diyAudio - Easy & Safe & Good sounding gainclone tube buffer

I've just built this and i'm amazed at the sound. Sorry for the schematic, i would better have drawn it by hand, but i'm on a mac and have no capture software other than the awful McCad.

It is a millet-max tube stage with grid feedback. Sounds very, very good and runs on very, very low voltage. The tubeness is clearly audible but it has a much lower distortion than designs that use high voltage tubes operating on low voltage.

The sound is also much better than a cathode follower.

I use a separated power supply but using the same as the chipamp should work.

Advantages over common CF buffers:

· Better sound

· Safer operation (25V vs 60V)

· You don't need an extra transformer for the B+ (You do need it for the B+)

The heather psu should be referenced to ground unless you are trying to build a radio. The heather voltage should be the one of the tube you use (I use the 12AE6A). I set the bias at 18V but you can play with this at your will. If you use the ECC86 you will probably want to run it at a higher current, place a trimpot there and a small resistor to read the current if you are planning to play a lot with it.

Do you know the best of all? It took 15 minutes for me to get it working! I have to admit i was in a hurry but you can make it in less than an hour.

It's really worth listening to it.

Enjoy!