• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

SE amplifier advice..

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Hi all,

I am not a newbie DIYer (may be as you already know...). And have made a lot of IC, SS amplifiers, tube buffers-preamps for my ear taste until now. Presently I have a pair of Tang Band W5-1611SA full range speaker with 17lt bass reflex box tuned @52Hz.. And a Pass F5 amplifier feeds them. I must say that I found them very satisfactory at the meaning of analytical/clinical sounding. However I think my soul needs more musical things to listen.. Like a SE tube amplifier..
So, at this time I will need your advices about the choice..
I have a pair of NOS EL34, some 6N6P and some 12AU7s in my drawer.. In fact what I have is not important. But I see a lot of SE applications with EL34 tubes in the internet.
I think just a triode input stage (with SRPP may be) and an EL34 works fine for my needs. However I cannot be sure to select one of these projects..
May you please advice a SE project for me?
And what about the output transformers? Does a HAMMOND 1628SEA suitable for this amp or a cheaper one like;
5K SE AUDIO OUTPUT TRANSFORMER FOR ,KT-88, EL-34 | eBay

Thanks a lot in advance for anykind of helps..:p
 
Please read through fully. 1.5W was referencing the single-ended triode connected EL84 amp he had listened to. :)

This one should provide much more than that. Even the RH84 which is based on a similar design but with EL84 puts out about 4W of power.

EL34 should easily double that. If you use a cathode follower, you can probably drive it into A2 territory too... with even higher power.
 
:) The RH84 was my first tube power amp project. The GU-50 my second one. :)

Like you, i had already completed several SS amps (chipamps, Pass F5, Pass BOZ, various MOSFET/BJT amps) before my foray into tubes. You will be surprised how similar tube circuits are and are in fact simpler to grasp.

There a lots of circuits floating out there in cyberspace. Have a look at all of them and decide. Took me 3 months of research and another 3 to get the parts for my first EL84 amp.

You will be surprised how loud 4W or 8W can get you with tube equipment. I guess the 2nd harmonic distortion tends to "fatten" the sound and make it louder than the SS amps. The 8W GU-50 amp seems to beat the F5 easily. I think many of those on this forum have the same experience.
 
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