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Old 11-26-2007, 04:59 AM   #1 (permalink)
dcheming
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Oakland, CA
Posts: 430
Default Cheap DIY Phono Preamp

I recently got my two turntables out of storage after three years. Since I gave my old DJ mixer to a friend a while back I needed a cheap solution for a phono preamp. Eventually I want to build my own mixer but for the time being I chose to simply build the $15 Velleman K2573 Stereo RIAA Correction Amplifier.

I substituted some of the low-grade parts included in the kit with the best I could find at Norvac Electronics: the signal caps are mylar bypassed with Dayton film/foils instead of the stock polar electrolytics, the equalization capacitors are silver/mica instead of the stock ceramics, and all the resistors are NTE metal oxide.






The sound of this is actually pretty good surprisingly. Overall I like it better than my friends slightly modified NAD PP-1. The only area the NAD beats it is the deep bass extension but we're planning on putting polypropylene caps in the NAD soon though which should turn the tables. Next up will be a Bugle phono preamp from Hagtech.
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Sources: Dell 4400 > foobar2000 KS > ST Audio DSP24 MKII, Modded NAD C521BEE, Gemini PT-2000 > Grado Red > Velleman K2573
Cables: DIY CAT6 HD15 to XLR Umbilical, DIY Belden 7882A CAT6 IC's, DIY Belden 9258 RG-8/X Coaxial IC's, DIY Calrad 55-715 8mm Coaxial IC's
Head Amps: Hot Rodded Xiang Sheng 708B
Headphones: Modded HD580+650 cable, Shure E2cs, HD201, HD280 Pro (returned), K240M (sold)
Speaker Amps: Modded T-Amp, AMP6, Rotel RA-972
Speakers: KRK V6 II, DIY 4" Carbon/Kevlar & Neo3 planar(DNF), 4" Tang Band W4-1052SA, Magnepan MMG

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