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TUBELAB SIMPLE SE

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Just about any choke that can handle 150 mA or more will work. Aim for 5 to 10 Hy and a DC resistance between 100 and 250 ohms. I used a 1 Hy choke with 60 ohms of DC resistance in one of my amps because I didn't have space for a bigger choke. It still works better than a resistor.

The aux cap should be a motor run (NOT motor start) cap. Motor run caps are made for a very low ESR and work synergistically with the electrolytic to form a very good low cost solution. These are usually rated in AC volts and should be 370 VAC or higher. Any capacitance value from 40 uF to 100 uF will work. I usually shop for 80 or 100 uF motor runs on Ebay and have found them for $15 to $20.
 
Boutique caps for SSE?

I built several of these amps and they sound great.
Just bought the resistors and capacitors listed on Georges site from Digikey.
But, after building a shigaclone, found out that a lot of people "worked" long and hard on trying botique capacitors in various places.
Considering "expensive" electrolytic caps are about a buck (or less) not counting black gates which are difficult to source, I was wondering if anyone has tried various sorts of Panasonic FM's, Tantalums, Oscons etc in the Tubelab SSE?
And if I wanted to try, is it important to stick with the "exact" value of capacitance?
Thanks,
Paul
 
And if I wanted to try, is it important to stick with the "exact" value of capacitance?

Exact values of capacitance is not important.

C1 should not be over 47uF for the sake of 5AR4 life, 33 or 39uF might even be better with the quality of recent production 5AR4's.

C2 can be just about anything that can handle the voltage and fit in the board. The total capacitance of C2 and the supplemental cap should be over 100 uF, 150+ uF is better.

The cathode bypass cap values were selected based on measurements on several capacitors available at DigiKey when the amp was designed. I no longer have access to the capacitor measurement equipment that I used during the amp design. The values are larger than most people use, so you can go smaller.

The coupling cap value was chosen to satisfy the low frequency limit of the big Hammond and Edcor OPT's. If using smaller OPT's or speakers with limited bass response you can use a smaller cap value. Values above 1uF or so could cause low frequency instability, but I have never seen it happen since this amp does not use GNFB.
 
Exact values of capacitance is not important.

C1 should not be over 47uF for the sake of 5AR4 life, 33 or 39uF might even be better with the quality of recent production 5AR4's.

C2 can be just about anything that can handle the voltage and fit in the board. The total capacitance of C2 and the supplemental cap should be over 100 uF, 150+ uF is better.

The cathode bypass cap values were selected based on measurements on several capacitors available at DigiKey when the amp was designed. I no longer have access to the capacitor measurement equipment that I used during the amp design. The values are larger than most people use, so you can go smaller.

The coupling cap value was chosen to satisfy the low frequency limit of the big Hammond and Edcor OPT's. If using smaller OPT's or speakers with limited bass response you can use a smaller cap value. Values above 1uF or so could cause low frequency instability, but I have never seen it happen since this amp does not use GNFB.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but my question is directly related, I purchased a 100uf motor run capacitor to use as a supplemental, but c2 is 120uf for a total of 220uf. Is this okay or should I get a smaller motor run cap?
 
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