Go Back   Home > Forums > Amplifiers > Tubes / Valves
Home Forums Rules Articles Store Gallery Blogs Register Donations FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Tubes / Valves All about our sweet vacuum tubes :) Threads about Musical Instrument Amps of all kinds should be in the Instruments & Amps forum

diyAudio Sponsor

Search for a tube at thetubestore.com                            Product reviews and more

Audio tubes for any amplifier: from high end home audio to classic guitar amps.

Quick links by tube type: 12AX7, EL34, 6L6, KT66, 6550, KT88, EL84, 12AU7, 12AT7, 6922, 6H30, 300B, 6V6, 6SN7 

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 1st November 2011, 05:54 PM   #1
diyAudio Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Default Headphone tube-amp with oddball OPT

Hello.
I've been playing with the idea of building a tube/valve headphone amplifier for a couple of years. The first idea was to make some OTL-thing, probably with some really big bottles, like 6AS7, so I bought a pair of 600Ω "AKG K240 Monitor".
For various reasons, this little project was put on hold, but recently I've been thinking about again, but this time with a little OPT.

The intended OPT, called CTX01-13660 from Coiltronics (don't bother trying to find any datasheet, it's likely a custom design), is intended for power conversion. It's got a primary with a center tap and single secondary. I've done some measurments using a HP204D from 10kHz to 500kHz (sine wave) on the secondary measuring with a Tek 2246 on the primary. There appears to be a 5.7 turns-ratio, pretty constant below 60 kHz.
The core-size and "look" is nearly identical with Coiltronics' VP2, and estimating maximum power capability from their (available) datasheets would suggest that it could be capable of about 4W@100kHz. 200mW (the power limit for K240 Monitor) should be within their limit in the audio range.
(pretty vague, huh?)
Now, why would I want to use that with tubes and headphones? Well, three(hundred) reasons:
1) I'm curious
2) Haven't seen it done
3) A reel with 300 of them sitting on a shelf gathering dust

I found this http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard1/pp.html [1] and started drawing load lines for full class A and 20+ double triodes, triode-pentodes and pentodes in my collection that I had in large enough quantities to make a stereo amp.
I finally ended up with PCL200. (See attached image)

My calculations so far:
With turns ratio of 5.7, reflected impedance is 19500Ω, half of which is seen by each tube, i.e. 9750Ω

The maximum input power for K240 Monitor is 200mW, which translates into a voltage-swing of 11V (RMS), or 31V peak-to-peak, if I've calculated correctly.
This should mean that the required anode AC swing for each tube is 176.7V, rounded to 180V. I marked the Ia and Ua limits with red lines and selected Ub (ignoring any DC resistance in the OPT) to 130V, marked this with an orange line. I also marked the required 180V swing centered around Ub.
Following [1] I drew the green load line, and transferred it to a suitable working point (blue line).

The working point seems well suited for LED bias, and the entire power-stage seems very sensitive.

So, now for the big question. Does it make sense at all? Are my calculations correct(ish) and does it seem to be a possible solution? If that is the case, I'll be able to move on to the next big question: CCS-loaded LTP or Cathodyne…

[IMG]www.bjelle.se/PCL200-pentode-with-load-lines.png[/IMG]
Attached Images
File Type: jpg PCL200-pentode-with-load-lines.jpg (85.4 KB, 55 views)
  Reply With Quote

Reply


Hide this!Advertise here!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Tube amp OPT for Headphone Amp? (impedance matching question) rongon Tubes / Valves 21 3rd January 2012 04:20 AM
Oddball Tube - Useful for Audio?? FlaCharlie Tubes / Valves 9 17th March 2011 02:42 AM
Tube Sockets for oddball miniatures prairiemystic Tubes / Valves 5 25th April 2010 10:09 AM
Vintage Saba opt in SE-headphone amp Stixx Headphone Systems 6 29th August 2009 09:34 AM
FS oddball tube amp for parts woody Swap Meet 5 13th May 2007 10:39 PM


New To Site? Need Help?

All times are GMT. The time now is 01:51 AM.

Page generated in 0.07443 seconds (70.66% PHP - 29.34% MySQL) with 11 queries

Copyright ©1999-2012 diyAudio