Signal to Noise Ratio

[WGTP]

The muff fuzz I've been messing with is sort of noisey and I noticed that using LED's makes it louder, without increasing the noise.  I'm using 1 LED for higher output and chunk and 1 SI/MOSFET/JFET for the other side to keep a high level of distortion.  This way, the output is pretty high, harmonics are asymmetrical and the noise is down in output.

I'm assuming most op amp diode distortions would work this way.  

[Ansil]

as they said on carson "you are correct sir"

[Mark Hammer]

It depends.  The S/N ratio is going to be a function of the amount of gain applied.  If you hold gain constant, and set one of two different ceilings on signal amplitude with different compliments of diodes, the one with the higher threshold/drop will permit more signal output and whatever accumulated noise there is will be less obvious compared to the much greater output.

Of course, if your goal is to attain the same amount of clipping, then you need to increase the gain applied to get diodes with a higher clipping threshold to do your bidding.  That increased gain will amplify whatever noise there is coming into the system from the input, as well as whatever noise is generated internally.

Given that the whole kit and kaboodle generates a lot more signal output, though, the tendency will be to set the output level control at less than max, so in some respects you still get a bit of a hike in S/N ratio.