HOW PREAMPS QUIETLY MAKE BIG GAINS PART 1
In one of his books about lateral thinking, Edward de Bono talks about a bunch of designers sitting around a big table trying to re-invent the airplane. One guy wants to put in more seats so they can make more money per flight. Another wants less seats to make it easier for the peanut cart to get down the middle. One wants bigger fuel tanks so they can fly further. Another wants smaller fuel tanks so they can fit more baggage in. On it goes around the table as paradigm challenges paradigm, and conflicts are argued about and eventually resolved. Everyone there knows they all have the same goal, and that is to make a great airplane. However, they are also aware that at the end of their deliberations, if the thing won’t fly, they’ve all failed.
Modern microphone amplifiers are to me very much like that, and a good design will be a harmonisation of different and sometimes contradictory concerns. A good microphone amplifier is not just a box that makes things louder. It has to have adjustment available to cater for a variety of audio levels at its input and output, reject external electromagnetic interference and unwanted signals, make its input moonlight as a DC power supply for microphones, exhibit low self noise, and offer high reliability. When you design a microphone amplifier, you are designing a whole system which is searching for its own equilibrium. Changing the parameters of any one section will often create an argument with its neighbour.
I can’t think of another piece of audio equipment which
