Thanks for all you do as it is greatly appreciated! As a DIY tube enthusiast I would love to hear your suggestions on a good tube amp kit to build. Looking for at least 20 - 30 watts per channel. Can you point me to a place where such a kit is available for sale or at least a parts list and general instructions? A kit you would approve of in terms of sound quality and design. It would be great if you offered such at kit? Perhaps you do, but I missed it?
Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.
I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.
I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.
I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.
I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.
On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.
I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.
Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.
I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
.
Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.
I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.
I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.
On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.
I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.
Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.
Showing 8 responses by grannyring
@teo_audio actually made some reasoned and reasonable comments. Why attack him and his business here? Seriously, I am reading far to many words stating others are “dumb, morons, snake oil marketers, build poor gear” etc... Goodness it’s time to be more humble and professional about other people’s business, hard work and achievements in life. Others have areas of expertise and experience we can all learn from. I learned long ago when I feel most everyone has it wrong and only I have the answers and truth, then it’s time for me step back and really look at my myself. This has the potential of being one of the best threads I have read here on Agon in years. Great posts by the OP and others. I simply ask for us to please stop demeaning and name calling builders, business, posters and people we may disagree with. Plenty of very smart and experienced people like the products from these other companies and can appreciate the sonic differences that are found in these pieces of gear. Many appreciate the sonic differences and fine tuning that can be found in parts, wire, and even fuses. What some call snake oil might, just might, be a blind spot for the person judging. No individual knows it all and there are products out there that just plain old do as advertised even though we might not fully understand why........yet! |
I have a technical question regarding a PP EL86 tube amp I am modifying. I would like to upgrade the power supply. The current power supply is very, very simple and while simplicity is good I think a more robust supply could help sound quality. A couple of questions and these should also have application for many others here. 1) All filaments are AC heated! Not DC. No filtering, no rectifier....Love you hear your comments on this. Would converting to a CLC filter with possible voltage regulation be worth doing? 2) 5U4 rectifier Tube receives 350 VAC and post tube VDC of 476 with no load. The plate supply is a simple RC only. 100 ohm resistor followed by two 680uf electrolytic caps in series. This feeds the vintage Scott output trannys. If I wanted to add a choke where should it be placed and how do I determine the value correctly. Like to know how you would design the plate supply for this simple PP el84 amp. I ask your opinion of SS voltage regulation on both filament and plate supplies. Is it something you regard as very important? Thanks in advance. |
I asked the same question a little back here. Roger said AC is good as long as it is quiet.....😊 Perhaps he has more to add..... I am upgrading and reassembling an amp with AC fils. Dead quiet. I also wonder about rectification. My amp has an 5U4 that I am thinking of converting over to a full bridge SS rectifier. I seem to prefer the sound of tube amps and preamps that are SS rectified. My amp is only 13 watts channel/EL86 based and may be low enough power to like tube rectification just fine. I prefer SS rectification in more powerful tube amps, but am not totally sold on their value in lower wattage tube amps ..... say under 10-15 watts. I think I may like SS rectification more in these low power amps, but need to experiment more. I find SS rectification to be more dynamic while delivering much better bass. One can also beef up the supply with more capacitance and very robust Pi filters. |
@testpilot. You can purchase this DC blocking board (link below)and populate it or buy one completed at the link below. Great double thick circuit board that is very high quality. The in and out pads accept 12gauge solid core wire which is also nice. Instructions and part lists also on the site. The board is a two layer design in parallel (70um thickness of each) so yes - it can handle current of 20A. The capacitance needed for 1kVA is 22000uf, but since the difference in the price is not big I’d prefer 33000uF. I think the board cost me something like $15-$18 shipped. The parts were only another $20 or so. I use them in my isolation balanced power conditioners. I just built them right into the chassis. They quieted down the toroidal perfectly. Quiet as a mouse now and used to buzzzzz..... Yes, I love my balanced power conditioners and will never take them out as the music simply sounds so much better with them in place. I find them to work wonderfully in many systems. https://www.atlhifi.com/shop/bare-pcb/pcb-for-dc-trap-blocker-filter-for-toroidal-transformers-toroi... |
No, Mr. Gabriel is not completely wrong and makes some good points. Yes, your points are reasonable. Perhaps this is just not the place to go there. I may disagree with the OPs opinions on cords and caps etc...but he started this thread for a different reason in general and I respect that. I also appreciate his desire to answer questions and share knowledge. It’s OK to have different experiences and opinions and let them rest for the greater good of the thread. |