• 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.

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Built some years ago, A Bill (KT88) variant (Triodedick with some Dalojan changes), including aluminum housing, Infrared remote, electronic motorized Alps, Nixie IN-13 Vu meter, numitron clock/display, controller Altera Max2 device FPGA. This tubeamplifier can also send "next number" signals to the first CD player from Philips that i have ;-) (CD100). Homemade 6SN7 6.3VDC powersupply based on a LM2576-Adj.

bill.jpg

billbinnenkant.jpg



And i have built a Philips CDpro including infrared and controller in Altera FPGA (Cyclone2 programmable device), you can choose between LCD or numitron tubes display, includes a 1:1 tube buffer. Housing is homemade aluminium. 1.2 MB Floppydrive steppermotor ;-)

cdpro.jpg


cdprobinnenkant.jpg


Some other tubehobbies of me: Nixieclock based on programmable Altera FPGA including DCF77 antenna, homemade housing, pcb's

KlokVoorRemco.jpg
 
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KT120 PSE Aikido drive

As promised I'm back on this issue. Finally KT120 PSE / Aikido drive is ready. I had some issues with PSU…. The first PSU was CRC and I did not get a clean sound… I tried all tricks but I couldn’t get free of PSU noise…. Finally I rebuilt this part with CLC filtering and all problems solved. Idle current was set after several test at 90 mA per tube – there was no noticeable sound difference from 80 up to 120 mA… With 90 mA I am sure the tubes will last longer. I do not have equipment to test this amplifier fully, but it sound as good as it looks… From the first listening I could remark an excellent control over all frequency range at all power levels. There is no “colored” frequency, tubbier sound or what so ever – very clean and clear with excellent dynamics. Compared with my previous KT88 PP I do not see any loose of bass. Miller capacitance effect – not a trace of it, Aikido makes a very good job. Coupling capacitors I used are military Russian Teflon, paralleled with smaller PIO and Styroflex. The cathode R’s are rated at 25W but they still get warm. There is no NFB at all..
After 4 hours of listening I seem to improve – but I believe it needs more time. Burn in not only for the tubes but for the C’s as well…
Well, finally I attach one more picture with the actual PSU…
Best regards to all,
 

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Manta79:
Congratulations on all-!!! Speechless. Your mechanical skills at making an all-metal enclosure look this "warm" and solid are much to be admired. Beautiful, well-thought-out design, masterfully executed.

Curious about the CD player--- Do I understand correctly that it's a box of control electronics built around a Phillips transport, with digital outputs for an external D/A? -Or did you build your own D->A too? (!)

The Nixie clock looks GREAT! HUGE Nixies... Russian?
 
@all, thanks for the great replies. It is true, I like to make my projects as pieces of art.

I build about a dozen Nixieclocks (and Numitron, VFD) in that style, everything hand made, in wood, plexiglas, metal and there is one superclock on its way ;-)
I sold a few, kept others, but when you count the hours.... you won't get rich..
The clock seen here is indeed based on the IN-18 nixietube, my favorite and becoming very expensive these days.

The (Russian) nixietubes made me curious about the other bulbs that were sold, in fact they made me read about tubeamps and I decided to built one. I read a lot about them, tried to understand them, because I am from the transistor/opamp era and finally met Dalojan as he is more patient then Triodedick. Dalojan helped me to understand the Bill design from TriodeDick and he made some improvements. I made it more "SciFi" with RC5 remote, Nixie IN-13 Vu meters, motorized Alps controls, input selections, i can select ECC99 or 6N6P tubes, startup/warmup sequence and of course a numitron clock when Bill is Off.. I tried a lot of different ECCC99 tubes (i kept the JJ's) and the 6SN7 from GE just by listening to them with the CDPro and Vifa Vivace 86 loudspeakers. Dalojan tested the revised Bill and he said it performed very very well. The housing was even more work, made from aluminium, sanded and polished it for hours.
The 6SN7 runs on a DC powersupply that i built around the LM2576-ADJ with shottky diodes and a lot of C's to create 6.15VDC out of 6.3VAC for the filament, that made Bill very silent when it needs to be ;-)



