All New High Voltage Solid-State Effects Loop

[glpg80]

Not many follow the sub forums so I wanted to share what I’ve been working on lately.

I’ve designed an all high voltage, FET-based effects loop that sends true instrument level, or line level, while also being able to receive line level, or instrument level return, independently from one another.

The best part? I’m showing performance that is ultra-wideband - 4Hz to over 200kHz which no effects loop can claim to even come close:

What does this mean? A very linear, Ultra transparent effects loop. Bigger lows, crisper highs, better quality effects and no tone suck.

I’ve also got a design that is FET/12AX7 hybrid that also offers high voltage parallel mixing for line level return only for best noise floor performance. The parallel mixing is also ultra wideband.

Current LND offerings work great for small footprint and getting the job done. This will be a massive performance upgrade for those who want more out of their effects loop

 

[Exo-metal]

@what price point?

 

[Geo]

@what price point?

Money is no object when improving sound.

 

[glpg80]

@what price point?

I'm trying to design a PCB to lower the cost as much as physically possible as PTP would be insanely costly.

 

[Exo-metal]

You made it sound as though you had a product.

 

[glpg80]

You made it sound as though you had a product.

I'm just announcing that the capability to have a much higher quality effects loop is on the horizon.

Just about every single major amplifier company has copied the metroloop design for the last 20 years. This is an unrelated from-scratch high voltage design.

A product IS coming. A product IS designed as shown above. Just sharing cutting-edge progress as I'm doing this all on my own.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Cool tech! You could also patent it and license it out to other companies.

 

[thegame]

Nice graph but if I want to stare at a confusing paragraphs, I’ll look up a couple of @The~Kid ’s posts.

 

[7704A]

Nice graph but if I want to stare at a confusing paragraphs, I’ll look up a couple of @The~Kid ’s posts.

He may not be High-Voltage, but he is probably high.

 

[bste328]

Nice!!! keep up with the good work. Hope to see it soon!

 

[GreenRust]

This is cool...keep us posted!

 

[Smash]

I am a huge fan of everything you are doing

 

[Devin]

Nice graph but if I want to stare at a confusing paragraphs, I’ll look up a couple of @The~Kid ’s posts.

*_*

 

[stratjacket]

That’s badass man, very interested to follow the journey.

 

[voodooradio1]

You made it sound as though you had a product.

When has not having an actual product kept anyone on this site from giving up huge sums of money in advance?

 

[dstroud]

yeah man that is cool!

 

[glpg80]

When has not having an actual product kept anyone on this site from giving up huge sums of money in advance?

I refuse to sell on promissory notes and IOUs. I’ve never liked that particular business model and I’m not a fan of it.

If my name is on it then it has to be the best that I can do. There’s a bar of quality I expect to uphold.

 

[Al Chapo]

IOUs

 

[Monkey Man]

Awesome bro'.

That's the thing with analogue - you can achieve 2 -> 300kHz bandwidths. Good luck doin' that with digital. You'd need, what... a 700kHz sample rate to get 300kHz?

I'm using 300kHz as an example 'cause I remember from back in the day that many HQ mic pre's and other pro outboard boasted such figures.

 

[glpg80]

Awesome bro'.

That's the thing with analogue - you can achieve 2 -> 300kHz bandwidths. Good luck doin' that with digital. You'd need, what... a 700kHz sample rate to get 300kHz?

I'm using 300kHz as an example 'cause I remember from back in the day that many HQ mic pre's and other pro outboard boasted such figures.

Most studio quality effects run 96kHz sampling which is 3x audio bandwidth. This loop is showing orders of magnitude more than that. Most studio grade I/O’s having many channels of that go for insane money.

The other problem with every loop that’s ever existed is how they imprint their own tone onto an amp. Most loops act as really shitty filters with poor low end performance and really bad top end performance. Typically for audio they’re rolling off near 10kHz which is fine for most guitar effects but it can still be heard. Lastly every loop I’ve ever seen loads the return gain stage in such a way that the amplification is nonlinear. It’s actually a really hard problem to fix at either line level or instrument level. It’s even harder to fix giving both return options. It’s even harder to solve using ultra high voltage DC to maintain that big sound amplifiers are known for. It’s why no headway has been made in loops in the history of guitar amplifiers. Most use opamps or tubes or the metroloop design and call it good enough.

Another problem with most loops is that it’s near impossible to get instrument or line level as a reference output. That’s the advantage the metroloop offers but it has to be installed correctly. The same will apply here. Mine is a bit different in that instead of targeting an exact B+, you’ll just feed it near screen voltage and perform an Initial bias adjustment with a precision potentiometer and forget about it. Test points are necessary for the installer which is why this is a PCB only design.