The Beast with a Thousand JFETs.

(actually Two Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty-Two) By Nelson Pass Roger and Me
When I was young, in the halcyon age of the late 50's and early 60's, I spent my Saturdays at the one of the two local theaters watching B! science fiction and horror mo"ies# I particularly li$ed the %dgar &llan Poe epics starring 'incent Price, as well as titles li$e &ttac$ of the (ra) *onsters!, War of the Satellites!, and the e"er popular +ittle Shop of ,orrors!# -ou could safely say that these mo"ies deeply influenced my outloo$ on life, )ut it was not until I was in my late .0's that someone ga"e me a )oo$ a)out /oger (orman that I reali0ed who was responsi)le for most of these films# &dditional years of (orman films and su)se1uent reading re"ealed more a)out /oger (orman# It is said that /oger (orman has ne"er lost money on any of his hundreds of mo"ies# &pparently he initially lost money on the Intruder!, which seems to ha"e )een William Shatner's de)ut, pro)a)ly )ecause it was a morality tale on race relations, )ut I am informed that it has since )ecome profita)le "ideo release# ,a"ing purchased a copy, I li$e to thin$ that I tipped it into profita)ility# It has )een said that if you wor$ in ,ollywood you run into /oger twice in your career 2 once your way up and later on your way down# (ertainly it is true that the list of people who wor$ed with /oger early in their careers forms a Who's Who of the film industry, including 3ac$ Nicholson, /on ,oward, /o)ert 4i Niro, *artin Scorsese, 5rancis 5ord (oppola, Syl"ester Stallone, Peter 5onda, Peter Bogdano"ich, 3ames (ameron, 6uentin 7arantino, William Shatner, +loyd Bridges, Be"erly 8arland, (harles Bronson, /o)ert 'aughn, Bar)ara Steele 9 the list goes on and on# /oger (orman had something of a formula for his earlier efforts: First, you pic$ a name that will capture the imagination of the mo"ie going pu)lic# Second, you ma$e up a lurid mo"ie poster that features a scantily clad woman )eing threatened )y whate"er creature is featured in the title# 7he actual monster need not )e "isi)le# Third, you ta$e the name and poster around to all the distri)utors and get them to )uy into it# &nd if they do### Fourth, you film the mo"ie on a tiny )udget in a few wee$s# My kind of guy!

;ne day in <=== my wife 3ill and I were tal$ing a)out who would you pic$ to ha"e dinner with if you could!, and my choice was /oger (orman# Without my $nowledge, 3ill got my attorney to write a nice letter to his mo"ie company e>plaining that I was not a stal$er, rather a de"out fan warped )y a lifetime's e>posure to his wor$, and the ultimate result was an in"itation to lunch# I flew to ,ollywood and we met at 7he 8rill# 5or an hour and a half I ate a salad and )as$ed in the presence of /oger (orman# We mostly tal$ed a)out mo"ies and our $ids and e"en amplifiers# &t the end he autographed a photo for me and let me )uy the lunch# It was one of the )est <#5 hours I ha"e spent# /ecently /oger was awarded an ;scar for his lifetime of wor$# Now I told you that story so that I can tell you this story:

The Two Jfets

5or se"eral decades 7oshi)a made pro)a)ly the finest complementary 3fets that you could )uy 9 the .S?<@0 and .S3@A# 7hey are "ery low noise parts, 1uiet enough to ser"e as amplification for the lowest output mo"ing coil cartridges# 7hey self9)ias at "ery con"enient current le"els and they are one of the lowest distortion transistors e"ery made# Being complementary types, they ma$e e>cellent follower B )uffer!C circuits for audio applications# ,ere is an e>ample of such a circuit:

&n N! channel 3fet B.S?<@0C and a P! channel 3fet B.S3@AC are Doined at the Source and 8ate pins, and the 4rains are attached to 'E and '9 power supply "oltages# 7he relationship )etween the 8ate to Source "oltages of the de"ices determines the current flow through the 3fet, and in this case insures that the Source Pins follow! the input "oltage faithfully# 7he input impedance of the 8ate pins is e>tremely high, )ut the output impedance is 1uite low, around .0 ohms or so, and so the circuit is a )uffer!# It's "oltage gain is unity, and the amplication is purely that of current#