The CD player controls is fully written in VHDL and simulated/tested and synthesized into an Altera Cyclone 2 FPGA. It was a hell of a job getting the bidirectional DSA commandbus right.
Further more it has RC5 remote, startup/shutdown CDpro sequence, steppermoter controles for the loader/door, LCD, tubedisplay, cd commands/buffers and controls.
So this is not out of the box...
(you should know that i was an electronic designer in the past, now only for the hobby)

I did not use a external D/A converter as the internal sounds good to me, in the first place I wanted to have a AD converter. I used a Tentlab low jitter clockmodule, JSR03 Sjöström Super Regulators, 1:1 tubebuffer containing a matched pair Philips SQ e88cc goldpin grey shield (tubebuffer hummed, so personally revised by my friend Dalojan). A massive granite tile on rubber for the CDpro.

Regards,

Richard
 
Built some years ago, A Bill (KT88) variant (Triodedick with some Dalojan changes), including aluminum housing, Infrared remote, electronic motorized Alps, Nixie IN-13 Vu meter, numitron clock/display, controller Altera Max2 device FPGA. This tubeamplifier can also send "next number" signals to the first CD player from Philips that i have ;-) (CD100). Homemade 6SN7 6.3VDC powersupply based on a LM2576-Adj.

bill.jpg

billbinnenkant.jpg



And i have built a Philips CDpro including infrared and controller in Altera FPGA (Cyclone2 programmable device), you can choose between LCD or numitron tubes display, includes a 1:1 tube buffer. Housing is homemade aluminium. 1.2 MB Floppydrive steppermotor ;-)

cdpro.jpg


cdprobinnenkant.jpg


Some other tubehobbies of me: Nixieclock based on programmable Altera FPGA including DCF77 antenna, homemade housing, pcb's

KlokVoorRemco.jpg
Very cool :D ,Luv the nickie Vu meters .
CHeers
 
HI
These are 300B SET amp for the treble & mid section of an active speaker I'm building .The circuits were drawn by a friend and he also made all iron pwr trans ,choke's & OPT's . He's bread braoding the bass amp's which will be push pull GU50's .
I haven't decided what colour to do the OPT & choke case's and there will be case's that cover the guts of it all ,so these are naked shot's :) .
IMG_6388.jpg

IMG_6369.jpg


Still a work in progress .
CHeers
 
56oval: There is something nice about your. I'm yet to realise it. That's a lot of 300Bs from some one who has built one.

Where in Ozz are you from?
Hi mHouston
I'm in VIC out in the Western suburbs . There was going to be a pair of PP 300B for the bass but I ran out of KR & EAT tubes :) .
I forgot to add I put the circuits together and made the chassis .

I need to re mount the OPT's & chokes on the 2 end amps .

Lucas @ BlackArt Audio made all the iron and drew the circuits .

CHeers
 
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Hi mHouston
I'm in VIC out in the Western suburbs . There was going to be a pair of PP 300B for the bass but I ran out of KR & EAT tubes :) .
I forgot to add I put the circuits together and made the chassis .

I need to re mount the OPT's & chokes on the 2 end amps .

Lucas @ BlackArt Audio made all the iron and drew the circuits .

CHeers
Lucas is a good friend of mine and lives down my way. He is very intense about his trannies. Great guy and pops into my Franskton Jaycar on occasions. If he designed it it will be good. Take a look at what a guy in the States designed for me.
 

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Lucas is a good friend of mine and lives down my way. He is very intense about his trannies. Great guy and pops into my Franskton Jaycar on occasions. If he designed it it will be good. Take a look at what a guy in the States designed for me.
Very nice looking 300B SET . How do you find the Mundorf tube cap's ,I've used the Tube Cap range in the amps .The larger SET is complete film cap supply and the smaller pair have a mixture of Evox,BHC and Mundorf Tube caps .
Lucas is a top bloke ,knows his stuff .Which is good because I don't have a clue about electronic's ,I think I scare him some times when my question's :D.

Cheers
 
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