5v3a

[aldovan]

Dear friends

The 5V3A have a fine sound ?
What brands is more recommended ?

Thanks,

Aldovan

[SY]

It's a rectifier. If it has a sound, you've done something wrong.

[Salas]

Rectifiers don't have a sound, capacitors don't have a sound, wire don't have a sound, its all in the circuit. Loudspeaker drivers don't have a sound its all in the acoustics.

[koolatron]

The 5V3-A is a rectifier tube. I am not aware of any designs that include such a beast in their audio path, so asking what sort of "sound" it has is like asking whether or not the hi-octane gasoline will make your car go faster.

That is, it may have an effect, but the difference the engine makes will be much larger.

There are certainly subjective differences between tube and SS rectification in power supply "sounds", but in my limited experience the difference between specific rectifiers (and moreover, brands) seems to be much more of a crapshoot.

[aldovan]

Thanks for the reply.
But you are wrong.
All rectifiers tubes have influence in the sound delivers for the speakers.

Aldovan

[koolatron]

In that case, the 5V3-A that will sound the best to you will likely be the most expensive one on eBay. Make sure it's NOS.

[SY]

Originally posted by koolatron
In that case, the 5V3-A that will sound the best to you will likely be the most expensive one on eBay. Make sure it's NOS.

Precisely.

DC is DC. If grounding and layout are done properly and care is taken to not couple switching spikes into the system, the rectifier is very uncritical. Except in the fevered imaginations of tube rollers and (more seriously) in badly designed and laid-out circuits.

[Davec113]

Originally posted by SY


Precisely.

DC is DC. If grounding and layout are done properly and care is taken to not couple switching spikes into the system, the rectifier is very uncritical. Except in the fevered imaginations of tube rollers and (more seriously) in badly designed and laid-out circuits.

I don't doubt that this is true, just like power cords shouldn't make a difference in a properly designed power supply.... but I would argue that both power cords and rectifiers are in fact audible in most gear, so the percentage of equipment that features "badly designed and laid out circuits" must be extremely high. Having owned equipment that is more or less sensitive to power supply changes, I believe this argument makes sense, and goes a long way to explain the differences of opinion people have about rectifiers, cables, etc... producing audible differences.

[aldovan]

A Mullard 5AR4 and a Chinese 5AR4 sound different .
A Mullard 12AX7 and a Chinese 12AX7 sound different, too.
If you do not listen the diffences, you never listen a tube amplifier playing.

Aldovan

[SY]

Dave, not owning much commercial gear, I can't speak to that from personal experience. But I'm not an engineer, just a hobbyist, so it's somewhat surprising to hear that professional engineers from major companies can't handle that simple task.

Aldo, I suspect you weren't even born when I built and listened to my first tube amp. But if the Kool-Aid tastes good to you, who am I to say any different? I'm still not sure what a 12AX7 has to do with rectifiers...

And I should qualify something I said before- rectifier differences CAN be heard in most musical instrument amps because of the difference in internal impedance.