PLZ pre-preamp

[Black Stuart]

Specced by Pickering UK specifically for the top of the range Pickering 7500S cartridge. There was a Stanton equivalent.

Not at all sure I gave this cartridge my best shot when I bought it s/hand from our friend Ian. I know I never bothered to use the PLZ.

The PCB is silver traced not copper and very substantial. Powered by 2 x AA batteries = 3V. The caps and resistors are easily identifiable but the trimpot and 4 x regs are not.

So I contacted Vickers Hifi in Yorkshire who deal with the remaining Pickering UK products who informed me that they no longer had any info so I should contact QED who made the product for Pickering UK. I should have noticed the QED logo on the PCB.

So I contact QED via an enquiry form and sure enough they get back to me in 48 hours only to tell me that they didn't make the product. This simply doesn't make sense, I can't imagine any company letting someone else make a product and use their logo.

The trimpot was made by Piher a Spanish company. I wasn't at all sure what the info on the pot stood for so contacted the compan y by email - zero response (cabrons). The side of the pot states - 100 321 - can anyone enlighten me on what this stands for?

The regs. have zero info and measuring them doesn't make sense - remember the battery power is only 3V when 5V is normal.

All the resistors are either spot on or well within 1%, so just need to replace the 6 caps - vamos aver.