RIAA Module from S&B

John Chapman · « **on:** 27 Mar 2003, 06:44 pm »

Hello!

Just a quick note for hardcore DIY types making your own phono stages. As of this past weekend S&B finished off the 600 Ohm RIAA module. This module contains the inductors and caps to geterate an RIAA eq curve in phono stage circuits. Like may things they had it 'close' to done for some time and it took some tweaking to get it to follow the RIAA curve extremely close. Jonathan is happy with it now as it follows within 0.2db. For info on this see the S&B site here:

http://www.stevens-billington.co.uk/riaapage.htm

This module needs to be combined with circuitry to do it's job. It's not like a TX103 stepup where you can just add connectors and plunk it into your system!

There will be more info and circuits floating around soon. Pricing is to be about the same as a pair of TX102's.

There is a fair interest in a 10K version of this module and S&B should have one done at the end of April. The 10K ohm version opens the door to more tubes that can drive the RIAA unit and should be an interesting product as well.

Many Thanks!

John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com

JoshK · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Mar 2003, 07:24 pm »

Thanks for the info John. It will be great to hear how it compares to high value commercial offerings.

jusbe · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 08:17 am »

John,

Will you think about offering a matching kit?

DrM · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 05:29 pm »

Good news John.

A question about components, can you tell me what caps and resistors are used internally? Mfg and type would be ideal (i.e., hovland polypropoline), if not then type (polypropoline caps, metal film resistors)

I'm want to know because you mentioned once he can provide just the chokes, and we supply the caps/resistors. But if the internal ones are high enough quality (teflon! :) then there is no need to do that.

Dan

John Chapman · « **Reply #4 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 06:29 pm »

Hello!

Good to hear from you! I don't know the brand but I do know they were chosen by Thorsten for sonics. I do not think they are an 'audiophile' cap and I know for sure they will not be teflon. I too like teflons but the use would significantly impact the price I'm sure! The caps would probably cost S&B more than the final sell price of the whole unit currently. I believe when the 10K unit is made it involves bigger iron and smaller caps so that might ease the cost of using exotic caps.

I'll dig into it soon and will report back. Jonathan is pretty good at custom requests so I am sure we can work something out if you have a favorite.

Many Thanks!

John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com

DrM · « **Reply #5 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 07:12 pm »

Hi John,
Well, I was kidding about the teflon (but one can dream), but do check on the "just chokes" option for us seriously nutsoid hardcore DIY types. I'd like a pair of 10k RIAA chokes. Any idea on price for this?

Dan

DrM · « **Reply #6 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 07:13 pm »

I forgot to ask, what are the component values for the 10k version?

Dan

John Chapman · « **Reply #7 on:** 29 Mar 2003, 08:44 pm »

Hello!

You and I (and lots of other folks) are just nuts enough to want teflon caps in there so I missed that you were kidding! I will try and get component values when I can and also bounce the Iron only version off of S&B to see how to best handle that.

Many Thanks!

John