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Welcomed to the Andrea Tarasconi Audioplile Projects Website

The Programmable Digital Phono Preamplifier for MOTU 896 / 828 / UltraLite / Traveler

(A Programmable Digital Phono Equalizer / De-emphaser for RIAA, IEC RIAA, eRIAA, NAB, FFRR and CCIR standard recording)

An Audiophile Grade Multi-curve RIAA Equalizer/De-emphaser for Microgroove 33 & 45 and old 78 RPM Vinyl Records Reproduction and/or Restoration

Is finally a great day for anybody willing to have a fully-programmable state of the art Digital Phono Preamp for perfect Vinil Restoration, or simply (like many I know) to get rid of the old vacuum-tube preamplifier, sounding good, but having only one, or just a few, RIAA presets and taking one hour to warm-up.

Finally the DSP technology and its related algorithms have made the so far expected leap-frong far away from the loved analog technology.

Phase coherent FIR and phase-corrected IIR, along with 64/80 bit computational accuracy, allow to listen today what was simply impossible before.

Better dynamic range and faster transients, along with capability to replicate any Phono Equalization (and correct it as needed by the wearing condition of the played record) get-out details never heard before (hidden among the vinyl groove and the analog phono equalizer).

All those make this "tool" a must-have for any True Audiophile and for anyone involved with Vinyl Recording Restoration/Archiving.

As of today, the following Audiophile Grade implementation of Phono Equalizations / De-emphasis Curves are available:

Versions optimized for 44.1 kHz sampling (good also for 48 kHz sampling):

- Official Standard RIAA (1964)

- IEC RIAA (IEC 60098) (1974)

- AT IEC RIAA (2012) - Own optimized version to digitally reduce hum & rumble

- Official Standard NAB (1948)

- FFRR (1949), also called FFRR49, used in many 78 rpm

- FFRR LP (1953), also called FFRR53

- CCIR (1956), also called CCIR56

Versions optimized for 96 kHz sampling:

- eRIAA (1995), also called IEC RIAA with Neumann Correction (1995)

- AT eRIAA (2012) - Own optimized version to digitally reduce hum & rumble

The EQ settings are provided as XML configuration files to be imported or hand copied (the EQ section only) into your default/target configuration.

The current implementations have been done and tested using a new MOTU 896 mk3 Hybrid and can work with the MOTU devices that fully support the MOTU Vintage Parametric EQ (i.e.: the new 896 mk3, 828 mk3, UltraLite mk3 and all the legacy and older having the same parametric EQ).

In the coming weeks will be available on demand all the other known 44 different phono equalizations used so far worldwide for the 78 rpm recording.

For purchase you can use the on line shop and for further details you can write to me using the contact form.

Kind regards,

Andrea Tarasconi

Who I am

I am Italian, born in 1965, married with two kids.

I am the Chief System Architect of EdgeCore/SMC Networks Corporation - Accton Technologies Group (Taiwan).

I have over 25 years of expertise in the ICT's fields and over 15 years expertise in the start-up and management of companies in Europe.

My education, university background, is in Digital System and VLSI Design.

I have two hobbies, hi-fi reproduction and photography.

What is here in this website and why it is not for free

Just what come out from my vacation and week-end time spent doing my hobby.

I am not doing this for business, just for fun.

However, I don't believe in the "free of charge" living-model. I consider it a bad behavior and a bad believing not honoring the time spent by the human-kind to create the valued goods we can have and use. That's why I am asking a licence to be paid, to recognize a value to my time spent doing this and to be able to pay (to donate to) the other contributors that assisted me.