HotFET Pre: J-FET audio preamplifier

schematics
At a first glance there's nothing difficult in building a unity-gain preamp: the well known and
fairly simple source follower should do the job. However in my case it turned out to be quite
an adventure. Why "HotFET" - please refer to this article.

HotFET-Pre (c) - prototyped in a "networking" case

The design is pretty simplistic. There were many calculations, tests and measurements on the
way. But I could not recall every bump on that road thus will try to merely describe the key
conclusions here.
Let's start with classics: the source follower as it is, decorated with the input capacitor
blocking DC and an attenuator playing the volume control here.

Simple unity-gain preamp: source follower

There were issues with this creation:

This design will exhibit quite high and thermally unstable DC offset on its output.
Therefore it cries for yet another capacitor being added directly to the signal path.
Distortions added by this follower are not negligible.

Output impedance is also high, unless we deploy a power J-FET with high idle
current. Shall you know the supplier selling such power devices at reasonable prices please let me know ASAP!

Replacing the resistor in the J-FET's source brings us close to what Nelson Pass has made
famous: "The First Watt B1 Buffer Preamp". Provided the transistors were closely matched there will be negligible DC offset at the output and, what is even more interesting for us:
much lower level of distortions. This schematic differs from "The First Watt B1" in a way it
gets fed by the dual-power supply. I would leave this subtle difference at the designer's
discretion. HotFET Pre can be used in different configurations.

Source follower with a symmetrical current source loading it

The reasoning behind biasing of HotFET Pre has been discussed in lengths already. Thus,
let's add the dreaded MOSFETs in cascode. For the sake of simplicity the biasing voltage
sourcesfor MOSFETs were depicted as single symbols. Perhaps I should have drawn
batteries there instead...

HotFET Pre: skeleton schematic - cascoded JFET / MOSFET

The complete schematic of preamp (one channel):

HotFET Pre (c) - schematic diagram

R1 - 50 KOhm
C1 - 3 uF
C2, C3 - 0.1 uF
C4, C5 - 220 uF 10 V
R2, R3 - 91 KOhm
R4 - 1 MOhm
R5...R8 - 604 Ohm
R9, R10 - 22 Ohm 0.1%
VD1...VD6 - green LEDs 1.7 V 20 mA

VT1, VT3 - IRF610 (matched by Vgs(th) @ 30 mA)

VT2, VT4 - J310 (closely matched by Idss)

I wanted to get low-pass -3db as low as I could. Well, 1/(R1*C1) ~= 7Hz - is not so bad
already. There is an opinion that we should strive to get as low as 0.5Hz. May be next time...
Most parts were selected pretty arbitrary. Wherever parts precision or matching matters - it's
specified explicitly.
There is one important addition if you compare this final schematic with the skeleton above:
here we added resistances in J-FET sources (R9 & R10). These resistors increase the depth of
local "degenerative" feedback. Despite my probably very harsh accent even in written
English, this time I said exactly what I meant: they increase the depth of the negative
feedback that was always there due to intrinsic resistance and inductance of real transistors.
Nevertheless we do want this extra feedback because it improves the overall thermal stability
and allows us selecting the biasing point volont. As a drawback this increased feedback
plays to increase the output impedance a bit - let's live with that. Last but not least we have to
decouple the followers from the load just in case there were too esoteric interconnects
plugged into the HotFET Pre' output jacks and it still has to deal with heavy capacitive loads
without oscillating.The old good green LEDs are apparently my preferred voltage reference
devices for such low-current designs. They might not provide high precision nor extreme
temperature stability, but that's really Ok in this particular case.Initially I was tempted to use
modern 3-volts blue or super-bright green LEDs. Unfortunately these often behaved in a
strange way: the voltage across a diode was suddenly dropping as if there was something
braking and short-circuiting the LED, while at nominal currents all LEDs did shine in a stable
fashion. Should anyone knew an explanation of such an effect - I would be grateful to get
educated!Gate resistors are necessary in order to avoid parasitic oscillations. The devices we
use are capable of very high frequency oscillations, so high that many scopes will simply not
show anything. But the measurements and the whole functionality of the circuit may be
screwed, should one omit these gate resistors.Virtually any Power Supply can be used,
provided it is capable to deliver bi-polar voltages around 15..20 Volts with loads up to 30mA
per channel. The amplifier has very good Power Supply [noise] Rejection Ratio. Also it's a
very good behaving load to the power supply as it actually exhibits the current sink/source
type of load.
The usage of huge banks of filtering capacitors of tens of thousands of mkF seems to be in
fashion these days. Here we go out of fashion and use moderate capacitances. This allows
much lower inrush currents and longer (therefore - lower) charging current peaks - the latter
literally means less noise energy spread in the box. The relatively high ripple we filter then
with a simple RC filter.
The proposed PS schematic was tuned for HotFET Pre and should not be copied blindly to
other loads. Still, I do hope that main ideas may prove valuable for other reader's projects.

HotFET Pre (c) - the Power Supply

Requirements for the mains transformer are very relaxed here. I used some small one with
two 12 Volts secondary. The transformer must be capable to deliver 120 mA according to its
manufacturer spec. In my test implementation even the smallest transformer did not fit into
the "networking" box I've chosen for this preamp. Thus I used RS765 (GX-12) type
connector for low voltage AC power and put the transformer in a separate box.
In fact any rectifier diodes could be used here, but Schottky types (10BQ060 from IR in my
case) yield lower noise due to their virtually immediate turn-off.
The input tri-wired choke is also optional. I used some 1/2" ferrite ring (scavenged from a PC
power supply) with 15 turns of 0.21mm wire, made holding 3 wires together.
Possible variations. Utilizing Mr. White's cathode follower topology would be an option
here. But that variation, while providing mightier load capabilities, would require a deadstable power supply effectively nullifying high PSRR advantage we get with the simple
layout.
Bench results: HotFET Pre Q&A; .
How does that sound? Sorry, but even if you managed to withstand my writing till here please do not expect me putting up some glossy-magazine words about sound brilliance and
such.
Honestly, that sounds as good as a simple but yet well matched preamp can do. It's balanced,
gives what I would call a proper arrangement to the scene. After all I caught myself
recognizing new subtle things that I never noticed before on the discs that I enjoyed listening
in the headphones many times... But then I'd need to tell what I am comparing it to etc. You
are welcome to pass by and listen yourself. Or build it and enjoy listening to your version
In place of a conclusion: I am convinced that a correctly designed and carefully built
preamplifier is the must for any high-definition sound reproduction installation. Some may
argue that in case of a very high input impedance power amplifier (for ex. a tube amp) a socalled passive preamp will do. I would still disagree: there's a very uneasy load introduced by
interconnects. Thus if we want enjoying the music instead of going into the listening to how

interconnects from the brand XYZ sound - the signal source must provide low output
impedance.
Where to buy? Should you be interested in purchasing a DIY kit for building HotFET Pre,
or a pre-built version of it - please drop me a note. I am considering to put up some kits for
sale. Your request will definitely help speeding-up the preparations
Update 2012.02.13: Coming soon!

HotFET Pre+

the elite version of this schematic using depletion mode MOSFETs.

Twice lower the components count.

Equal or better quality.
No compromise, the best silicon-based buffer preamplifier for audio one can build or
buy for money! (Till proven otherwise

--- Stay tuned