Baldr
Sponsor: Schiit Audio
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
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Now I suppose with 40+ years of audio experience I'm supposed to come off as experienced and all (or at least mostly) knowing. Not always true. When I designed the Mani, I did so, as always, in a vacuum. When I built my first phono stages back in the 1970's, there were two big problems, that no one else was paying strict attention to. One was stay tight on the RIAA equalization. Well all of my stuff has been within a tenth of a db either way – great! At the time, and still yet today, most everyone else is 10 to fifty times worse. Check the reviews. The next problem is noise (circuit noise, not external system noise). Again, back in the day, I kicked ass and made the quietest tube stuff at the time. Also, the following imperative – no filters in the signal path – they sound like ass. So I built my early Theta phono preamps just like that. So much for good news and proper design.
I then sold enough of them to get a pretty good sample size. I got a few calls for funny noise or hum in the background – sometimes loud. So I contacted my former engineering boss (while I was still employable) Ralph Morrison, who wrote a book on grounding and shielding techniques in instrumentation and redid my circuit boards for the Theta preamp – the result was that it sounded much better, but the same interference troubles persisted with the same user. At the time, I still hadn't considered in context the following:
1. Phono signals are 60-80db smaller than line level signals. That's a thousandth to a ten thousandth the size. That makes whatever external system noise is present 1000 to 10000 times bigger in comparison (huge!!!)
2. Phono cartridges are in tonearms, with clips and contacts of various metal platings, connected to more contacts on jacks and connectors of even more dissimilar metal combinations, eventually arriving at the Mani input. Dissimilar metals as they slowly oxidize form diode equivalents which are radio signal detectors. The phono cartridges all have different properties which may simulate (or not) radio antennae. You eliminate this by disconnecting/reconnecting the connectors periodically. (I remember with nostalgia when audio grifters used to sell chemicals to smear all over your mating audio contacts to improve the sound. They usually featured “proprietary ingredients” such as WD-40 or badger spooge to transform the listening experience.)
3. There are three major ways for external interference to enter a Mani (or any other phono preamp). Through the air (that's why Mani has a steel chassis- to keep it out); through the input (see number 2 above); and through the power supply. FCC tests require makers of devices which produce RF to print warnings about reorienting the equipment. etc.
Now, in the era of the Mani, there are several newer complicating factors:
1. Cell phones. The worst polluter in your environment. If you are so addicted to it, get it out of the room with your turntable. Better yet, drop it in a pail of water. I guarantee that it will then not interfere with your system. You can see who's dog farted or who's popped a zit today on Facebook with far less squinting from your regular laptop, which will undoubtedly be close. Actually talk to more people rather than texting or using social media. You will definitely require improved social skills to compensate for being a vinyl nerd. Get a landline – everyone will understand you better and there will be no annoying dropouts or missed calls when you turn your head 30 degrees.
2. WiFi routers. RF splat. Probably worth getting as far away as possible from anything audio. Move it closer to where the cable comes in, or move your system away from the router.
3. Corrupt FCC certs. It is common place in many overseas manufacturing environments to obtain your FCC credentials by buying them. Hence, a lot more radiation. This particularly affects routers.
4. Much of the phono equipment in use today was manufactured 30-50 years ago. It requires at a minimum maintenance.
So What????? Well, it seems that almost 40 years after Introducing the Theta preamp, I produce a Mani phono preamp, expecting different results.
And now we still have users with interference. To all of them, and ThurstonX in particular, all I can do is encourage experimentation. It may well be the Mani Wall Wart, the cartridge-arm wiring, or many other possibilities. We will bear no grudges for any returned Manis at Schiit.
My point is that Vinyl nerds are entering an area that requires experience, endurance, and mutual self-support. Neither blame nor falling on swords works here. This is not a plug and play universe – that is for people with throwaway ear-buds plugged straight into their laptops. There are a LOT of permutations and combinations. There are a lot of two steps forward, one back in this subset of our audio hobby. You will sell/return gear that you shouldn't have, and hang on to poorly performing crap for way too long. But it gets better. For me, 40 years later, it is starting to get really good. So why do it????
Because it is worth it!!
I then sold enough of them to get a pretty good sample size. I got a few calls for funny noise or hum in the background – sometimes loud. So I contacted my former engineering boss (while I was still employable) Ralph Morrison, who wrote a book on grounding and shielding techniques in instrumentation and redid my circuit boards for the Theta preamp – the result was that it sounded much better, but the same interference troubles persisted with the same user. At the time, I still hadn't considered in context the following:
1. Phono signals are 60-80db smaller than line level signals. That's a thousandth to a ten thousandth the size. That makes whatever external system noise is present 1000 to 10000 times bigger in comparison (huge!!!)
2. Phono cartridges are in tonearms, with clips and contacts of various metal platings, connected to more contacts on jacks and connectors of even more dissimilar metal combinations, eventually arriving at the Mani input. Dissimilar metals as they slowly oxidize form diode equivalents which are radio signal detectors. The phono cartridges all have different properties which may simulate (or not) radio antennae. You eliminate this by disconnecting/reconnecting the connectors periodically. (I remember with nostalgia when audio grifters used to sell chemicals to smear all over your mating audio contacts to improve the sound. They usually featured “proprietary ingredients” such as WD-40 or badger spooge to transform the listening experience.)
3. There are three major ways for external interference to enter a Mani (or any other phono preamp). Through the air (that's why Mani has a steel chassis- to keep it out); through the input (see number 2 above); and through the power supply. FCC tests require makers of devices which produce RF to print warnings about reorienting the equipment. etc.
Now, in the era of the Mani, there are several newer complicating factors:
1. Cell phones. The worst polluter in your environment. If you are so addicted to it, get it out of the room with your turntable. Better yet, drop it in a pail of water. I guarantee that it will then not interfere with your system. You can see who's dog farted or who's popped a zit today on Facebook with far less squinting from your regular laptop, which will undoubtedly be close. Actually talk to more people rather than texting or using social media. You will definitely require improved social skills to compensate for being a vinyl nerd. Get a landline – everyone will understand you better and there will be no annoying dropouts or missed calls when you turn your head 30 degrees.
2. WiFi routers. RF splat. Probably worth getting as far away as possible from anything audio. Move it closer to where the cable comes in, or move your system away from the router.
3. Corrupt FCC certs. It is common place in many overseas manufacturing environments to obtain your FCC credentials by buying them. Hence, a lot more radiation. This particularly affects routers.
4. Much of the phono equipment in use today was manufactured 30-50 years ago. It requires at a minimum maintenance.
So What????? Well, it seems that almost 40 years after Introducing the Theta preamp, I produce a Mani phono preamp, expecting different results.
And now we still have users with interference. To all of them, and ThurstonX in particular, all I can do is encourage experimentation. It may well be the Mani Wall Wart, the cartridge-arm wiring, or many other possibilities. We will bear no grudges for any returned Manis at Schiit.
My point is that Vinyl nerds are entering an area that requires experience, endurance, and mutual self-support. Neither blame nor falling on swords works here. This is not a plug and play universe – that is for people with throwaway ear-buds plugged straight into their laptops. There are a LOT of permutations and combinations. There are a lot of two steps forward, one back in this subset of our audio hobby. You will sell/return gear that you shouldn't have, and hang on to poorly performing crap for way too long. But it gets better. For me, 40 years later, it is starting to get really good. So why do it????
Because it is worth it!!
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