Gain Controls Vs Volume Controls

[Grover Gardner]

A couple years ago I built a little SS phono preamp kit from DIYAUDIO that was designed to run on batteries. I was interested because I wanted to see the differences between 9 Volt batteries, SLA, and LiPo would sound like.
The 9 v batteries was horrible. The big SLA was a bit better and the LiPo was the best, probably because the internal resistance of the LiPo was the lowest.
The less than $100 board still was not very musical so I tried using a leftover shunt regulated PS from Twisted Pear that supplied mort than 10 times the required current and the sound was great.
In fact that phono preamp is living in a friends Uber system replacing a $6500 Ron Southerland phono and my friend could not be happier.

But....

My friend just cannot live with a cigar box phono preamp in his Uber-system so at his direction I am building for him an AN L3 phon preamp at almost $2k for him. Will see how this compares to the cigar box.

Auidiophiles are funny. I would be proud to have a cigar-box preamp that beat a $6500 one, and would make it the visual centerpiece of my system.

[Pelliott321]

When I get the cigar box back from my friend if he decides on the $2k AudioNote Kit I am building for him the I will have the cigar box bronzed.
I will need to go back and compare it to my present phono preamp

[TubeDriver]

The non-ferrous, non-resonant cigar box might contribute to the great sound, you might find the same circuit in a big metal box sounds worse?

A couple years ago I built a little SS phono preamp kit from DIYAUDIO that was designed to run on batteries. I was interested because I wanted to see the differences between 9 Volt batteries, SLA, and LiPo would sound like.
The 9 v batteries was horrible. The big SLA was a bit better and the LiPo was the best, probably because the internal resistance of the LiPo was the lowest.
The less than $100 board still was not very musical so I tried using a leftover shunt regulated PS from Twisted Pear that supplied mort than 10 times the required current and the sound was great.
In fact that phono preamp is living in a friends Uber system replacing a $6500 Ron Southerland phono and my friend could not be happier.

But....

My friend just cannot live with a cigar box phono preamp in his Uber-system so at his direction I am building for him an AN L3 phon preamp at almost $2k for him. Will see how this compares to the cigar box.

Auidiophiles are funny. I would be proud to have a cigar-box preamp that beat a $6500 one, and would make it the visual centerpiece of my system.

[Pelliott321]

Gary Dews of BorderPatrol only uses copper in his chassis (even in his budget DAC) at great expense and difficulty in getting them made.
He would use wood if allowed by UL.

[Cogito]

Shashi
If you get the TS Slider you will want to get a larger power transformer. Bruce believes you only need a power supply large enough to run the circuit.
A larger transformer will really improve things.

Thanks Paul for the suggestion.
Kit came with 200V 50VA transformer. I ordered 2x 200V 100VA transformer. Shall connect both 200V windings in parallel.

[Roscoe Primrose]

I ordered 2x 200V 100VA transformer. Shall connect both 200V windings in parallel.

Or use one for each channel Of course, the kit probably didn't come with extra rectifiers etc....

Roscoe

[Pelliott321]

I would go with what Roscoe suggests. It would be a stiffer PS.
Of course, you could go full monty and use choke input, but that would require a higher voltage

[Cogito]

Shashi
If you get the TS Slider you will want to get a larger power transformer. Bruce believes you only need a power supply large enough to run the circuit.
A larger transformer will really improve things.

Thanks Paul for the suggestion.
Kit came with 200V 50VA transformer. I ordered 2x 200V 100VA transformer. Shall connect both 200V windings in parallel.

Can't believe it's been three years since I built this preamp. I took a break from audio for the last 2+ years.

When I built this preamp, hated it so much, put it in the storage room and forgot about it. It was very analytical.

Two days ago, wanted it to give it another try before getting rid of it. Let it burn for about 3 hours before listening again.

This TS Slider preamp is very good. Compared to the TS GG preamp I was using, this is a huge improvement. Different class. Need to compare it with some quality preamps.

[Cogito]

Coupling caps going into this preamp.

[SoundMods]

Coupling caps going into this preamp.

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Finally -- someone in this group gets it. Yes they're expensive -- but it is a one-time purchase.