Chapter 7

The Pre-Amplifier

Publisher Summary

The balanced hybrid RIAA stage produces almost three times as much distortion as the EC8010 RIAA stage and it is third harmonic rather than second, but it costs rather less than a third of the price and has a comparable S/N ratio. Nothing beats a well-balanced transformer for rejecting cable interference—100 dB rejections is commonly achieved. Conversely, achieving > 40 dB CMRR from a practical differential pair over the 20 Hz to 20 kHz audio bandwidth requires attention to construction detail, and the rejection only holds for small interference voltages. In short, the balanced hybrid RIAA stage cannot rescue poor screening or earthing strategy, but it can put the final polish on good practice and allows ...

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