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Noise Limitations in Tape Reproducers

Thermal noise, shot noise, 1/f noise, induced grid noise and Barkhausen nise are described and quantitative examples are given. Expressions for thermal noise in mixed resistive and reactive circuits are derived. The relationship between head thermal noise and amplifier shot noise is discussed and measured data are given. The question of tubes vs transistors is touched upon with respect to noise and overload capabilities. The relationship between the noise index of a resistor and the crossover frequency between thermal and 1/f noise is calculated and displayed as a family of curves, and examples are given. Signal-to-noise measurement data from the Ampex MR-70 master recorder are given along with a brief description of the basic design philosophy with respect to noise reduction.

Author: Skov, Erling P.
Affiliation: Ampex Audio, Sunnyvale, CA
JAES Volume 12 Issue 4 pp. 280-293; October 1964 Import into BibTeX

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