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    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
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    the safety precautions around high voltages.

4P1L DHT Line Stage

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum*and*I apologize*for my English*unclear.

I*am passionate*discussions*about this*wonderful project*of*siberian*preamplifier.

My question*concerns the*simulation,*with*a*resistance*of*4P1L*filament.

My doubt is*the value that*has been calculated,*of 0.33*ohms,*but*if*the*filament voltage*is about*1,*9v*and the current*passing through it,*as has been*suggested,is about*620ma, the resistance*to use*should*be,*approximately,*of*3*ohms and not of 0,33.

I ask you,*please,*a confirmation*or not*about this*my*doubt.

Thanks*and congratulations*for all your*interventions,


Regards,


andrea
 
Hello

As you know,my first build of the 4P1L give me to much noise

now i have finished my sekund build ,and have used all the good advice from you,in this tread

short wire ,,shilded wire..2 trafoes to Coleman reg,,caps the right places on trafoes,,star ground mounted on a CU rail,,lead bitumen on the alu plate for the tubes

and the best --the noise is now much lower, and is at a level, where is do not disturb the music,,so i am very happy with the result

one question.....my star ground have no connection to chassis ,,,is this ok ?????

Many thanks to you all,,for helping me to get a super result..

now it is time to discuss the sound...later on.

Best Regards Bjarne
 
Bjarne, if the chassis is not connected, it will be influenced by electromagnetic fields (from CD players, computers, other power-trafos, lighting, power cables), and so on. In other words the chassis will act to collect and re-radiate noise.

Connecting the chassis to system-0V (ground) keeps the chassis from re-radiating, at east up to fairly high frequencies. With a good ground connexion, the chassis acts as a shield, to protect signal wiring from the EM fields.
 
I am just now sitting and hear some music..i am not shure that i ever had better sound from a pre--

my last build was a Aleph 1.7..before that a Tram2.and Borbely pre

have own a Pass Labs x02--whits i prefer to a Conrad Johnson act2

but for now i am super happy with this marveled preamp

best Bjarne
 
Agree with Kevin. Starving filament will decrease gm and increase rp. Not probably what you would want for a driver stage.
Have a look at the attached 4P1L traces. I've paralleled the filaments and did two tests with nearly nominal filament current (e.g. 670mA) and starved. You can clearly see that at your bias point you need to run the valve at 20mA to get the best out of it:

My Photos

With regards to the sound, I have to say that I like it a lot as a preamp stage. Great bass and clear tone, one of my favorite DHT despite its microphony.

Hope this helps?

Cheers,
ALe

Do you have an example of Gm and Rp with what you'd consider a good range to operate the filaments?

I've been thinking about a single stage 4p1l headphone amp in parafeed since the headphones I want to use are very efficient (I could use input step up transformer if necessary). And it's a bonus that it can easily be CCS loaded and run in filament bias. LL1930 reflects 9600 ohms with 300 ohm load, LL1674 reflects 4800.

edit: I just looked through your Siberian Gen 3 article. With starved filaments 163 v on plate and 32 ma Ia, Rp is 5093 ohms. This is significantly higher than what the data sheet says isn't it?
 
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Hello

I have a high frekvent noise (about 7 to 9khz i think) goes a little op and down in strange

no hum or hiss (very little) just this high noise

just mount a bigger gridstopper 27k

the noise is a bit lesser

How big value of gridstopper is ok to use ???

What value shall i use to gread leak resistor ,,my potmeter is 50k

I use Gen3 4P1L pre

Best Bjarne
 
hi Bjarne,

27K is enough, do not go higher for the stopper, or the grid-leak value may be compromised.

7-9 kHz is maybe microphonics..... it is unusual for a single-stage to oscillate electrically so low.

Try a different 4P1L. If it is not that, you will need an oscilloscope to look at the power supplies.
 
You are very helpfull---greetings to you

i stick to my 1.3k for gridstopper

i have just finished to change to my russian socket...

same tube ..must see what that brings--just now .no highfrekvent noise..funny

what value off grid leak resistor is right for me ..i use 50k pot ????

Best Bjarne
 
Hello

just an update on the high frekvent noise..after i have change to russian socket ,,this noise

is gone...strange

Ang i must find another fault ,when i sit and hear music,,came suddenly hum and noise in one channel --not much but i could hear it--

it was a cap on myColeman reg who loose the connection to a little transistor ..i must make a wire to get the connection stable

A funny thing i hear with the new socket ..the music is more clear in the top,,strange ^¨```
Best Bjarne
 
Hi...

My first nearly six month of living with my 4P1L.

First I'll like to post a picture of the "latest" tweaked 4P1L and try to describe what
I have found as great improvement for this fantastic pre-amp.

conv-4p1l-rike-clarity-tc.jpg


Just to clarify I'm "still" on a slightly tweaked version 1, as I has managed to tweak this
from very good, to quite amazing.

What I have found is the most important tweaks for the "Cap version of 4P1L" is.

1. Output Coupling Caps , from best to worse :)
1) Vcap Cuft(0.1uf) + Vcap Tftf(0.1uf) - Wau but have a lot of clicks and pops, due too not enought capacitor values.
2) Vcap Cuft(0.1uf) + Rike S.cap(0.33uf) - Breaking in right now very very nice.
3) Vcap Cuft (0.1uf) + Clarity MR(0.33uf) - this is my third best combination.
4) Clarity MR (0.33uf) - very nice cap but lack of a lot of things.
5) Vcap Cuft (0.1uf) + Russian K75 pio(0.22uf) - what a joke.
6) Russian K75 pio(0.22uf) - a very big joke.

Remarks.

The V-cap Cuft cost a fortune but this is a real winner.
Rike S-Cap in combination with V-cap Cuft, this is very very nice.

2. The Last capacitor in my power supply, now using Clarity TC 20uf.
Chancing from Panasonic 2uF PIO to Clarity TC huge huge difference.

Just adding the Clarity TC 20uf gives a huge difference.

Everything seems to clear up, widther soundstage, more deep, more black.
Less noise floor, this is one of the best upgrade and only 15£.

3. Grid leak resistor going from 47K to 68K amazing improvement.
Very happy with Koa Spear (Metal oxide resistor).

As all schematics (version 1,2) shows 47K, this was when I rather prefered
to keep my 6922. make it higher in my case 68K and this will make a huge
improvement to the sound of the 4P1L.

4. Grid Stopper, Tried Kiwame Carbon (too granny), Koa Spear Metal Oxide (too Noisy), Takman REX carbon (very nice), Takman REY metal (best choice so far).

For sure I would try other high cost Resistors here, and for sure do not go under
Takman REX carbon.. for 0.66£ it's a very good start.
Just Remeber Takman REY metal, does not has a metal sound at all.. Very nice.

5. Cathode Resistor.. I'm very very satisfied with the mills 12watt. Better in any way
compared to my first Vishay Dale 10w. Use non magnetic here.

6. The operation point has been tried from between 20-30mA, this is the 8 Ohm Cathode version I'm on. Depending upon your power amp, I have a 2a3DC and Speaker
you can easily fine adjust for your own desired taste.

I hope my impressions was a form of inspiration too other 4P1L builders.

It's a little hard to express what I feel, english is not my native language...

/Best Michael.