Tube DIY Asylum

RE: HA ! No lack of power....

65.219.130.162

This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: HA ! No lack of power.... posted by mqracing on May 17, 2008 at 11:03:11

Bravo! Now, take that 3 watt amp and outfit it with a REAL power supply: Low-DCR with plenty of speed, and a powerful set of chokes and a power transformer that have large gauge wiring in them. Then, do as Mikey has said before on his posts, and take a look at both iron and copper losses -- as long as you're doing this.
Then, lay the whole thing out so that no wire can lose its signal into something else-- float everything in 3 dimensions. Lay it out so that everything is very close to what is using it, but is not close to anything else and make all wiring heavy gauge multistrand silver, or carbon-granulated copper.
We're not done. NOW, operate each part-- including all the tubes at about 5/8 "normal" current and voltage ratings. Keep on going..... Now, we're going to take a look at mechanical parts. All bolts are brass. All other metal is steel. All magnetics are "stood-off" on brass posts so as not to interfere magnetically with the steel chassis-- which is, by the way THE BEST sounding chassis material IF you use brass to isolate magnetic flows from getting into it.
Don't ever allow any ground "loops" or currents to flow thru your steel chassis either. Make all grounds into systems that eliminate cross-flows of unwanted A.C. Don't try to "balance" A.C. problems-- DESIGN THEM OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Now, make your power supply about 200 watts. Make your output tube about 4 watts. Choose your driver tube to give a MAXIMUM output of one half watt--- to the speaker.
We're not done yet. LOOK at your speaker. If it's under about 98db/watt-- it is poorly machined and loosely fitted together. This IS NOT a matter of efficiency. It IS a matter of ASSEMBLY and MACHINING QUALITY.
And that is very important! We are going to want most of the 1/2 watt power to turn into MUSIC-- NOT HEAT-- in the speaker. Wasted watts CUT DOWN on dynamic and acoustical output-- they BUCK-OUT musical signals inside the speaker drivers.
So now you know why we want "efficient" drivers. It isn't to use less watts, it's to produce more music. This is done by excellent, precise machining and assembly-- which makes the driver efficient by its nature. QUALITY.
OK, what next? Got the amp. Got the speaker drivers. Cabinet design must allow the speaker to reach its true potential at making music instead of acoustical losses due to unwanted heat generation. These cabinets will ALWAYS be large physically. Get used to it. Such is the art of musical reproduction.
What else? Wires to the speaker. We don't want to lose it here! Go with double runs of 12ga. wire to your crossover network. Big budget-- use silver multistrand. El-cheapo? Get down to Home Depot and buy some nice, Carol (R) brand 4/12 cables, and live very happily! Make these exactly 114 1/8 inches long. I don't have time for the physics here-- trust me, darn it!
Wire-up your drivers with single runs of multistrand silver (12-to-13 ga.) on your tweeter. Sorry, no other metals allowed here. Run those woofers with 60/40 copper/silver, 13ga. multistrand-- Siltech calls it LS-25. There are others.
Cheap again? You'll have to try different combos of copper leads in parallel-- everything from 33 ga. down to about 16ga. It usually takes about 4 or 5 wires-- each of a different size-- carefully chosen to get the whole musical range right-- and not get giant "skews" or "homogenizing" due to the wrong wire being tossed into the mix. All this for the woofer? Of course.
Those of us who are short on money must be long on experimentation. All others can buy Kimber, Siltech, or Ensemble and just swoon to the music-----.
I know these are just a few of the things you can do, but what we can get is 1/2 watt that DESTROYS ALL larger amplifiers, and BADLY. The 1/2 watter has power and dynamics that other amps can't even hint at.
Don't believe it? Sorry, it's accomplished fact. Mikey knows his stuff. Don't WANT to believe it? That's kinda like trying to get 50 MPG out of your 1950 pickup at 75 mph. Isn't going to happen! BUT-- the latest diesel Direct-Fuel-Injected, turbocharged and intercooled high efficiency engine in a nice smooth auto? It's a piece of cake!

----Dennis----

Edits: 05/17/08 05/17/08

Follow Ups: