mic pres in a hurry

tmbg · Dec 30, 2004

The time has come for me to build a nice mic preamp (since my new U87 capsule will be here sometime today, and I just got paid

)

I would like to try the Green, I know most people here really like the sound of it, but I'm afraid Peter is all out of PCBs, and wont have more for awhile, and I'm really impatient. :roll:

Are there gerber/drill files floating around for the green? I have been wanting to experiment with quick-turn proto houses, but haven't come up with a design and layout of my own that I liked enough to be worth manufacturing. If there are existing gerbers for the layout peter has on his site, I'd enjoy having one of these places make me some boards.

If not, maybe I could do my own layout, and a multichannel one at that, but I'd be afraid I'd screw something up :?

Aside from that, what other solid state pre designs do we have floating around here that one can get PCBs for?

NewYorkDave · Dec 30, 2004

Doesn't anyone build up stuff on perfboards anymore?

tmbg · Dec 30, 2004

no, perfboard makes me a sad panda

I build stuff on perf if it's stuff I designed myself, because then I have a snowball's chance in hell of troubleshooting it. I never have good luck building other people's designs on perf.

BTW, what about the SSL9k? I dont see a whole lot of info about it. How's it sound compared to the green?

I may whack up the parts lists for those two and see what the cost difference is like.

SSLtech · Dec 30, 2004

[quote author="tmbg"]BTW, what about the SSL9k? I dont see a whole lot of info about it. How's it sound compared to the green?[/quote]
Hard to put sound into words of course, but both the green and the 9k are nice sounding, clear, low-noise, low-distortion designs. The green wil cost less, I can tell you that right now. The green has no really exotic parts, whereas the 9k has a MAT-02 and a TL052... people have trouble finding these occasionally. LM394 and TL072 can be used as temporary substitutions, but the 394 is not a direct swap for a MAT-02, so I have never built one this way... I know that I've tried to use MAT-02s in place of 394s in the older SSL transformerless E and G-series mic pre designs, and they ave had noise issues, presumably from the current range being different between the two... I haven't researched it... I just use the MAT-02 and get on with it, but then I bought enough to do the job, so it's easy for me...

Keith

tmbg · Dec 30, 2004

ya, the green definitely looks simpler...

I may try my hand at doing my own layout if peter can't supply PCBs right now. Plus the post in the black market says it takes 2-3 weeks to ship them!!

I'd love it if someone already has the gerber/drill for that board though. I'd really like to do a run of boards with a known good design, before I layout (and screw up) my own.