Just playing with the layout a bit. The gyrator boards, the UV4 sockets and the Rod Coleman regulators. All in a tiny aluminium box:
Tag: Gyrator
26 DHT preamp Gen3
Using the Gyrator PCB board:
SiC MOSFET Follower Driver
How many more times
Led Zeppelin wrote a fantastic song on their first album: how many more times. You may not be a rock fan, but hey: what a great song. How many more times do I want to get back to this “slew rate” theme? I don’t know, as much as I have to. Plenty of comments out there of bad designs with wimpy drivers attempting to take the 300B/2A3 or even 45 valves to full tilt with disappointing results. Either way, they always blame the valves.
I came back to revisit the driving of capacitive loads effectively as I’m working on a new 4P1L PSE amplifier. Slowly, but getting there. Previously I looked at adding a buffer to the 01a preamp as a result of slew rate limitations found in Tony’s implementation of this preamp.
The circuit design
Building gyrator boards
I’ve been on some business travel so haven’t had much time to work on stuff, however I did get a set of gyrator boards for a friend and a customer:
- BF862 configured for 4P1L preamp
- 2SK170 configured for 01a preamp
4P1L preamp with BF862 gyrator
Many have asked me about this preamp with gyrator load. Here is the latest implementation which I preferred most in terms of sound. The mu resistor is 470Ω which is a nice compromise between BF862 transconductance and distortion. I adjusted it on test. I use a 100nF for C1 so R6 is 10MΩ. R4 can be either 300KΩ, 330KΩ or even 390KΩ. Difference would be only on the voltage range for the CCS. I found running it at 25mA to be perfectly fine, some BF862 can even do J310. I prefer this SMD compared to the J310. It performs much better even at high frequency:
27/56 Preamp from Jose Martins
Abusing the Gyrator Load
On my previous post, I covered my initial build work on the gyrator test mule using the gyrator PCB. I did all the lovely soldering work (which I do enjoy not like milling or drilling) and proceeded to do several tests.
Some interesting observations based on my abuse of the gyrator which yielded on several MOSFETs and JFET damaged as a result:
- CCS reference: I used an external multi turn 5KΩ potentiometer via lead cables. I wired it incorrectly and that contributed to one of the initial faults. Be sure you look carefully on this if you use an external pot. if you use the on-board trimpot, this is not an issue.
- JFET: this is the interesting one. If you want to run the lower JFET at very low biasing current for a larger jFET (e.g. J310) you will find that the JFET needs to operate close to cut-off voltage (somewhere between -2 and -6V). This VGS required will definitely forward bias the Zener protection diode D1 and prevent from reaching lower bias current (I found it about 10mA for J310). To resolve this you just need to add a back to back zener as shown below. This isn’t a problem for an BF862 or a 2SK170 as their cut-off voltages are quite small.
- Failure: if you abuse the FETs, they will die. And if they die you will get a nice short across them and you will measure nearly HT at the mu output. Just replace the MOSFET and JFET (probably both are damaged)
Gyrator load – test mule
I’ve done several tests using a simple gyrator PCB test mule. It was time to build a proper and flexible test mule for extreme abuse:
- 2 Boards for current flexibility
- Board 1: BF862
- Board 2: J310
- Top FET is IXTP08N100D2 for 1000V operation
- ZIF socket pins for CCS reference resistor and RMu. This will give the necessary flexibility to try any combination in the gyrator depending on the triode and or the power supply
- External pots for ease regulation of anode voltage
The top MOSFETs are bolted on the aluminium case which will act as heatsink. For tests this should be sufficient.
The top plate of the case looks like this:
There are 4mm posts are for HT supply, GND, mu-output, Anode. There are also a pair of 2mm posts for current sensing per board.
Some further soldering to do and job done!
45 SE Amplifier
Introduction
More than 5 years ago, I built a fantastic single-ended amp with the unique 45. The 45 has a distinguished tone and personality despite its mere 2W of output power. If you have high efficiency speakers, then it’s a great amplifier to build. With 2W you can enjoy music in a mid-sized room. You don’t need more, this amplifier performs at its best at low output levels and in particular when playing jazz or classical music.
The 45 Amp design
There are plenty of design circuits out there. I settled for a simple triode driver using a gyrator load. The choice was down to the 6J5 and 7193 (a military version of the 2C22). Both triodes are medium mu and sound really nice. Depending your needs, you may opt for a different driver (even pentode). However, they need to be able to drive the large voltage swing required by the 45. I’d go for a 6J52P, 6e5P, 6e6P, D3a or C3g these days. It all depends on your needs and available valves. The driver is biased at 7mA to provide enough grid current to avoid slew rate issues. An improved version would be to add a MOSFET follower to provide better performance under grid current. An example of a follower implementation can be found here.
The 45 is biased hot at 34mA/300V. The anode can handle 10W and this operating point provided best sound in my view. The OT is crucial, so invest as much money as you can afford. Rod Coleman regulators are needed to implement this amp without hum and the unwanted inter-modulation effects.
I carried out several tests on the driver to find the sweet spot for minimum distortion and full swing. The driver is a hybrid mu-follower composed by the gyrator and the 6J5/7193 triode. The valve is biased by a set of 5 red LEDs to about 8V. I think I had a combination of a white LED and LED to provide 8V in my implementation. The dynamic resistance is minimum and won’t impact the performance of the stage.
I used the Sylvania metal-base 6J5 but then settled for the 7193 valves. They sounded better and I was quite pleased with the overall performance of the amplifier.
The amplifier design is very simple. With the gyrator PCB you can simplify the driver build and also use different valves to experiment with them. I originally didn’t have a PCB so I built my gyrator in a prototype board.
I’d highly recommend you building this amplifier. If you want to experience the single-ended sound, then this is one of the amps to build. Of course you can go for higher power levels with a 2A3 or 300B, however, the sound of the 45 is unique. Worth trying
2P29L – Preamp and driver for 4P1L PSE Amp
A very interesting Russian directly-heated pentode related to 4P1L is the 2P29L. It has a similar mu (μ=9), much higher anode resistance 2.8-3KΩ and transconductance of 3mA/V when triode-strapped. The filament requirements are much lower at 120mA. I picked one valve from my collection to submit it to the mercy of the curve tracer:
The triode curves are really nice:
This valve is as linear as the 4P1L (hooray). As a preamp it can be easily implemented like the 4P1L Gen2 preamp using a gyrator PCB which simplifies the building process:
Running it at 15mA and slightly above the recommended 160V achieve its lowest distortion.
We could also use this valve as a driver for a 4P1L preamp, which comes very handy for filament bias:
Filament Bias: a practical example with 3A5 DHT
Introduction
Recently I was asked about whether I could write on my blog about how to design a filament bias stage. My immediate answer was:
- I don’t have much time these days am afraid to write extensive articles (and sometimes to even write-up at all)
- Thomas Mayer has written about it (see here). Of course, I completely forgot that Thomas never completed his intended series of posts around filament bias, so I decided to attempt explaining the practical aspects of its design in this blog.
Before you continue reading this post, I suggest you read first Thomas’ article above and get yourself acquainted with DHTs and triode amplification. I’m not going to cover any of that theory which I will give it for granted that the reader is experienced with valve circuits and in particular with the hybrid mu-follower amplification stage with gyrator load.
3A5 DHT example
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