Hello!
All About Bent Modules
As part of the new TAP pre-amp design and it's development we'll be offering a whole series of modules to the DIY and small to mid volume OEM market. They'll work together to form a shell of a pre-amp including input switching and attenuation. These boards all connect on a common 'Bent Buss' - a simple ribbon cable connection within your enclosure or via fiber optic connections between enclosures. The modules fall into 5 basic catagories - each is described below along with a list of current modules in that catagory:
1- Power Modules
Power Modules accept input power from a wall supply (included) and regulate that to 5V for the control circuits then pass that onto a ribbon header to allow easy connection to other boards inside that chassis. Power modules also can contain:
- Fiber Optic input or output connectors for mutiple enclosure designs.
- A toggle switch to set the display to stay on or shut off after a command is processed.
- Small Button for programing any input as an HT Bypass.
2- Input Modules:
Input Modules contain Input RCA / XLR jacks and the switching for input Selection. Modules availiable include:
- 'FOUR' - 4 RCA Inputs with phase invert switching.
- 'SIX' - 4 RCA Inputs + 2 XLR Inputs with phase invert switching.
Input boards have these features:
- Phase switching via front panel push button and via remote control.
- Phase selection is such that no additonal contacts are added to the signal path.
- A switched Tape Output is included on board.
- Any Input(S) can be easily programmed as an HT bypass input.
- Bent Buss Ribbon Header to attach to the other boards inside this chassis
3- Output Modules
Output modules contain output connectors and ground select (float/hard ground) toggle switches. Modules availiable include:
- Dual RCA Outputs.
- Dual RCA + Dual XLR Outputs.
4- Front Panel Modules
Front panel Modules all have a volume control knob, Volume display, Mute Button, and IR reciever for remote control. Some modules will also have input select buttons, Phase Select button and a Tape Select Buttons. There are several Front Panel Modules in the works but the first will have the following features:
- Volume control via a 1/4" shaft Optical Encoder for VERY long life.
- Two 2 digit LED Level Displays - one on each side of the level knob.
- Input Select Push Button.
- 6 tri-color input select LED's - Green for normal / Yellow for Phase Invert / Red for HT bypass
- Phase Select Button.
- Tape Output Button and LED
- IR Reciever Module for remote control.
- Bent Buss Ribbon Header to attach to the other boards inside this chassis
This module will be shipped with a nice laser engraved aluminum panel attached. This way all the tricky panel cutout work is done - just make a cutout in your chassis panel and attach the entire assembly into it. This module will also be availiable pre-finished complete with a Power Module in a small nicely finished enclosure as the Basic Unit to be used with the TAP pre-amp system or in your own 2 box design.
There will be other Front Panel modules availiable - next up (once the existing modules are shipping) is a simple volume only module. For OEM customers using these input and attenuation modules we will make custom Front Panel Modules to fit your pre-amp designs.
5- Bentenuator Modules:
Bentenuator modules perform the level control. Think of them like 'Smartpots'. They are used with the Power and Front Panel modules and optionally with the Input and Output modules. There are a variety of modules in the works now and more to come later. The two modules that will ship intially will be:
Bentenuator 1 (BT1)- TX102 Module.
This is the same module used in the new TAP pre-amp system. It is a 3" x 3" x 2" module that includes the tx102 transformer unit pre-wired to switching boards. Signal path is extremely short and clean - the transformer winding wires become the short output leads directly connected to the switch boards. This saves the end users from the bulk of wiring associated with a TVC level control finally making a clean chassis in a TVC pre-amp possible. Only an easy Bent Buss ribbon cable connection to the other boards inside the chassis and a few signal wires from the input board and to the output board are needed. This makes using the tx102 MUCH easier for DIY builders, for OEM's building pre-amps with TVC's, and most important of all - it makes things easier for me.....
The new TX102 Modules all have these features:
- Same winding design for high quality sonics and great behavior both Single ended or Ballanced.
- There are now 34 Level Steps from mute to +6.
- Gain mode (+6db gain) is right on the level knob - once you pass unity gain the pre-amp automatically switches to +2, +4 then +6db.
- Ballance control via remote control
- Level Trim Controls for each channel allow perminent channel to channel level adjustments that are saved in memory. This is used for trims between channels for room imballance or in
multichannel systems.
- Clean Wiring and Extremely short signal path.
Bentenuator 2 (BT2) - We have been working with Goldpoint (
http://www.goldpt.com/) to develop a new line of resistor attenuation boards. Arn Roatcap from Goldpoint has several new Resistive Attenuator boards in the design stage. The first of these boards is done now and has the following features:
- 128 1db steps from mute to unity gain.
- Small 2" x 3" board size.
- Single board can run 2 channels
- 2 boards can be used for ballance control / and fully ballanced circuits.
- Tantilum film surface mount resistors.
- Full remote Via the Front Panel Boards above.
- Simple connection to the BENT BUSS via ribbon cable connection.
More Goldpoint Modules are comming with varying degrees of features, cost and signal path purity.
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Each Bentenuator Board can be used with the above mentioned modules to build passive attenuators or to form the 'shell' of an active pre-amp design using your own active circuits. This allows modern fully remote controlled pre-amps to be easily constructed using the modules that best fit you applications. Power Modules, Input Modules, Output Modules, and Front Panel Modules all will ship with quality anodized and laser engraved panel units with all the finicky cutouts and panel marking done. This makes your own case design and building an easy task.
Example systems can range from a few selected boards inside one chassis to make a simple one input and one output passive pre-amp all the way up to a full tvc (or active) attenuation system for your 2 main channels with fiber optic outputs to another chassis with 4 channels of Goldpoint resistor attenuator boards for your other channels to form a 6 channel system.
I'm starting to ramble and sound like a marketing guy now so I'd better stop...... I am quite excited about how all this stuff is finally comming together. More info to come along with pics and prices as soon as I get those details. Expected delivery for the first set of modules including all those listed above is mid NOV.
Many Thanks!
John Chapman
www.bentaudio.com
