|
Tube DIY Asylum Do It Yourself (DIY) paradise for tube and SET project builders. |
|
|
|
Tube DIY Asylum Do It Yourself (DIY) paradise for tube and SET project builders. |
|
In Reply to: RE: Transformer Interaction - Fact or Fiction? posted by rage on April 13, 2021 at 06:31:56:
A lot depends on how and what you enjoy
listening to, and what are the speakers?
I have built and serviced many tube amps over the
years-- most of them push-pull.
I like to hear clean, fast, accurate, on-time dynamics.
I like detail also, but will not sacrifice the above to get it.
I have found (not all for the same reasons,
but as a generality that happened in MOST cases),
that I liked tubes run at low plate dissipation levels,
and that loaded heavily with a very low-DCR, lower impedance
primary of the output transformer.
Understand that I will not listen to Negative Feedback-- it
destroys musician intent.. I have never had my hands on a tube
amplifier that was not drastically improved (musically) by
getting rid of its FBK loops.
Basically, I like an amp that acts like great Solid-State,
but has the best "tube" qualities also... and I don't
mean overly smooth or slow in timing by this-- or "nicer"
to listen to, What I mean is better rendition of music..
a sense of true presense.
This taste of mine necessitates that I pay attention to
measurements and note the theories and measurements that
are out there, but it also means that I will break any
rule anytime I can get better performance and reliability
by doing so.
Your questioning the theory that light (high-DCR, high
primary impedance) loading of an output tube that is run
according to design-center values, while it will give the
best measurements, might NOT sound the best, is VERY well
taken.
In fact, by-the-rules kinds of amps never sounded
excellent to me, but a few did sound just OK.
This observation can be applied both to old tube
equipment, and also to the very latest.
To sum up: run a tube near the bottom 1/3 of its plate
power curves, but don't go TOO far with this-- find out,
instead, what you can get away with. If you get too close
to the bottoms of those curves, you will get much less
low-distortion power.
So, the question is how much power delivers the best sound
from the speaker that you are using? What are the effects on
THAT SPEAKER when you make the tube more linear by going
closer to design-center values. How MUCH BETTER will it
sound if you run at LESS plate dissipation and LOWER
impedance (heavier loading) on the tube?
What does your speaker NEED?
Question everything they tell you. They're not wrong.
They are usually right--- about something-- . BUT there
is a better-- much better-- world out there to be had.
You'll have to find those op. and loading points by trial--
and you should also find out if some brands of tubes agree
with what you're doing, and maybe others don't. It is VERY
difficult to know how a given tube will behave when operated
outside of it's approved design-center values.
But you can find that out-- "try look?". It's your call.
-Dennis-
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- RE: Transformer Interaction - Fact or Fiction? - tube wrangler 19:37:28 04/20/21 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
