/Magazine/equipment/0308/rek_o_kut.htm

http://www.esotericsound.com/elect.htm

I have not listened to it yet, but my friend in southern Denmark is very impressed.

I use re-equalizing myself, inspired by Larry Robinsons suggestions for using a graphic equalizer in the tape loop.

As there is plenty of sites in English and almost none in Danish, where the interest for shellac is relatively small, I have only linked to Robinson on my Danish website, but here are the links to Robinson for you on LH:

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/mixphono.htm

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/mixcurve.htm

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/mixlabls.htm

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/mixcompn.htm

It is not the holy Bible, but a good inspiration for your own experiments (and again sorry if I am contributiong to derail the original idea behind this thread!).

One of my old equalizers have a memory bank for around 100different settings:

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DSP8024.aspx

With this - if you have dialed the right settings in first - you can name them and switch between them as easy as if using a special preamp, but of course this cheap, used and abused eq is perhaps degrading the sound a bit compared to for instance the Elberg/Vad Lyd preamp.

Have a nice weekend.