T-Dogg
Well-known member
I'd like to make a simple impedance converter to interface my guitar with the line input of a preamp (and subsequently feed into a virtual software amp sim program) using one of the following I have floating around at home:
--some old russian germanium transistors...
--a bunch of NE5532's...
My thinking was a simple buffer will do the trick, no need for a more complex active circuit or full-blown DI. I know germaniums aren't terribly stable, and are probably noisy, etc... But I got a bunch of them, so why not put em to use here... do you think the simplicity of a single transistor in an emitter-follower configuration might be just the ticket? The less is more approach, versus pushing the signal through all the internal voodoo of an opamp? I feel like I can live with whatever self noise the tranny has if that's the main issue, as it's still quieter than any single tube stage?
Haven't thought it through much yet, but if I carefully bias the tranny with a split supply I'm thinking I should theoretically be able to avoid a blocking capacitor or transformer as well, right? or is that just bad design?
Tim
--some old russian germanium transistors...
--a bunch of NE5532's...
My thinking was a simple buffer will do the trick, no need for a more complex active circuit or full-blown DI. I know germaniums aren't terribly stable, and are probably noisy, etc... But I got a bunch of them, so why not put em to use here... do you think the simplicity of a single transistor in an emitter-follower configuration might be just the ticket? The less is more approach, versus pushing the signal through all the internal voodoo of an opamp? I feel like I can live with whatever self noise the tranny has if that's the main issue, as it's still quieter than any single tube stage?
Haven't thought it through much yet, but if I carefully bias the tranny with a split supply I'm thinking I should theoretically be able to avoid a blocking capacitor or transformer as well, right? or is that just bad design?
Tim