Trying to see FFT of a typical tube gain stage

Hi

Everyone says that triode tubes have more 2nd harmonic THD than anything else and I wanted to see this in LTspice. I made a CC gain stage with typical values and ran it with a low-level sine input. The output was generally clean looking and THD was pretty typical from what I've read.

The FFT of the output showed odd and even harmonics with the 3rd not being much lower than the 2nd. A few higher harmonics were present in both FFTs. I know the curve for a triode follows a 2/3 exponent, which maybe does produce both even and odd harmonics?

I wondered what the input signal looked like and its FFT was similar AND its THD baseline was only a little below the baseline for the output FFT. This made me wonder if the tube was simply amplifying the dirty oscillator harmonics?

I went to a different file for a super-low-THD solid-state amp and checked its input and output FFT. In this case, the baseline for the output FFT was around -180dB and 10dB lower for the input.

So, it seems like LTspice scales the THD of the sine generator depending on the range of THD the circuit under test generates?

Does this seem normal?

Thanks

Full range cardioid

Full range cardioid, need advice on next prototype

Currently i'm working on a new speaker build, aiming for a cardioid radiation pattern from 50Hz on up. I have made a prototype consisting of a top cabinet which has a A&D R1030 10" woofer in a damped Uframe, and a Hypex PSC 2 400 plate amp (2 ch amp + dsp). I experimented with the opening of the Uframe, adding slots and especially the placement and quantity of damping material. See attached files for the optimal polar pattern. For high frequencies, I have a B&C DE250 on a Dayton 10” waveguide. I modified the waveguide slightly to accept the bolt on compression driver and remove any irregularities in the transition to the waveguide.

For the sub cabinet, I have 2 Peerless XLS10 woofers and a Hypex PSC 2 400. In order to achieve cardioid radiation, I have combined a sealed and dipole enclosure. The dipole is high passed at 50Hz using a 4th order filter in order to limit cone excursion and to have the advantages of a pressure source <50Hz. Free field measurements showed a polar resembling cardioid from 63Hz on up.


However, there are some points for improvement for which I would like your advice!
1. In order to achieve maximum suppression of LF at rear, I had to delay the monopole sub by 1,9ms. This resulted in less than optimal summation of the two drivers at the front. The dipole woofer is actually positioned 20cm behind the woofer in the sealed enclosure.
2. The polar has a maximum which is about 20degrees of center, caused by asymmetric construction of the dipole. I think I will make a new version using a regular H frame.
3. I’m considering adding passive radiators to increase output of the monopole <50Hz for LFE use. I’m a bit concerned this will complicate achieving cardioid radiation in the 50-150Hz region.

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RK-Auto200W Amplifer

RK-AutoBias200 Amplifier

Here's a schematic I've been developing for a couple of months, now. I have not laid out the PCB yet, let alone built one.
[The schematic shown in post #92 is the most recent iteration so far.]

The design goal is a 200W amp with distortion below 0.001% up to 20 kHz. VCCP/VEEP looks like they're going to be +/- 63V unregulated. VCC/VEE will be +/- 70V regulated.

Generated rails from the shunt and series-pass regulators will be
VCCP-5V
VEEP+5V
+15V
-15V

I've made an attempt at EF-triple stabilization, with a thread here: Removing MJE1503x in an Output Triple
but I don't think the final answer to that can be found in sims. I have not drawn the feedback yet, nor the final compensation. In IC op amps, a cap from the top of R8 to GND is sufficient, but a T-miller arrangement here will further linearize the output stage.

OL Gain is very high, and the pole from the output stage will between 10 and 20 MHz.

Output transistor biasing will be adapted from William Chater's bias control circuit from 1988. That's what's in the yellow box. I've detailed my adaptation here:
William Chater's "Bias control for power amplifiers," Revisited

Added, 10 Mar 2020:
My plan is to finish this design, documenting my progress and performance on diyaudio. When the design is complete, and the PCBs are laid out, I will make PCBs available. Gerber files, too. Then I will try to stick around to give advice on building and mods.

I still have some expectation that simulated performance, up to 20 kHz can be as low as 0.001%. We will see if my PCB layout skills can get a real circuit to approach that performance.

At this point in my life, I have 35 years experience as a designer of audio circuits, including 12 years where I designed discrete transistor power amplifiers for car audio. After that, I designed class-B and class-D audio amplifier ICs for 10 years. Now, I am a research engineer designing analog to digital converters for 200 GS/s SERDES in silicon processes that are not yet released for production.

I'm hope this design ends up being as good as the best of what's out there, both commercially and DIY.