7his stage is operated push9pull (lass & and has a )ias BidleC current of the Idss figure of the 3fets# 7he Idss is the current which flows when the 8ate and Source of the transistor are at the same "oltage# 5or .S3@A and .S?<@0 de"ices, the Idss range is )ro$en down into F groups: 8/ is .#6 to 6#5 m&, B+ is 6 to <. m&, and ' is <0 to .0 m&# 7hese de"ices ha"e a limited "oltage rating, .5 "olts for the P channel .S3@A and A0 "olts for the N channel .S?<@0, and this creates a practical limitation for the rail "oltages in this push pull circuit of a)out <. "olts or so# 7hey also ha"e a limited dissipation rating in free air, 0#A0 watts# 7here are some practical additions to the circuit a)o"e in the form of three resistors:

/< and /. inserted in series with the Source pins of the 3fets helps to set the current at a slightly lower desira)le "alue than Idss and pro"ides a con"enient place to measure the current and adDust the 4( offset when the Idss "alues of the N and P de"ices are not perfectly matched# 3fets are sufficiently fast that you can encounter pro)lems with parasitic oscillation unless you ta$e some steps to damp out! potential /5 energy# /esistor /F accomplishes this# -ou will perhaps notice that I ha"e specified actual supply rail "oltages 2 those of two car )atteries# -ou might want to power this up with standard lead9acid cell car )atteries Byou wouldn't )e the first one to do soC and also you can find cheap commercial supplies with high current ratings at this "oltage#

So we as$ the musical 1uestion, as a power amplifier how many watts will this circuit deli"er into an G ohm loudspea$erH Well, with an <0 m& )ias current, it will run (lass & to a)out .0 m& pea$, and considering the power formula: W I / J IK. which )ecomes W I G J #0. J #0. then the pea$ output into G ohms is 0#00F. watts, or a)out <#6 milliWatts rms# (learly we're going to ha"e to do something dramatic to ma$e this into a real power amplifier, and this is where /oger (orman comes in# ;ne of his mo"ies was The Beast With a Million Eyes J, in which the monster's powers depended on ha"ing a large "ision# We can arrange these circuits in parallel for more current, and we can run them )alanced in series to achie"e twice as much output "oltage# We can e>pect more than .5 watts of "oltage into G ohms and 50 watts into A ohms running )alanced stages with the <F#G "olt supplies, so then it )ecomes a matter of how many of the circuits BcellsC in parallel will )e needed# 50 watts rms into A ohms re1uires a 5 amp pea$# If you parallel de"ices to multiply your 0#0.& indi"idual cell current to get that, you need 5L#0. or .50 of them# ;f course there are two such de"ices per cell, and the system is run with two parallel sets of cells, so we end up needing a)out <,000 3fets per channel#

Roger Made Me Do It...

When I went to lay out the circuit artwor$ for this, I found that I had space to do a <A M .< array of cells for each half of a channel, and so the actual figure turned out to )e <<@6 3fets per channel, )ut what's a little o"er$ill among friendsH ,ere is a picture of that half9channel circuit )oard:

!or"an was co-#roducer of this fil"$ %ut a##arently %eca"e the uncredited director when union difficulties arose&

&nd here's what the )oard loo$s li$e a little closer up:

Yes, it's massively parallel.

& pair of these amplifiers re1uires .F5. of these 7oshi)a 3fets# &s they are discontinued and therefore precious, it is dou)ly cra0y to de"ote this 1uantity of these parts# ,ere is an o"er"iew of the arrangement of the cells:

I apologi0e that the details are somewhat tiny# *uuuuu ,ahahahahaaaaa#####

,ere is a picture of the patient and multi9talented /oth Wiedric$ assem)ling the channels:

/oth tested the Idss of each 3fet and soldered them into the )oards:

/oth also made some nice enclosures out of solid red oa$# I told you he was multi9talented###

What you can't see is that there are two )oards to each )o>, one on each side# 7he power supplies are e>ternal, and the input is "ia )alanced M+/ connectors# What you might )e a)le to ma$e out is that the front and rear edges of the circuit )oards contain large num)ers of capacitors in parallel to ensure that the power supply impedance remains low at all fre1uencies# 7his is a "ery fast circuit, and it is not "ery tolerant of inductance in the supply Bwhich is remoteC# 7he )ias current of each channel comes out around 5 amps, and we e>pect the amplifier to lea"e (lass & around 6 amps output Bpea$C, which is more than enough for (lass & operation at full power into A ohm loads, and a)out @0 watt pea$s into . ohms# We get a little more (lass & region than usual due to the s1uare law character of the de"ices, the trans9 conductance of the 3fets )eing somewhat dominant o"er the <0 ohm Source resistors# 7he amplifiers do dissipate a)out <A0 watts per channel, and you can clearly feel the heat radiating off of the sides# 7he indi"idual de"ices are running at a)out <F0 milliwatts, well )elow their rating, and I ha"e not encountered any difficulty with relia)ility since firing them up nearly two years ago#

