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    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
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    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Concertina type Phase inverters?

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Does anyone have a formula for calculating the capacitor size needed between the phase inverter and the push pull power tube stage?

Assuming you have an ordinary circuit with nothing but grid-leak resistors following the cathodyne, then the foruma is simply:

C = 1/ (2 pi f R)

Where f is the low cut-off frequency, and R is the power tube grid leak resistor.
 
12AX7 would be an interesting experiment.
I tried changing from 6SN7 (-5v bias on the cathodyne stage) to E180CC (similar to 12AU7, with higher transconductance) and the bias dropped to -2v. Not sure what the optimal bias voltage is, but changing the cathodyne tubes definitely has a noticeable effect on the sound of the amp.
 
Bias voltage (Ug-c) is not essential measure.
Important is that the operating point of the cathodyne is such that the output voltage can swing sufficiently to both directions. When the clipping begins, it should take place symmetrically.
Typical advice that supply voltage should be divided by three; one third for anode resistor, tube and cathode resistor leads to bad performance.
It is easy to observe that about half of supply voltage should be across the tube and one quarter across both anode and cathode resistor.
 
Ex-Moderator R.I.P.
Joined 2005
6S4 !!! Amazing choice for concertina phase inverter ...

since SY's suggestion appeared like a response to my post about the 2A3, but being too expencive, I took for granted 6S4 meant 6S4S, and refferred to the similar looking equivalent, 6C4C

now I see there are also 6S4 9 pin types
and since I also mentioned ecc99 in the same post, 6S4 might also be ... another 9 pin

:confused: so which is it, please :D
 
OK, let's take an other viewpoint.

To get a cathodyne operate as linear as possible is very easy.
Adjust the signal to a level that is needed for maximum output power and simply fine tune the cathode resistor (=bias) to minimum THD with a distortion analyzer.

OK !! Now we agree !! The only issue is that I do not have a THD analyzer with very good sensitivity , BUT I think I can get very close with my DSOscilloscope with FFT function . Do you agree ??
 
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