Review and Measurements of Rane PS1 Phono Amp

[March Audio]

Why not standardize on the ubiquitous AT-3600? It's virtually industry standard, still being manufactured, 5.3mV output, and is as cheap as chips ~$US10.

AT95, everyone had one . Are they even still made?

I never went very far up the turntable food chain, my parents Mitsubishi hifi with this deck and AT95

 

[restorer-john]

I never went very far up the turntable food chain, my parents Mitsubishi hifi with this deck and AT95

There's a nice Mitsubishi in that range that is Quartz PLL DD and not a bad performer. I think its rubber feet went crumbly IIRC.

 

[SIY]

Really, anything in the 500-1500R DCR and 0.5-1.5H range will work fine as a dummy. I used a Stanton body because someone gave it to me after his stylus died (for this application, you don't need a stylus).

 

[restorer-john]

Really, anything in the 500-1500R DCR and 0.5-1.5H range will work fine as a dummy. I used a Stanton body because someone gave it to me after his stylus died

The AT-91s I pictured above all came in around 420 DCR (all very close to each other) and a Stanton 500 at 520 DCR. A few Shures were 600 DCR. (M91 etc)

I'm feeling rather klutzy today (burnt my fingers getting soup out of the microwave, then my tongue, tasting it..) so I'm staying out of my cartridge box. Not even game to hook them up to AudioLab to test inductance- I might fry them knowing my luck today.

I have a saying on days like this- 'John, walk away from the soldering iron'

 

[jackenhack]

And it uses +/- half wave voltage doublers and the CT is not earthed, only virtually earthed. All in all, a strange way to power this RIAA stage if you ask me and it's not surprising there are significant mains artefacts.

The Cambridge Audio Azur 640P Phono Stage has the same type of power supply, but I guess they designed the PCB better because if I'm not mistaken, it measured a lot better than this when it comes to power supply noise injection.

 

[amirm]

The amount of current they pull from voltage doubler would also make a difference.

 

[LTig]

As noted in the dashboard view, after spending time building the cable, I was disappointed that the performance got worse, not better. You can see it clearly here with THD+N versus delivered output voltage:
View attachment 26363

We don't get the benefit of noise reduction or low distortion.

The balanced performance is strange. According to the specs the SSM2142 it is able to deliver 10Vrms with 0.006% THD+N.

 

[jhaider]

Very interesting and a little surprising. I too expected better from Rane.

To give a bit of background on this preamp, it came from a radio station. They had a bunch of them, and I was told that it was the standard broadcast phono preamp of its time. Maybe that was or was not true generally, but it was for this station.

The main reason I stopped using it - replaced first with the Emotiva XPS that Amir also measured, later with an iFi iPhono because I think it's cool it offers different EQ curves for different types of pressings - was that power supply. I like to unplug when not in use, and Rane has a phone/network style plug that feels fragile and can easily snag.

Back in the day, the subsonic filter was engaged in order to save amplifier power. And this was before the ubiquity of subwoofers.

You want a subsonic filter if your system has bass extension like this (Dirac through Bryston SP4):

 

[Frank Dernie]

At shows I often see the woofers go nutz due to LP rumble, to surprise of many listeners that don't know what it is!

What you are seeing is the arm cartridge resonance excited by warps or any other uneven surface. It is always at a higher level than any of the actual music because the damping is (necessarily for good performance in the audio band) way below critical. This is entirely spurious signal unrelated to the music on the disc and absolutely should be filtered out not only because it is a waste of power but also because it is 100% garbage so not having it getting to the amp is sensible and logical.
A record player is physically unable to accurately pick up signal below 2x the natural frequency of the arm/cartridge on the cartridge's compliance but it still produced excessive output in this region.
OTOH I d know people who like the extra bass, even though it is spurious

 

[sergeauckland]

This is exacerbated by bass reflex or transmission line loudspeaker that have no control below the port resonance frequency in the case of reflex, or below the driver resonance in the case of a TL. Below these frequencies, the cone will flap about restored only by the driver's suspension, which is generally quite slack.

S