ANT4066 Quad Analogue Switch for Audio
Applications
Preliminary information retail price £26.04
(plus applicable sales tax)
ANT4066 - audiophile replacement for an
industry-standard CMOS switch 4066, found in
many pre-amplifiers, cassette decks and other
audio equipment, is now available. The
Quad 33 and 34 preamplifiers are particularly
improved by using these devices. For a
list of Cassette Decks
click here.
Alex the designer says "The original 4000 series
was cheap and cheerful at the time, however the
switches had a fairly high resistance (70-150
Ohm) and what's worse - very non-linear
resistance. As a result when these switches are
present in the signal path of audio equipment, a
sizeable amount of high order distortion is
introduced and the sound quality suffers badly.
In many cases old 4000 series chips can be
replaced with much better 74HC series, also made
by many major semiconductor manufacturers. Main
limitation there is the supply voltage. 4000
series chips can withstand up to 18V (+/-9V on a
dual rail supply) with some high voltage
varieties up to 30V (+/-15V ) or more. 74HC
series offers about a 1/3 to 1/4 of the
resistance of 4000 series analogue switch, but
only can work up to 11V (+/-5.5V) (NXP) to 14V
(+/-7V) (Fairchild) supply voltage.
If the supply voltage allows than 74HC4066 will
give a good improvement in the sound quality
over a standard 4066. However it is still very
much a non-linear resistor, thought the
non-linearity is reduced by 3-4 times. ANT4066
provides much better linearity and can work with
the supply voltages from 10V (+/-5V) up to 25V
(+/-12.5V). It is the best replacement for 4066
chip from the sound quality point of view,
however it costs considerably more than
74HC4066.
One thing is certain - 4066 does affect the
sound in a very nasty way. If your cassette deck
has this chip in the signal path than a
replacement could be a very efficient and simple
way to improve the sound. A simplest thing to do
is to unsolder the chip and put a good quality
IC socket in its place. After that it should be
possible to swap the chip and the replacement
(supply voltages and control signal levels
permitting) and hear the difference. "
Features |
THD+N measurements |
· Wide analogue voltage range 1V-17V
· Low "ON" resistance 15 Ohm typical
· Individual switch control
· Very good linearity
· Pin-compatible with industry-standard
4066 quad switch
· DIL14 footprint |
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