unbalanced/balanced to balanced tube input

[kevin gilmore]

So I've been looking at a bunch of tube/solid state hybrid dynamic amp schematics, and every one of them is some form of bad, or really bad. (one person/ex company in particular)

Low voltage plate, capacitve coupling of a high impedance source into a low impedance, poor balance etc. 

There had to be a better way. true balanced input. dc coupling. low impedance output. no feedback. proper use of a tube (pure transconducance) etc

so I came up with this, work in progress.  4 x 3 inches

ubaltobaltubeschem.PDF

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[spritzer]

Odd that a proper Dc coupled input is possible... I wonder if Cavalli would complain about the lack of mosfets... 

[kevin gilmore]

board files for you

updated including 100v massive overkill power supply

ubaltobaltube.zip

grhv100v.zip

Edited November 14, 2017 by kevin gilmore

[JimL]

Looks a lot like the front end of an electrostatic headphone amp (T8000-ish), but with relatively low voltage transistors (except for the KSA1156).  You could always substitute a MOSFET current source for the input tube tail CCS. 

Edited November 13, 2017 by JimL

[kevin gilmore]

there are now 2 versions of this, one with the tube on the component side, and the other on the back side for mounting megatron style. ask first.

[joehpj]

If I am going to drive high independence headphones with this, what should I do?

1) add triple darlington stage like tubehybrid/CFA did

2) add paralleled darlington stage like dynahi

Edited January 9, 2018 by joehpj

[kevin gilmore]

so you add a volume control, then 4 of whatever flavor amps you like.

[mwl168]

Why does the PSU have two sets of F+/F- output?

[cspirou]

2 hours ago, mwl168 said:

Why does the PSU have two sets of F+/F- output?

There's one tube per channel. So one set of heaters per tube

[mwl168]

But there is only one output for B+ on the PSU? 

[cspirou]

The filaments don't come from a common source, each has their own regulator. This makes sense because filaments require a lot of current. B+ is pretty low current so just one for both channels should be fine.

[mwl168]

That makes sense. Thanks!

[mwl168]

Has anyone built this tube unbal/bal board yet?

[luvdunhill]

I am curious as well - what sort of voltage can it swing into what sort of load at what sort of distortion?

[masamoto]

Since this is probably the first thing I will try from the group buy I wondered about the transformer and the VA. Looking at the input ac like this would couple 2 cheap transformers work? The +-15 is from a GRLV or something I guess or would a LM317+LM337  do the job?

[penmarker]

Gonna build this from the group buy soon,

On the board the silkscreen says "tube mounts on the back side of the board" but tracing the boards shows it's the same version as the one in first post. So tubes should be mounted from the top?

I also have never built tube amps so I might be wrong.

some questions I have:

1. How hot is the mosfet on PSU will be? Will heatsinking with chassis floor (3mm aluminum) suffice or does it need heatsink?

2. LT1085 require heatsinks or not?

3. Will it make a good preamp? Do I need to watch/match it's output impedance to the amp's input?

4. How to bias it?

[kevin gilmore]

here are both of them, not sure which one was in the group buy

 

 

3)  Its a current mirror. So output voltage depends on impedance, currently 1100 ohms. Needs an output buffer if you are going to use it for a preamp.

Edited July 29, 2018 by kevin gilmore

[penmarker]

The group buy is the first one, cool that means it's the correct version. I was counting the tube pinouts counter clockwise.

I'll try looking for a suitable buffer stage.

[penmarker]

I've compiled a BOM from Digikey for the supplied GRHV based on my silkscreen from the recent group buy board. I hope others can help check if I missed anything.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XMu81oWk6E3mXPW6ahhEuvmhg4U497F5I5W6JPQgnNo/edit?usp=sharing

You might notice there's RES 90.9K and RES 1.10K, these are because I can't find 92K resistors sold without MOQ.

[sbelyo]

On 7/29/2018 at 9:29 AM, kevin gilmore said:

here are both of them, not sure which one was in the group buy

 

 

3)  Its a current mirror. So output voltage depends on impedance, currently 1100 ohms. Needs an output buffer if you are going to use it for a preamp.

Kevin, can I use the Diamond output buffer ver. 2.0 ?

[kevin gilmore]

sure

[samsie]

Dear Kevin,

I find the heater power supply portion to be rather handy. 

Would you please  cut the HV supply portion away so  that I can use the heater power supply portion for mini T2 project?

Thanks

Sam

 

 

On 11/13/2017 at 7:45 AM, kevin gilmore said:

board files for you

updated including 100v massive overkill power supply

ubaltobaltube.zip

grhv100v.zip

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by samsie

[masamoto]

Did anyone finish one of these?

[Satyrnine]

Can anyone confirm if I can use a 100V secondary trafo for the grhv100? Will it still regulate down to 100vdc without issue? Having a hard time finding a suitable 90V unit that isn't 1A+/huge.

[justin]

Its just more heat