Outline of the thread, so far:
  1. Addition of cascode below Q5. Discussion of TL431 and replacing with quieter infra-red LEDs--posts #8 - #15
  2. First documentation of performance--posts #15 - #28
  3. Simulated amplifier with clipping. Quasi-sat of KSA1220 driver caused instability exiting clipping. Replaced drivers with 4 each of KSC3503 and KSA1381. This let me increase UGBW to 5 Mhz from 3 Mhz, and increased SR to 94 V/us from 58 V/us. Posts #39 - #45.
  4. Documentation of simulated performance, post revision, Posts #46 - #50.
  5. Discussion with BesPav about my design decisions, Posts #62 - #65.
  6. Addition of SOA limiting, single-slope, dual slope, and eliminating distortion caused by SOA circuit, posts #66 - #78.
  7. Schematic of SOA limit and bias servo offloaded to daughter PCB, post #80.
  8. Replaced LM334 with "ring of two" current source, post #85.
  9. Find sources of distortion and optimize. TPIIC considered. Posts #92 - ...

-----
keywords: [special=power amplifier]%[/special], [special=design ]%[/special], [special=folded cascode]%[/special], [special=triple EF]%[/special], [special=LTspice]%[/special], [special=low THD]%[/special], [special=low noise]%[/special], [special=self bias]%[/special]
.
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SA9123 USB to SPDIF optical I2S output 24BIT 192K SA9227 32BIT 384K AC3 DTS DSD256

It may be the cheapest in the world. And the excellent performance of 24 BIT 192K
USB TO digital platform. SA9123

SA9123 USB TO SPDIF ,optical , I2S 。
The SA9123L is a high performance up to 24bit,
192KHz PCM streaming USB High-Speed compliant
audio steaming controller. It features one IEC60958
S/PDIF transmit streaming output. The SA9123L is
ideal for both one stereo-in and one stereo-out
professional digital audio interface applications
The SA9123L is high-performance, up to 24 bits,
192KHz PCM Streaming USB High Speed Compatibility
Audio USB controller. It has an IEC60958
S/PDIF transport stream output. SA9123L Yes
Perfect for one stereo input and one stereo output
Professional digital audio interface application
Supported specifications:
Independent sample rates for each
pair
44.1/ 48/ 88.2/ 96/ 176.4/ 192 KHz sampling rates
16/24 bit resolution
--------------------------------------
It may be the cheapest in the world. And the 32BIT 384K DSD256 with excellent performance
USB TO digital platform. SA9227
And supports AC3 DTS and DSD256

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Cancelling out room Eigentones with a sub & DSP-LF

I have an annoying boomy resonance in my listening room at about 68Hz. I don't want to insert any filters into the signal path to my amp (Q909).

My speakers are Magneplanar MG1.6 and go low enough but can't be relocated to a position which doesn't excite the eigentonesso much.

So I was pondering on placing an unused sub near my listening position driven with a Dayton Audio DSP-LF and spare amp. In this case, adjusting the response to cancel out the boom rather than boosting the low frequencies.

Doable?

Car stereo subwoofer? With this amp?

Hello everyone!

First, I want to apologize if the translation is bad, being French I use a translation site to put everything in English, if things are mistranslated or incomprehensible, let me know 🙂

So I will explain my situation, I always wanted to have a subwoofer in my car, so I went deep into the search.

At first I wanted a closed subwoofer of 300/350W RMS, except that in the end, given the prices for such power in closed box, I preferred to go on bass-reflex or other because it is much cheaper.
Except that I realized that the dual subwoofer drivers were not so much more expensive than single sub driver. So I decided to start with that.

Then came the choice of an active or passive housing. I found some nice active sub (price/power level), but when I looked a little more closely, I saw that the integrated amps were not necessarily ideal (example: barely 2x50W RMS for a 2x300W RMS sub driver), so I have a first question: Why is it so different? Can we trust the active sub?

Sub in question: Edge Car Audio DB EDB12TA-E0 (2x 300W RMS)

Integrated amp in question: ED7300

Personally, I concluded that it was not, so I started looking at the passive sub.

That’s when I thought: since I plan to take dual subwoofers, it is better to put them on stereo, so I have a second question: Is it really worth it? I read that we perceive very badly the stereo with bass and most of the time, they were mixed in mono, except that I want to dream!

I have always been very sensitive to the pan (left/right variation) on instruments, and as far as to make as much have the best sound possible! (I really want to believe that the stereo is worth it, but if not, so be it ...)

Finally, to return to the sub, I found one that interests me strongly in view of its price, but especially that in the manual there is an instruction (screenshot support) to connect it in stereo (which I did not find in the manual of its lower version the B1 210):

1733767114172.png

Sub in question: GAS Mad B2 210

It is therefore a 600W RMS, or 2x300W RMS.
Looking at the 300W RMS dual channel amps in 4 ohm, I came across amps at 300 € minimum! In any case, too expensive for me.
Then I went to a second-hand amp and came across this one:

Amp: TN4 900D

Only 40€! With 4 channels 2 ohm and 2 channels bridged 4 ohm to 450W RMS. My main question being: can I make a stereo installation by connecting the 2 sub drivers with 1 pair of channels bridged 4 ohm 450W RMS each?

