6SF5 driver for 300B/GM70/813 SE Amps

Some years ago my friend Paolo brought up this lovely valve which looking at the curves seemed to be a great candidate for a driver which required large voltage swing. This indeed is needed for 300B, 211/GM70, 813 SE Amps. I build it and tested with the 300B, which is great.

The immediate challenge (and probably the reason why it hasn’t been used extensively in the past) is that has a high anode resistance as well as very low current capability. These 2 things are of course a killer for driving these demanding output valves. However, with a gyrator load and a follower stage, the reality is different

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2K2M DHP Test

The 2K2M is an unknown directly heated pentode from Russia with has variable mu. I have several pieces of these, and was wondering how useful they could be. This is part of my on-going saga of the “Mule“.

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01a Preamp Build: UV-201a version – step 2

Adding filament bias and output caps

01a Preamp Build: UV-201a version – step 1

This is what I managed to do with a couple of hours at the workshop. Time is gold for me these days. Quick drilling and fitting the main components. You can’t get a smaller preamp than this one. It’s quite packed:

Planning the layout before drilling

Back panel with all connectors (supply and signal)

Inside the preamp

Close look at the gyrator boards

UV4 sockets with rubber dampers

Fitting a pair of brass base UV201a

Next, soldering. Yay, just looking forward to my favourite part of the build process

01a Preamp Build: UV-201a version – layout

Just playing with the layout a bit. The gyrator boards, the UV4 sockets and the Rod Coleman regulators. All in a tiny aluminium box:

27 Preamp

An IHT preamp, oh yes!

I always loved the 27 valve. It was one of the first line stages I built many years ago before adventuring in the DHT world. I still have a large collection of them and I was very fond of the mesh anode ones. Please check Thomas’ blog in which he wrote a very nice note about it.

With the hybrid mu-follower (a.ka. gyrator) configuration, we can build a minimalistic and great preamp stage. The 27 has a mu of 9, so in some scenarios this may be a bit too much gain, but for many cases, it’s just what we need to drive the valve amps. Someone recently asked me for help on this, so here it goes my version:

The circuit is dead simple. The 27 is biased with a battery via a grid leak resistor (R1). C1 blocks DC from input and contributes to LF response by forming a pole with R1. 150nF is good enough but if you don’t have any, use 220nF. The operating point is 6mA looking at my old notebook. The supply doesn’t need any funky regulation, and 180-200V should do. The top FET should be either DN2540 or any other depletion of your choice. The lower JFET should be either a 2SK170GR or 2SK170BL (preferably). You can use a J310 here as well (or SMD BF862).

The sound is beautiful and THD is very low driven by H2 only, as you would expect from this triode.

If you don’t want battery bias, you can add a 1K5 resistor in the cathode with its decoupling cap and remove the battery and C1. R1 should be changed to 47k then.

Hope you enjoy this!

Ale

813 triode SE with 4P1L Pentode

A monster DHT amp

Lately I haven’t had any time for audio work unfortunately. Changing nappies to a 4 week old baby whilst working long hours is tough. I can get the odd 30 minute here and there and every time I try to get upstairs to the workshop something pops up. Never mind, hopefully things will get easier in the near future.

I’ve been asked about the 4P1L pentode driver. It’s been a long time since I did those tests and never got around to listen to the driver sound. Tests were promising but never managed to include this driver on my amp.

Driving transmitting valves is a challenging task. Especially if we want to take them to A2-land (unless they operate in A2 whilst in zero grid bias). Driving big transmitting valves like 211, 805, 845, 813 or GM-70 require a large swing of volts for the driver which should do this linearly. The load is quite demanding in particular when we approach the grid to 0V (or biased positively) and using a triode as driver also puts a daunting task to the previous stage due to the Miller effect. It’s not easy to find triodes that can swing 300Vpp with very low distortion.

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814 SE Amp: upgrading the gyrator loads

The upgrade made to the 814 SE was quite simple, I replaced the gyrator carbon 4M7 for a Holco one and the mu resistor for a Mills 820R MRA05 5W. The capacitor was finally reduced from the outrageous 1uF Mundorf Mcap EVO Oil Gold to an 220nF 450Vdc Mundorf Mcap EVO Silver Oil.

The main change was the capacitor and proved to have no loss impact on the bass. I have recently made the OT change so cannot comment on the overall impact in the sound of these changes. I can say at this stage that I cannot notice any big change. It sounds as good as before!

I’d have expected a noticeable change by reducing the size of the cap, but in this case I didn’t.