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Please help! Microphone preamp needed.

L

Lynton

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hey chaps. I've been searching high and low, and the only commercially
available mic preamps I can find are all over $250, which I can't
really justify spending. I'd love to buy a kit and have a bash at
doing it myself, but I've never done any electronics before, and I
feel like I'm in over my head! Basically, what I'm after is a preamp
that provides up to around 40dB gain. I want one powered by a 9v
battery, is stereo, has 3.5mm in and out jacks, a hard case to protect
it, and if I'm lucky a gain adjusting knob. Does anyone know where I
can find the plans/kit for such a device? I live in Adelaide,
Australia, and I'd be more that willing to pay someone to assemble it
for me if it's a complicated custom job. I really don't want to have
to take the suckers option and shell out the $250 for something that
could probably be built for a lot less. This is the one I'm
considering purchasing:

http://www.mp3direct.com.au/webstore/pdinfoadv.asp?productID=301

Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Lynton.
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lynton said:
Hey chaps. I've been searching high and low, and the only commercially
available mic preamps I can find are all over $250, which I can't
really justify spending. I'd love to buy a kit and have a bash at
doing it myself, but I've never done any electronics before, and I
feel like I'm in over my head! Basically, what I'm after is a preamp
that provides up to around 40dB gain. I want one powered by a 9v
battery, is stereo, has 3.5mm in and out jacks, a hard case to protect
it, and if I'm lucky a gain adjusting knob. Does anyone know where I
can find the plans/kit for such a device? I live in Adelaide,
Australia, and I'd be more that willing to pay someone to assemble it
for me if it's a complicated custom job. I really don't want to have
to take the suckers option and shell out the $250 for something that
could probably be built for a lot less. This is the one I'm
considering purchasing:

http://www.mp3direct.com.au/webstore/pdinfoadv.asp?productID=301

Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.

If you're interested in learning to solder and work with other hand
tools, and build it yourself, you could check with some of these websites:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...+preamp++construction++kit&btnG=Google+Search

If you're looking for someone to build it for you, ask around tech schools
or ham radio clubs or anyplace where techies hang out.

Have Fun!
Rich
 
P

Pooh Bear

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lynton said:
Hey chaps. I've been searching high and low, and the only commercially
available mic preamps I can find are all over $250, which I can't
really justify spending. I'd love to buy a kit and have a bash at
doing it myself, but I've never done any electronics before, and I
feel like I'm in over my head! Basically, what I'm after is a preamp
that provides up to around 40dB gain. I want one powered by a 9v
battery, is stereo, has 3.5mm in and out jacks, a hard case to protect
it, and if I'm lucky a gain adjusting knob. Does anyone know where I
can find the plans/kit for such a device? I live in Adelaide,
Australia, and I'd be more that willing to pay someone to assemble it
for me if it's a complicated custom job. I really don't want to have
to take the suckers option and shell out the $250 for something that
could probably be built for a lot less. This is the one I'm
considering purchasing:

You can build a *pretty damn good* mic amp for maybe $3-5 in active
parts. One that has a thermal noise figure at max gain of little more than
2dB. Gain is easily variable over a 45 dB range. Typically 15 - 60 dB

You *won't* acheive this on a 9V battery though ! You'll need split
supplies of typically +/- 15V ( the more the merrier ) but less than the
voltage limit of the op-amp ( usually +/- 18V for commercial parts +/-22V
for industrial ). I use +/- 17V.

Best performance for mic amps is achieved with balanced inputs on an XLR
connector.

3.5 mm jack plugs / sockets are unsuitable for high quality audio due to
poor contact noise / resistance / intermittencies.

If that interests you, I can point you to a schematic.


Graham
 
A

Andrew P. Follett

Jan 1, 1970
0
Pooh Bear said:
You can build a *pretty damn good* mic amp for maybe $3-5 in active
parts. One that has a thermal noise figure at max gain of little more than
2dB. Gain is easily variable over a 45 dB range. Typically 15 - 60 dB

You *won't* acheive this on a 9V battery though ! You'll need split
supplies of typically +/- 15V ( the more the merrier ) but less than the
voltage limit of the op-amp ( usually +/- 18V for commercial parts +/-22V
for industrial ). I use +/- 17V.

Best performance for mic amps is achieved with balanced inputs on an XLR
connector.

3.5 mm jack plugs / sockets are unsuitable for high quality audio due to
poor contact noise / resistance / intermittencies.

If that interests you, I can point you to a schematic.


Graham

Can you point me to a schematic for a matrix mixer?

Andy
 
K

Kevin Aylward

Jan 1, 1970
0
Lynton said:
Hey chaps. I've been searching high and low, and the only commercially
available mic preamps I can find are all over $250, which I can't
really justify spending. I'd love to buy a kit and have a bash at
doing it myself, but I've never done any electronics before, and I
feel like I'm in over my head! Basically, what I'm after is a preamp
that provides up to around 40dB gain. I want one powered by a 9v
battery, is stereo, has 3.5mm in and out jacks, a hard case to protect
it, and if I'm lucky a gain adjusting knob. Does anyone know where I
can find the plans/kit for such a device? I live in Adelaide,
Australia, and I'd be more that willing to pay someone to assemble it
for me if it's a complicated custom job. I really don't want to have
to take the suckers option and shell out the $250 for something that
could probably be built for a lot less. This is the one I'm
considering purchasing:

http://www.mp3direct.com.au/webstore/pdinfoadv.asp?productID=301

Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.

Well, you can get little complete mixers for way less than this.
http://www.behringer.com/, this one
http://www.behringer.com/MX602A/index.cfm?lang=ENG is about 40 uk
pounds.

Kevin Aylward
[email protected]
http://www.anasoft.co.uk
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode
Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture,
Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.
 
G

Glenn Gundlach

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hey chaps. I've been searching high and low, and the only commercially
available mic preamps I can find are all over $250, which I can't
really justify spending. I'd love to buy a kit and have a bash at
doing it myself, but I've never done any electronics before, and I
feel like I'm in over my head! Basically, what I'm after is a preamp
that provides up to around 40dB gain. I want one powered by a 9v
battery, is stereo, has 3.5mm in and out jacks, a hard case to protect
it, and if I'm lucky a gain adjusting knob. Does anyone know where I
can find the plans/kit for such a device? I live in Adelaide,
Australia, and I'd be more that willing to pay someone to assemble it
for me if it's a complicated custom job. I really don't want to have
to take the suckers option and shell out the $250 for something that
could probably be built for a lot less. This is the one I'm
considering purchasing:

http://www.mp3direct.com.au/webstore/pdinfoadv.asp?productID=301

Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,

Lynton.

Might this help? See page 7.
http://www.analog.com/UploadedFiles/Data_Sheets/452248524SSM2019_0.pdf
gg
 
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