DIY FRONT END 2022

Nelson Pass

Among the appreciations of DIYers is stuff that works simply, well, and cheap, not necessarily
in that order. This project is an effort to assemble these elements into a discrete gain stage
that can be used as the front end for modest power amplifiers or as a general audio gain
circuit. I waved the schematic at the camera during the 2022 Burning Amp Festival and now
(before the villagers with torches arrive at my doorstep) I present the DIY Front End 2022.

Here is the schematic of the reference build, the one you almost saw at BAF. It's a simple
example of an op-amp type circuit – a pair of differential input transistors Q1 and Q2 driving a
PNP transistor Q5 in Common Emitter mode, forming a single-ended Class A amplifier. Both
stages are biased by Jfets Q3 and Q4 operating as constant current sources.

As shown here, the circuit operates with a gain of 10 with dual supplies and balanced inputs,
but there are numerous options for single-ended input, single-ended supplies and gain. The
power supply filter can also create a virtual ground for single-ended supply operation with
either V+ or V- referenced to a Ground.

As shown the circuit uses cheap J113 Jfet transistors and also a KSA992 Bipolar transistor.
The KSA992 is very inexpensive but has perfectly fine performance (no compromise there)
and the J113's are not as great as the Toshiba 2SK170's (at maybe 20 times the price) but
this is not an issue for the constant current sources Q3 and Q4.
For the input stage we can improve the performance by paralleling the J113's, which
increases the transconductance and lowers the distortion and noise. The pc board artwork
also has hole patterns for 2SK170's and other Jfets, and later we will see some curves.

Here is an image of the double sided circuit board showing the top in red and bottom in green.
It's dimensions are 1.7” x 3” with mounting holes spaced at 1.575”.

And a photo of a finished board:

The “Essentials” kit from the store at diyAudio contains a pair of the circuit boards, transistors,
and the selected values for R7 and R8 to give the reference value for the Vp pinch-off
voltages of the matched Jfets.

The balanced input version assumes R1=R2 and R3=R4, and the gain is set by R3/R1. Unity
gain is achieved by R1=R3. You can run the input unbalanced/single-ended with arbitrary
resistor values and by attaching the -IN to ground.

To run the circuit with bipolar (dual) supplies, you would attach pad VG as ground, and run the
circuit as shown in the schematic.

To run the circuit with a V+ single-ended supply, set R10 at 0 ohms and treat the V- as
ground. With a single supply V-, you would short R9 and treat the V+ as ground. The circuit
itself doesn't mind, and in both cases the power supply filter circuit will continue to work and
also generate a mid-point virtual ground for the circuit. As the inputs and outputs are coupled
by polypropylene film caps, there are no DC offset issues.

Now all this may sound complicated, but I have entrusted the details to diyAudio member
6L6's build guides, and of course there will be questions answered and problems solved on
the “DIY FE 2022” thread at www.diyaudio.com in the Pass Labs forum.

There will be a two channel “Essentials” kit in the store at diyAudio consisting of 2 pc boards,
12 matched J113 Jfets, 2 KSA992 bipolars and 4 resistors matched to the Jfets.

The choice of additional resistors and capacitors is yours. The circuit is designed to operate
either as a line level gain stage with a maximum output of 15V rms or as the front end of a
modest follower output stage to a maximum of about 30 watts single-ended or 120 watts with
a bridged output. The J113 and KSA992 have been shown to stand up to 70 volts maximum
in testing, but I am suggesting that a 50 volt supply is appropriate and allows use of 2SK170
type and other Jfets as well.
With one exception, the following curves show the performance of the single-ended supply
version with balanced inputs and a gain of 10, with an output load of 10 Kohm and 1000 pF
capacitance.

Below is the frequency response:

The square wave response at 20 Khz, 40 volts peak to peak:

Here are some distortion vs output curves for the reference circuit:

Curve A is the distortion with a single pair of J113 inputs, B is with 2 parallel pairs, C is one
pair of 2SK170, and D is with two parallel pairs of 2SK170.
Here is what the distortion waveform looks like with the reference circuit, showing a “negative
phase” 2nd harmonic distortion character. This varies with loading and other choices, but is a
good example of the performance of single-ended Class A circuits.

The reference circuit has a gain of 10, but if you set the gain to unity (+)1 you benefit from the
additional feedback, and the distortion falls proportionally:

This amplifier is also happy running with phase inverted gain if you simply drive the -IN with
the signal and ground the +IN connection.
The distortion vs frequency is quite good and there are no frequency compensation
capacitors needed for stability. The graphic below displays this at 10 dB gain, and the rise at
the top frequency is due to the 1 nF capacitive loading at the output.

Conclusion

And there we have it. I started out trying for simple, good, and cheap as a means for luring in
would-be DIYers, and I expect it will do that. At the same time, to my surprise the
performance exceeded expectations, so I will amend good to excellent.

The basic circuit works fine as a line level preamp or balanced to single-ended converter, and
can be adapted into other projects without the power supply filter or coupling capacitors, no
problems. Some of you may want to adapt it into other projects with your own artwork -
feel free to do that.

A bit later I will have some nice little power amplifier projects that can use this, but you will
also notice that there are already several simple Class A follower output stages in the threads
of the Pass Labs forum at diyAudio.com that will fit.

And remember, it's Entertainment, not Dialysis.

:)

(C) 2023 Nelson Pass