Hi everyone.
First post on the board here, so please forgive me if this is the wrong place. Posts here are recent and the topic seems to be matching pretty well.
I'm planning on a MS matrix in the style of Wayne Kirkwood's (
https://www.ka-electronics.com/images/jpg/M-S_Simple.jpg) with both encoding and decoding. I'm going for the simple one (not the elaborated new version).
I faced the same question that ruffrecords posted in the first place:
Both THAT and TI make line drivers and receivers with apparently identical specs. Is there anything to choose between them?
Cheers
Ian
And my point has been enforced by elskardio:
For what it's worth...
I have compared the INA137 vs That 1246 in the same circuit and I couldn't measure (or ear) any differences.
The TI part is easier to find and usually at a better price too.
I'd like to use INA2134 for diff inputs (because of the nice 2-in-a-package form) and 2x DRV135 for balanced outs (I looked for the same 2-in-a-package thing but no luck there...).
Bonus thing here, I'd like to take the miniaturization route (SOIC package teases me a lot).
Since I'd like to go full TI/BB here, I'd also like to swap the THAT1240s in the encoding/decoding part of the matrix.
From my wandering on the interwebs and from my own knowledge (experiments done on an analog console and in my DAW) I can approach MS "codec" in three ways:
- 0db cut during encoding and 6db cut during decoding
- 6db cut during encoding and 0db cut during decoding
- 3db cut during encoding and 3db boost during decoding
Thoughts on the three respective approaches:
- I have to have headroom in the inserts in order to accept a +6db gain on the encoded inputs (could be nice if I want to gainstage a comp or something)
- No headroom issues and no boost necessary (most likely this will be my approach, since I'm planning on EQ-type inserts)
- I hate to attenuate and boost without any necessity so I dislike this one
Mathematically this applies to both channels equally, but everyone is talking about mono build-up (and also my reasoning is pulling me towards thinking that the sides will be lower in volume). Am I overthinking it?
Let's suppose that I'm going for the second choice (cut in encoding, no cut in decoding), would the INA2137 best suited for this thanks to its selectable +6dB/-6dB gain?
Sorry for the long post but this arises from a month or more of time spent thinking on the issue.
Paolo