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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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Tubes Asylum Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ |
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In Reply to: RE: Why would you want to do this?......n/t posted by Steve O on March 12, 2008 at 16:57:47:
In my experience, Solid state diodes pass a bit more current enabling the user to use more capacitance in the power supply and this can have benefit in terms of bass response. You are not limited to having only 20 to 40 micro farads of capacitance in your first stage.
Despite using various FR type diodes, however, I have never had the sweetness and fine detail afforded by the use of a tube rectifier. Yes, I have experimented with the hybrid bridges using a solid state device on the lower half and a tube on the upper half in order to obtain the benefits of a slow turn on.
While not making any seeming sense, paralleling a tube rectifier with a solid state device gives me the best of both worlds. You have to treat the CLC or CRC circuit which follows as a solid state design because the ss diodes will provide a higher B+, but the effect of inserting a tube rectifier is immediately audible, and the benefit is that you can do it while the music is playing, as long as your rectifier doesn't get too hot (use a pot holder and watch the jaws drop on your buddy's face!).
I have been doing this combo for over a decade with very good results, once the dropping resister values are re calculated or an additional CR stage is installed.
My only explanation is that a Solid State diode is not as fast as they seem, or maybe a tube rectifier is even faster. Actually recently I am beginning to suspect that since the B+ on a tube rectifier comes off of the cathode, there is a phase shift in the voltage-current relationship in a solid state device, which is not exhibited in tube. I believe the phase relationships of current and voltage are quite important, and is one aspect of electronic design which has not been addressed. For reference read various texts on the voltage current charge rates of capacitors. Current always seems to be at least 90 degrees lagging behind the the voltage
Again, it doesn't seem to make any intuitive sense, but it works very well. The cost to implement is relatively small, and easily reversible, too. I recommend that instead of dwelling on theoreticals, that the DIYers out there actually try it for themselves.
Stu
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- I made the original post - unclestu52 21:54:17 03/12/08 (0)
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