HP 334a distortion analyzer

[Cainester]

Are these any good? I acquired one and it has no ac cord or owner's manual. From what I can find on the net, they have a 5Hz to 600kHz range. Could probably find a mains line somewhere. Anyone know of a manual?
Would I be wasting my time?
cheers,
caine

 

[mcs]

[quote author="Cainester"]Are these any good?[/quote]
I don't know - I have one, but I haven't compared it to anything else.

I acquired one and it has no ac cord or owner's manual. From what I can find on the net, they have a 5Hz to 600kHz range. Could probably find a mains line somewhere.

The mains cables are easy to find in the US - or so I'm told. I made one using a plug from a rotten calculator cord.

Anyone know of a manual?

I have one - but perhaps you can download it somewhere? Have you tried BAMA?

Would I be wasting my time?

I don't think so. Mine seems to be working well, and it's quite easy to use.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[NewYorkDave]

It's a good piece of gear, as are all HP analyzers.

A manual can be found here. If the download doesn't work, give it a little time and then try again:
http://bama.sbc.edu/hp.htm

 

[mcs]

[quote author="NewYorkDave"]A manual can be found here.[/quote]
That's a "Military Manual" whatever that means. Mine isn't. What's a military manual?

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[NewYorkDave]

Just a service manual with a bunch of added crap that you can feel free to ignore.

 

[Scenaria]

I have the same one..

its pretty neat! can actually do a few things the audio precision cant...

I dont think I'll ever part with mine as they tend to sell for less than $100 and IMHO its worth more than that

 

[Tekay]

How low can it measure distorsion? Is it automatic?

I've been lookin' for a good distorsion meter and since my AudioTester does very good sweep graphics and I don't want to buy a HP8903B just for that measure distorsion maybe this is what I'm lookin' for!

 

[NewYorkDave]

If you have a good AC millivoltmeter and don't mind manual nulling, it's actually not too hard to make your own distortion analyzer. I've done it.

Still, if you can pick up a good used HP for $100 or less... go for it!

 

[Scenaria]

the 334 works just fine... very easy to use.. but you do need a fairly low dist generator...

 

[mcs]

[quote author="Tekay"]How low can it measure distorsion?[/quote]
The lowest I have measured so far is 0.046% from a tube linestage. I don't know how much was from the linestage, and how much was from the oscillator (HP 200CD).

Is it automatic?

It has an auto/manual switch, so I guess it's automatic. But I still haven't found out which part is automatic...

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

 

[tk@halmi]

I have the HP333A that is the same thing without the AM input.
After a few uses it becomes very easy to operate. I like the way they built instruments prior to the seventies, sturdy, long lasting and easy to calibrate.
A good computer based solution is hard to beat performance wise though.

Tamas

 

[Bo Hansen]

Tekay,

As Tamas say the HP 333A and 334A is same besides the AM detector thing that is a RF measurment featrures.
The 333A and 334A have automatic nulling mode and have full scale at 0,1% so you can read (or guess) down to 0,01%
There are a older 332A that is same but with out the automatic nulling mode.
I have the 334A and it is a nice instrument, some time I use it when I work with tube circuits.

There are also a newer (analog) Distortion analyzer 339A with build-in low distortion oscillator that is a fantastic machine with lowest range full scale at 0,01 and they say that you can do measurments down to 0,0018% in 10 Hz to 110 kHz

HP have also the built-in low distortion oscillator as a "stand alone unit" the 239A and this is very good to use with the 333A/334A

--Bo

 

[NewYorkDave]

Another good distortion analyzer that turns up on the used market sometimes is the Sound Technology 1700B. It's a cumbersome beast that takes up a lot of space on the workbench; but I used one when I worked at a hi-fi repair shop, and I found it fast and easy to use. It includes an internal low-distortion oscillator, a balanced input, and .01% full-scale sensitivity. You can measure down to .001%. It was available with an IMD option. I wish I owned one now.

 

[Bo Hansen]

Dave,

I have this to, it have a great low distortion oscillator with a very strong output amp, but as you say, it takes up a lot of space on the workbench.

--Bo

 

[Cainester]

Thanks for the info
I have been trying since yesterday to get a manual from bama, and have had no success. It seems their system will only allow 10 guest ftp users at a time. I'll keep trying.

 

[peterc]

There is a BAMA mirror here :

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/hp/

Will allow 50 users.

Peter

 

[Cainester]

Thanks a bundle :grin:

 

[clintrubber]

FWIW, let's have some more options brought up if anyone happens to see one:

I'm using this National distortion meter VP-7702C.
Goes down to 0.01% FSD but it doesn't have a generator.

For test signals I use a so so sinewave generator for now (0.1% @ 1 kHz), in combination with a Philips PM6410 passive octave bandpass filter (LCR) which nicely brings
the THD of the sine wave down to 0.005% (1kHz), low enough for now.

Would be more convenient to have the signal generator already
having lower THD (the NYD-circuit will be built some day...)
but for now the above setup does the trick. Could even wring some lower THD by using a slightly higher signal frequency (more filtering), but well...


At work we have some kind of lottery each year to get rid of the older gear. So I got (bought) this National-meter, but a collegue got the HP339 ! :?
:evil:

Bye,

Peter

 

[tk@halmi]

[quote author="mcs"][quote author="Tekay"]How low can it measure distorsion?[/quote]
The lowest I have measured so far is 0.046% from a tube linestage. I don't know how much was from the linestage, and how much was from the oscillator (HP 200CD).
Mikkel C. Simonsen[/quote]

I think the residual distortion of the instrument is 0.03, when calibrated properly.

 

[Cainester]

I'm having trouble locating this power cable:
connector
What is the name of this type?
Thanks,
Caine