Fake Tubeamp (FaT1)

[210]

What do you think about a SSamp that looks like a tube amp ?
Maybe with a shielded transformer and illuminating regulators on top ?
Cheap psu, distorting interstage and high impedance output (10ohm series resistor?)
could be used to reach an impressive sound. Case could be metallic painted plastic.
A dose opener...

[tvrgeek]

I had a visit with the dean of my school one time. Don't ask why. On his desk sat an antique three tube radio. The kind on a board with exposed tubes and brass knobs for the wires. It was working! Closer inspection identified neon bulbs where the heaters should have been and a FET soldered underside.

Another friend put a $6 Radio Shack RIAA amp in a fancy box and called it a new prototype from a secret but high-end company. He invited comments from his patrons comparing it to a well known and respected preamp. With some discussion, about half selected the fake and wanted to get the production version. I am proud to say I was not one of them. I actually waited for another customer to leave to tell him what I thought it sounded like.

So, go for it. Who knows, maybe a selected components list rave review is in the offering!

[210]

Originally Posted by tvrgeek

I had a visit with the dean of my school one time. Don't ask why. On his desk sat an antique three tube radio. The kind on a board with exposed tubes and brass knobs for the wires. It was working! Closer inspection identified neon bulbs where the heaters should have been and a FET soldered underside.

Great experience!
I thought, the FaT1 can be adressed in this direction

Originally Posted by tvrgeek

Another friend put a $6 Radio Shack RIAA amp in a fancy box and called it a new prototype from a secret but high-end company. He invited comments from his patrons comparing it to a well known and respected preamp. With some discussion, about half selected the fake and wanted to get the production version. I am proud to say I was not one of them. I actually waited for another customer to leave to tell him what I thought it sounded like.

Opinions count, especially without experience.
These days i saw a schoolboy wearing 'his' fullsize headphone in the city.
He painted the outer core of the plastic cups with a textmarker to make it somehow individual.
Nice price products with plastic cases can have advantages when you're young.

Originally Posted by tvrgeek

So, go for it. Who knows, maybe a selected components list rave review is in the offering!

Created through/with cheap crappyness 'improvements'
could be charming...

[tvrgeek]

Let's see, we know about POOGE to make things better, how about POOP?

Progressive Obfuscation Of Performance.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by 210

What do you think about a SSamp that looks like a tube amp ?
Maybe with a shielded transformer and illuminating regulators on top ?
Cheap psu, distorting interstage and high impedance output (10ohm series resistor?)
could be used to reach an impressive sound. Case could be metallic painted plastic.
A dose opener...

why not? maybe a tube rectified dc supply cum tube shunt reg feeding an ss amp.......

the Sakura AV200 uses such arrangement but without the shunt reg, 2 x 5Z4 recitifers feeding +/-6volts to a 4558 op amp.....

[210]

Originally Posted by tvrgeek

Let's see, we know about POOGE to make things better, how about POOP?

Progressive Obfuscation Of Performance.

Had to look, what 'obfuscation' means (my english is not 'the wellest'):

Obfuscation may be used for many purposes. Doctors have been accused of using jargon to conceal unpleasant facts from a patient; American author Michael Crichton claimed that medical writing is a "highly skilled, calculated attempt to confuse the reader".[1] B. F. Skinner, noted psychologist, commented on medical notation as a form of multiple audience control, which allows the doctor to communicate to the pharmacist things which might be opposed by the patient if they could understand it.[2] Similarly text-based language, like some forms of leet, are obfuscated to make them incomprehensible to outsiders.

"Eschew obfuscation", also stated as "eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation", is a humorous fumblerule used by English teachers and professors when lecturing about proper writing techniques.

Literally, the phrase means "avoid being unclear" or "avoid being unclear, support being clear", but the use of relatively uncommon words causes confusion, making the phrase an example of irony, and more precisely a heterological or hypocritical phrase (it does not embody its own advice).

( Obfuscation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )



Here are some FaT1 designing updates (in the order of their importance):

1) Changing the name to FT1 (sounds more sportive and powerful).

2) Rough white plastic case (can be painted with textmarker). Metallic painting just for the luxury version.

3) Headphone output (cheaply connected parallel to the output) with fixed volume (via voltage divider, saves a poti and protects from hearing damage). Of course, headphone out just for extra costs (or for the luxury version).

Originally Posted by Tony

why not? maybe a tube rectified dc supply cum tube shunt reg feeding an ss amp.......

the Sakura AV200 uses such arrangement but without the shunt reg, 2 x 5Z4 recitifers feeding +/-6volts to a 4558 op amp.....

Decades ago I build some tube amps (forgot),
but yes, there are 10ohm/5w resistors.
Seems, the 4558 has strong inputs,
nice...

[210]

The development of the FT1 goes into the next stages:

A) The power supply:
Of course external psu (others should do the job).
12 Volt seems to be the most popular (=cheapest), and (of course)
the external power supply has to be ordered separate (costs extra).
To ensure, dandys could use an unregulated 12V supply,
the power input is proteted by a diode (say 5A), thereby the amp
has to be calculated with up to 20V (peak) supply voltage.

B) The illuminating (tubefake):
Cheapest to be reached with a LED (orange or red LED's costs less than blue). A luxury version could have blue illumination and/or a
multicolour LED (very important feature: color must be switchable).

C) The tubeamp outlook:
The cheapest and least neccesary outlook consists
of an illuminated acrylic tube (standing in the middle)
and two big electrolytic capacitors outstanding on top of the amp.
Volume poti/knob can be (egonomically) at the upper end of the acrylic tube.

[danielwritesbac]

Laptop 15vdc 90w SMPS is normally less than $9. This is maybe barely enough for a stereo bridge amp. Bridged TDA2040 might come close to the imitation you're looking for, albeit not on the datasheet sample application--make your own support circuit. Chinsan "Elite" capacitors, which don't really like heat, do happen to have an extremely small price and some of the best audio quality on earth. That and the regulated supply might push the TDA2040 almost up to hi-fi. Why not make something pretty even if its cheap? Good luck!

[210]

@danielwritesbac: Thanks for your recommends, Daniel!
'God is judge, God is mighty' (is what your name means).

Originally Posted by danielwritesbac

Laptop 15vdc 90w SMPS is normally less than $9. This is maybe barely enough for a stereo bridge amp.

With switches around, I'll switch too.

Originally Posted by danielwritesbac

This is maybe barely enough for a stereo bridge amp. Bridged TDA2040 might come close to the imitation you're looking for, albeit not on the datasheet sample application--make your own support circuit.

Build a bridged TDA2030(A-Version for 22Vmax. instead of just 18Vmax.) at college times as a monosub-amp. Sounds nicely dull, right.

Originally Posted by danielwritesbac

Chinsan "Elite" capacitors, which don't really like heat, do happen to have an extremely small price and some of the best audio quality on earth.

Yes, maybe the general standards are usuable with lots of uFs.

Originally Posted by danielwritesbac

That and the regulated supply might push the TDA2040 almost up to hi-fi. Why not make something pretty even if its cheap? Good luck!

Man, the guys from elsewhere shurely working on it.
I'll try a more obscure approach (measurements later).

Best regards,

[mt490]

Why not up the ante and make an SS design like a tube amp?

Paint the body of a chipamp with gold paint and light it up with some LED's, then stand it up outside of the housing along with its grand heatsink (use a ribbed C-shaped one anodized gold)

With a small roof we can call it 'The Shrine of Gainclone'.