• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

PCB design techniques for Tube Amps

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I use double-sided PCBs all the time. I oversize the pads and traces to prevent lifting. My boards survive multiple rework operations without peeled traces. The through plating also helps against trace lifting.

A PCB beats point-to-point wiring in repeatability hands down. And a properly laid out board will perform as good or better than point-to-point wiring simply because the board can easier be optimized with respect to signal integrity.

For prototypes I make double-sided (not through-plated) boards using toner transfer. With those I do sometimes run into trouble with lifted pads or traces resulting from repeated rework. But most of the time the issues are caused by a slight slip between the top and bottom layer artwork throwing the registration off by maybe 0.25 or 0.5 mm. It's good enough for prototypes and one-off kinds of jobs, but for anything else, I'd go with a professionally fabricated board.

~Tom
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.