rascalseven
Well-known member
For anyone who needs an inexpensive, but good quality RIAA phono preamp for your turntable, snag a BBE FJB-200X and do a simple mod on it. I got mine at Guitar Center for $50. I needed transfer some vinyl to ProTools, so ran the BBE outputs to the ¼” inputs of my G9 for additional gain and then into my converters. It sounded okay, but a little murky and spitty in the midrange (which isn’t the G9, I’m sure, and also probably not the $750 Technics turntable with brand new stylus that I borrowed from a buddy).
Given the $50 price tag, the “Made In China” printed on the thing, and the 12vdc wallwart for power, I decided to pop it open and have a look see. Glad I did. It does have metal film resistors and film caps, though the electro’s look pretty generic. The single active component is a JRC 4580 (isn’t this the one in everything Behringer makes??).
I decided an upgrade was in order, so I switched the 4580 for a BB/TI OPA2604 and swapped the 12vdc wallwart for a 24vdc that I had.
Stock, I measured the voltage at the opamp power rails to be +16vdc (+/-8volt basically). With the 24vdc supply the power at the rails is now +29.5vdc… much nicer.
I did switch a 1000uF electro in the psu section from a 25v to 35v to handle the higher voltage transformer. I also installed a socket for the IC so I can try other types whenever I want.
Plugged it back in and compared it to the tracks I did with the stock unit. MUCH nicer! More open, detailed and smooth midrange, richer lows and articulate, but smooth highs, with an overall deeper 3-D image.
A simple upgrade that took a few bucks and about 30 minutes to do (and that’s only because I was forced to use desoldering braid on the opamp to get it out as my desoldering gun is clogged at the moment).
Keep this mod in mind for whenever you need a cheap but good-sounding RIAA phono preamp.
Given the $50 price tag, the “Made In China” printed on the thing, and the 12vdc wallwart for power, I decided to pop it open and have a look see. Glad I did. It does have metal film resistors and film caps, though the electro’s look pretty generic. The single active component is a JRC 4580 (isn’t this the one in everything Behringer makes??).
I decided an upgrade was in order, so I switched the 4580 for a BB/TI OPA2604 and swapped the 12vdc wallwart for a 24vdc that I had.
Stock, I measured the voltage at the opamp power rails to be +16vdc (+/-8volt basically). With the 24vdc supply the power at the rails is now +29.5vdc… much nicer.
I did switch a 1000uF electro in the psu section from a 25v to 35v to handle the higher voltage transformer. I also installed a socket for the IC so I can try other types whenever I want.
Plugged it back in and compared it to the tracks I did with the stock unit. MUCH nicer! More open, detailed and smooth midrange, richer lows and articulate, but smooth highs, with an overall deeper 3-D image.
A simple upgrade that took a few bucks and about 30 minutes to do (and that’s only because I was forced to use desoldering braid on the opamp to get it out as my desoldering gun is clogged at the moment).
Keep this mod in mind for whenever you need a cheap but good-sounding RIAA phono preamp.
