F5 Turbo Builders Thread

Some manufacturers hang the transformer from a strap across the width of the chassis.
This strap can be strong, as a beam, to support the weight of the transformer, even during abuse.
But the strap can have very low torsional stiffness, allowing the transformer to dangle and vibrate without transferring all the vibration to the Chassis.

I only did this for one amplifier using a very tall Chassis. Smoothing caps in the bottom. Toroid and rectifier just above. Then the Amplifier and other hot parts in the upper half.

Air entering the bottom of this ClassA amp was cool and kept both the capacitors and transformer relatively cooler compared to a wide low Chassis.
The radiation from the inside surfaces of the tall sinks would be considerable and I thought this "tall" arrangement would be better for reliability.
 
That's actually quite clever AndrewT! And, if the transformer was hanging from a beam via a bolt with grommets, then there would be minimal vibration transferred to the chassis in a manner that would cause the panels to vibrate. Slick...
Not my idea.
Copied from some manufacturer.
Better if the transformer were hanging from some springs with a damage limiting hook arrangement. Grommets do not work if they are the wrong frequency.

But do allow for the equipment being dropped on rare occasions.
 
Would anybody say that removing the plastic shielding before potting is a bad idea? I get the feeling that this would help more (no vacuum chamber or anything).

If so, why?
potting compound is not runny enough.
Even removing the outer insulation, the potting compound will not penetrate all the air spaces in the outer windings. The potting compound has no hope of penetrating the next layer of insulation.

You would be wasting your time using potting compound to impregnate the toroid.

However, JohnH is reporting good results with encapsulation, i.e. using potting compound around the toroid while inside a retaining vessel.
That helps keep the noise inside the transformer.
 
...yes, but current capability, from the additional devices, is every bit as important.

(I've been through this exact same thought process.)

Since BigE wishes to try it, wont simply removing the gate resistors from the relevant pairs effectively disable those devices?

Most on this forum like yourself are saying that the F5 with more devices sounds more "relaxing".

Nash
 
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I'm not using diodes, and my speakers are only 85dB. The impedance does not dip below 6 ohms and even a standard F5 did not run out of steam when driving them.

However, they did run out of voltage swing, so I am building a balanced version for myself (with a few changes).

You may want to think about a standard unit but using lower feedback if you want something different.

I am not sure that removing the gate resistor biases the MOSFET to zero Vgs, but an intermediary value based on the source resistance and power supply voltage - the so-called self bias. I think the results of removing all drive is like coasting downhill in neutral. You need voltage control over the gate, so shorting it to the source is a better option.
 
I'm not using diodes, and my speakers are only 85dB. The impedance does not dip below 6 ohms and even a standard F5 did not run out of steam when driving them.
However, they did run out of voltage swing, so I am building a balanced version for myself (with a few changes).

A newbie question here-What does run out of voltage swing but not run out of steam mean? How does one know that?


You may want to think about a standard unit but using lower feedback if you want something different.

Besides increasing the gain what else does that do? Have you found that the sound quality changes?

I am not sure that removing the gate resistor biases the MOSFET to zero Vgs, but an intermediary value based on the source resistance and power supply voltage - the so-called self bias. I think the results of removing all drive is like coasting downhill in neutral. You need voltage control over the gate, so shorting it to the source is a better option.

I was trying to find a quick and easy way to sample the sound of two devices versus four devices.

Thanks.

Nash
 
I am not sure that removing the gate resistor biases the MOSFET to zero Vgs, but an intermediary value based on the source resistance and power supply voltage - the so-called self bias. I think the results of removing all drive is like coasting downhill in neutral. You need voltage control over the gate, so shorting it to the source is a better option.

Yes shorting G and S gives max Idss as 1/-1 uA for N and P channel respectively.

But I also need to disconnect those pesky diodes. And there is no way of doing that without removing them. It's not such a simple task once it is all wired up.

I'm going to play with P3 more tomorrow -- see how little overall distortion I can get.

Does it matter much which frequency you choose? The harmonics are very close to the grass at 2 watts and 1 KHz. They are above at 2KHz or 4KHz -- the noise floor vanishes.
 
Has anyone thought about P2P wiring a Turbo ?

Sure, buy enough to build two channels of 4 pair F5T and you'll have two extra front end boards. Use these with a P2P output section of your choosing. I may end up there.

Another question:

Why does no one produce a Front end board that does not use P channel jfet? Can some sort of "quasi-complementary" architecture be implemented on the front end board?
 
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Yes shorting G and S gives max Idss as 1/-1 uA for N and P channel respectively.

But I also need to disconnect those pesky diodes. And there is no way of doing that without removing them

Hi

Once you take Vgs down to zero the MOSFET stops conducting and the diode in the source tail also does not conduct.

A few microamps here and there shouldn't matter :)

For 95dB speakers, a standard F5 sounds like the right choice, much better than the F5 Turbo. Come to think of it, since you need only about 10 watts (I think) There are lots of nice Class A candidates, even single-ended ones that will do what you want.

Assuming the speakers are 95dB/w at 150Hz and not 1Khz.