Zen v4 with paralleled FETs

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I am planning on building the Zen v4, but with a twist - want to parallel active devices (FETs), especially Q5. What I am not sure at is how to implement the gate resistors ( one for each FET) and the modulating circuit (R25 / C11).

If I include stoppers (R23a and R23b respectively) and then connect R25/C11 between the gate resistors and the gates of the FETs, I'll be literally halving the value of the gate resistors and turning them into one common stopper, therefore the FETs won't have their own gate resistors any more.

Do you think that this is a problem and have you got any suggestions.

Regards

Stan - wants to double everything, not halve it.
 
like this:
 

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You might be right, but I thought that C11 must be between the gate of the FET and the gate resistor (R18) for the modulation to work.

And I'd rather keep the modulating part of the reg because of the extra output power available.

There are several reasons why I want to do this -
1. reliability
2. using TO-220 FETs with slightly less output capabilities
2a. have more than 50 IRFZ40 FETs and would prefer to use them instead of buying new ones
3. want to bias higher - 2.8 amps
4. will be driving 4 ohm speakers, so every Watt counts

Stan
 
Stanislav said:
You might be right, but I thought that C11 must be between the gate of the FET and the gate resistor (R18) for the modulation to work.


Stan

You can either make R18 smaller (say 100-200 ohm), or you can make R19 smaller (by the amount of R18, say 5,3Kohm if R18=1500 ohm). Then you will have the same amount of feedback to modulate it. This is what I think, it would be nice if someone else could comment on this.
 
Mad_K

Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it. I'll be waiting for some other members to express their opinion and then make a decision.

Slighly off topic, but related nevertheless:
Does anyone think that IRFZ40 would be suitable for a Aleph3/Volksamp 30.

Here are some details:
Vdss 50V
Id 50 A
Rds(on) 0.028 ohms
Ptot 150 W
Tj 175 C
gfs 22
Ciss 1700pF

Regards

Stan - loves recycling, hates wasting
 
Hi,

I built a ZenV4 and am quit happy with the sound. Latelly I been thinking in adding a differential pair input like the Aleph one. I already tried and didn't like the sound but the PSU for the differential pair was not good. Feedback had to be adjusted also.

I believe that the ZenV4 and the Aleph 3 are quite similar and interchangeable except one thing: the PSU. So if you are going to buy the transformer, which is an expensive part, I would suggest you to go to an Aleph. This puts away the caps and gives you more flexibility. But if you have (or find one quite cheap as I did) already a transformer with only a + and ground supply then build the Zen. This applies to the PSU caps as well. I really never listened to an Aleph, but I believe the output stage of the Zen and of the Aleph 3 to be not very different.

Miguel
 
Thank you gentlemen.

Mad_K,
When you say rails not exceeding 50V, do you mean +/-25 V (50 V in total), or +/- 50 V.

Miguel,
Good point about the caps. I have around 40 pieces of 15000uF/40 V Philips caps, which would be quite good for an Aleph 3/30 and will cost me nothing on top of that.

Stan - likes to exceed his expectations only
 
OK,

My plan then is as follows:
I'll build an Aleph30 with a small modification.
Will use IRFZ40 - 4 for the CS and 4 for the output stage, keeping the same bias - 0.53 A per leg (as per Aleph30 service manual). This will bring the total bias at 2.12 A, same as the original Aleph3, and maybe adjust the 750 ohm resistor accordingly.

What do you think?

Kind Regards

Stan
 
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