Measured Performance
7he ordinary o)Decti"e performance of the amplifier is 1uite good# 7he )andwidth e>tends from 4( to a)out < mega,ert0, and the character of the performance is consistent "ery much )eyond the audio )and# 7he output impedance is a)out 0#. ohms so the damping factor is a)out A0# 7he noise is at the )ottom of the resolution of my test setup# ,ere are some cur"es, starting with power into G ohms:

Note that the amplifier was dri"en )y an &udio Precision System <, whose ma>imum output is a little under <A "olts rms# /outinely the amplifier can do a few "olts more, )ut that's Dust icing on the ca$e# ,ere is the distortion into A ohms:

5inally, here is the distortion into . ohms# &t this point you can see the amplifier starting to poop out at a)out @0 watts into . ohms, which is a)out G amp pea$s, more than e>pected#

,ere is what the wa"eform distortion loo$s li$e# 4ue to the strong symmetry of the circuit, it is the e>pected third harmonic at a little more than #00.N, and you will note the a)sence of "isi)le higher harmonic orders:

7hat same test at .0 ?h0 with the same amount of distortion#

,ere is the fre1uency response dri"en )y a low impedance source#

& word a)out input capacitance# 7he 3fet pairs here ha"e an input capacitance of a)out FG p5, and as you start paralleling them up, you multiply this "alue, 5ortunately, running )alanced results in hal"ing the ultimate "alues, )ut in the end the two .=A pair in series wor$s out to a)out 5#5 n5 capacitance as an input, or a)out 5 times the old I,5 standard# If you wish to get the performance presented, a 50 ohm source will get you a)out 600 ?h0 )andwidth, )ut a 600 ohm source will roll off at 50 ?h0# I run a)out <00 or .00 ohm sources, so I don't ha"e much pro)lem with this, howe"er I did consider the possi)ility that this would not )e accepta)le to someone Bisn't that always the case(C# So I pro"isioned the circuit )oard so that first cell of each ran$ of .< 3fet pairs can )e set up as a dri"er to the remaining .0 simply )y strapping that section accordingly# 7his way the input capacitance is reduce )y a factor of a)out .0, down to around .50 p5, and allowing for a < megahert0 )andwith with a 600 ohm )alanced source# 7he same people who might complain a)out the capacitance might also complain a)out the added comple>ity of dri"ers# Well, you can't ha"e it all# I ha"e listened to and measured it )oth ways, and I find it comes out a)out the same#

The u!"ime and the Ridicu"ous

Besides the fun of the raw cra0iness of such an amplifier, what's the pointH 7he point is to )uild a simple amplifier with e>1uisitely good raw performance and see what it sounds li$e# Will it open up new "istas of audio e>perience, polishing out the last smudges on our windows of perceptionH ;r will it un9in"ol"ing and clinical li$e so many ultra9low distortion efforts we ha"e seen in the pastH I'm inclined toward the former#

I'"e listened to the amplifier o"er the last couple years with MP<0, MP.0, and MPF0 )alanced preamps and also directly dri"en )y a Wadia <6# 7he loudspea$ers ha"e included S/9<'s, S/9.'s, +owther P*6a and 5eastre> 4=nf B)oth open )affleC, Ou %ssence, 7annoy ,P4 <5's, and of course my 3B+ +F00's# Source material has )een 'inyl, (4, and .A )it# 5rom the measurements and loo$ing at the wa"eforms I had some preconcei"ed notions a)out what to e>pect, )ut I was a little surprised# Psually amplifiers with so little distortion are a little dry and shall we say, accurate!, and at the same time, my e>perience is that typically pure third harmonic character tends to )e more dynamic sounding than a second or mi>ed harmonic tonality# 7his amplifier is a little less dynamic than most third harmonic pieces, possi)ly from the lac$ of feed)ac$, )ut it is not dry# If it were a wine, I thin$ of it as may)e a light auslese riesling, as contrasted with the fat red ca)ernets that I li$e to recei"e from 4I-ers Bhint$ hintC# It's "ery slightly sweet, which is pleasantly surprising, and it has great clarity, letting a lot of depth and detail through without any hint of aggressi"e 1ualities# Where the sweetness comes from, I don't $now# *ostly though, the amplifier is not there# &t night, without an on! light, it's really not there#

#onc"usion
/oger (orman turns G@ on &pril 5# I and many others will ta$e a moment to appreciate his contri)utions to our culture# ,ere is an older photo displaying his dedication to his wor$#

$hat of the future%

I thin$ I need an amplifier )ased on this poster:

Q .0<F Nelson Pass