[sdiy] WTB: Paia EKx40

[Magnus Danielson]

From: Gene Stopp <gene at ixiacom.com>
Subject: RE: [sdiy] WTB: Paia EKx40
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 15:39:07 -0800 
Message-ID: <15FDCE057B48784C80836803AE3598D503A555E3 at mail.ixiacom.com>

> One would think....
> 
> ...but back in the ASM-1 development days I was messing with an HP3325
> big-ass function generator,

HP3325A or HP3325B? ;O)

I just *happends* to have a HP3325B as my main function generator. The -B adds
a modulation generator which is actually quite excessive if you dare to look
more closely at it. A 8192 sample programmable MODULATION WAVEFORM, now how is
that for an odd feature? Without GPIB control it is just to forget to use it
fully.

> and I noticed that the sound was particularly crisp and clear, especially
> when doing a cutoff sweep through a VCF. The harmonics jumped out one by one
> as if controlled by faders. The waveforms on a fast scope were mathematically
> perfect, with invisible (i.e. instantaneous) vertical slopes, even at high
> frequencies. It also could have had something to do with extremely low
> jitter. This is a rather expensive lab box, even these days on ebay.

Yeap, but well worth it. I even find myself beging for one at work at times.
It's excessive frequency control is really the margin I want. 1 uHz steps of
frequency is really lovely! I run my HP3325B from my a Rubidium clock, so both
jitter and wander is quite low.

> I remeber the CFR Tau VCO docs specifically stating that jitter was a good
> thing, being more "natural" sounding, and showing a diagram of their
> intentionally added jitter (maybe they just couldn't get the noise out of
> their sawtooth discharge threshold, and made it a selling point?). I do not
> remember anything special about the sound... just another VCO...

Do you have a copy of that to share? I'd love to see it. You've mentioned it
before.

Hmm... ;O)

Cheers,
Magnus