I've got a great dedicated MonoPhono stage on the go here. I have decided to name it Daedalus ...
"Daedalus was a craftsman and artist in Greek mythology, who had two sons, Icarus and Iapyx. He is best known as the creator of the Labyrinth, a huge maze located under the court of King Minos of Crete, where the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature dwelt." (http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Daedalus/daedalus.html)
Daedalus was kinda like the the first architect! .. aka the first MonoPhonoMan!?
My phono is derived from Joseph Esmilla's elegant design, which can be seen here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080118072601/http://members.myactv.net/~je205d/mono.htm
Only I am using loktal 7F7 (6SL7 equivalents), and 7A4 or 7N7 (6J5/6SN7 equivalents), as in my experience, NOS loktal's are superior sounding, yet inexpensive! If you select modern 6SL7's, the advantage of this design may be lost.
I have redesigned the cathode follower output stage, as I don't like the low current version in Joseph's design.
The 500K volume control pot allows this phono to plug direct into power amp. A 500k Bourns pot, from RS works well for here. On the other hand, you can replace this with a 470k fixed resistor, if your prefer to drive a line stage, which is what I do.
The 1k input resistor is the load required for a Denon DL102 mono MC, and may be changed to suite the MC of your choice.
There are 4 eq settings, which have proven to work really well in practice. Selecting the correct eq helps with mids and highs, but I often find that old mono lp's tend to lack bass. For this reason I have added a bass boost circuit, which I will explain better in a mo. The multi eq, together with bass boost work exceptionally well. Even 'poor' sounding mono's can be elegantly rescued with this circuit.
I've built mine with RelCap PCU copper in polypropylene couple caps, and a Mundorf Supreme at the output stage (among my favorites), silmic bypass caps, and a combination of various audio grade metal film and carbon composite resistors.
I am using (and strongly recommend) Mike Vans Evers simple, yet wonderful sounding ECL82 series pass regulator for the power supply, which you can learn about here:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/sound_practices/3/one_tube_regulator.htm
If your using compression drivers with horns, then you may prefer an all passive supply. But in my situation (with the 97db BassZilla), I find B+ regulation helps to turbo charge dynamics and bass resolution, and well I just prefer the sound of this phono with the Vans Evers regulator. Build this reg with Arcol carbon composite resistors (from RS), for a truly lovely, natural and rich sound!
That's the most of it really. What can I say. This is a simple yet fantastic sounding circuit. Remarkably, it turns in a good performance in direct comparison with my much more complex and very expensive, all out and over the top, Flamingo stereo phono stage!! (which uses 6J4WA muFollower in the first stage, and 6H30 muFollower in the second stage, with low Z riaa in between).
Spatial depth, tonal richness and inner life are all excellent with the 102/Daedalus. And, I cant image wanting to build a further monoPhono stage, as this one clearly does the gig!
"Daedalus was a craftsman and artist in Greek mythology, who had two sons, Icarus and Iapyx. He is best known as the creator of the Labyrinth, a huge maze located under the court of King Minos of Crete, where the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull creature dwelt." (http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Daedalus/daedalus.html)
Daedalus was kinda like the the first architect! .. aka the first MonoPhonoMan!?
My phono is derived from Joseph Esmilla's elegant design, which can be seen here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080118072601/http://members.myactv.net/~je205d/mono.htm
Only I am using loktal 7F7 (6SL7 equivalents), and 7A4 or 7N7 (6J5/6SN7 equivalents), as in my experience, NOS loktal's are superior sounding, yet inexpensive! If you select modern 6SL7's, the advantage of this design may be lost.
I have redesigned the cathode follower output stage, as I don't like the low current version in Joseph's design.
The 500K volume control pot allows this phono to plug direct into power amp. A 500k Bourns pot, from RS works well for here. On the other hand, you can replace this with a 470k fixed resistor, if your prefer to drive a line stage, which is what I do.
The 1k input resistor is the load required for a Denon DL102 mono MC, and may be changed to suite the MC of your choice.
There are 4 eq settings, which have proven to work really well in practice. Selecting the correct eq helps with mids and highs, but I often find that old mono lp's tend to lack bass. For this reason I have added a bass boost circuit, which I will explain better in a mo. The multi eq, together with bass boost work exceptionally well. Even 'poor' sounding mono's can be elegantly rescued with this circuit.
I've built mine with RelCap PCU copper in polypropylene couple caps, and a Mundorf Supreme at the output stage (among my favorites), silmic bypass caps, and a combination of various audio grade metal film and carbon composite resistors.
I am using (and strongly recommend) Mike Vans Evers simple, yet wonderful sounding ECL82 series pass regulator for the power supply, which you can learn about here:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/sound_practices/3/one_tube_regulator.htm
If your using compression drivers with horns, then you may prefer an all passive supply. But in my situation (with the 97db BassZilla), I find B+ regulation helps to turbo charge dynamics and bass resolution, and well I just prefer the sound of this phono with the Vans Evers regulator. Build this reg with Arcol carbon composite resistors (from RS), for a truly lovely, natural and rich sound!
That's the most of it really. What can I say. This is a simple yet fantastic sounding circuit. Remarkably, it turns in a good performance in direct comparison with my much more complex and very expensive, all out and over the top, Flamingo stereo phono stage!! (which uses 6J4WA muFollower in the first stage, and 6H30 muFollower in the second stage, with low Z riaa in between).
Spatial depth, tonal richness and inner life are all excellent with the 102/Daedalus. And, I cant image wanting to build a further monoPhono stage, as this one clearly does the gig!