I read somewhere that it is not possible stereo in bridge because the 2 signals (stereo right side and stereo left side, I do not know how to describe this) add up to form a mono signal at the end. Talking with an AI (GPT chat) I may have learned that actually the 4 channels of this amp (and probably for all amps if it’s real) are in fact separate on the stereo right side and stereo left side.

Then I wondered if there are 2 right and 2 left channels, so why not make two pairs of the same side (right + right and left + left) instead of making two pairs with 1 different side (left + right x2)? And then make a stereo installation?

Does it make sense? I don’t know much about it, it may be lunar for connoisseurs. Thank you for enlightening me!

If something is misexplained/mistranslated, I apologize and will do everything to clarify it 🙂

PS: at the base I was going to take 2 used amps at about 300/350W RMS in 4 ohm rather than a multicanals amp but since I came across this really cheap amp I wonder what is best. And if it is possible, is 450W RMS per subwoofer driver not too much for 300 W RMS?

So you want to design your own speaker from scratch!

You have been doing this DIY speaker thing for a while, probably built a couple of proven designs from people like Zaph , Troels Gravesen, Paul Carmody or any number of other successful designers.

Perhaps you started out like me, cobbling together random drivers with off the shelf or textbook crossovers, but never quite worked out why they didn’t work out as well as you imagined. You bought books like David Weems' “Designing Building and testing your own speaker system” and Vance Dickasons "Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" and have decided it is time to design something from scratch.

Alternately you may have followed AllenB’s excellent tutorial "Designing Crossovers Without Measurements" but have decided to take it to the next level and do measurements in which case Joseph D'Appolito's book "Testing Loudspeakers" and his article "Testing Loudspeakers, Which Measurements Matter" will be useful.

If you haven’t done any of the above you may want to have a look at Paul Carmody’s excellent FAQ "Proven Designs" first, which covers why you should build a proven design as your first project .

If you have got this far and are still game then read on 😉

Note that I am not an expert, I am just a guy who has been playing with speakers for the better part of 30 years, I’ve learnt quite a lot just by experimenting, a lot from reading and I’ve probably forgotten at least half of what I at one point knew or understood (or thought I understood!!).

As I don’t have expertise in all areas (some might claim in any!) I’m thinking that I will put in a number of placeholder posts, with the idea that members with more experience in those areas can write a post and I (or another Moderator) can paste the content into the relevant placeholder post. I’m also happy for this to be more of a live thread with suggestions for corrections or additions to the core posts taken on board and potentially amended.

There are many different design philosophies, and it is not my intent to try and cover them all, though where appropriate different directions may be suggested. I’m not interested in starting any religious wars on design choices 😉

The intent of this thread is to give someone a starting point and things to think about rather than a prescription on how to do it. I am an advocate of simulation as part of the design process so later posts will feature this, but even if you don't want to simulate hopefully you will still find the thread useful.

So lets get started!

Lets keep this thread uncluttered, A separate Designing your own speaker from scratch discussion thread has been created.

Please use that thread for questions and discussions or suggestions and we will try and add just relevant content to this thread 🙂 non complying posts may be mercilessly moved to the other thread 😉
.
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For Sale Marantz CD-273 for sale

Asking price: 165 € + postage, EU buyer preferred due to customs.
Working condition. With the legendary Philips TDA1541 DAC inside.

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6EM7 dissimilar triode model

Using a 6EM7 dissimilar triode model

I am experiences difficulty getting this model to work.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance, HD

.SUBCKT 6EM7_P1 1 2 3 ; P G C
  • PARAMS: MU=65.12 EX=1.14 KG1=554.18 KP=1228.6 KVB=4674.43
  • RGI=2000
  • CCG=2.2P CGP=4.8P CCP=.6P

E1 7 0 VALUE={V(1,3)/KP*LN(1+EXP(KP*(1/MU+V(2,3)/SQRT(KVB+V(1,3)*V(1,3)))))}
RE1 7 0 1G
G1 1 3 VALUE={(PWR(V(7),EX)+PWRS(V(7),EX))/(2*KG1)}
RCP 1 3 1G ; TO AVOID FLOATING NODES IN MU-FOLLOWER
C1 2 3 {CCG} ; CATHODE GRID
C2 2 1 {CGP} ; GRID-PLATE
C3 1 3 {CCP} ; CATHODE-PLATE
D3 5 3 DX ; FOR GRID CURRENT
R1 2 5 {RGI} ; FOR GRID CURRENT
.MODEL DX D(IS=1N RS=1 CJO=10PF TT=1N)
.ENDS

.SUBCKT 6EM7_P2 1 2 3
  • PARAMS: MU=7.288 EX=1.16 KG1=124.11 KP=25.418 KVB=1856.1
  • RGI=2000
  • CCG=7.0P CGP=10.0P CCP=1.8P

E1 7 0 VALUE={V(1,3)/KP*LN(1+EXP(KP*(1/MU+V(2,3)/SQRT(KVB+V(1,3)*V(1,3)))))}
RE1 7 0 1G
G1 1 3 VALUE={ (PWR(V(7),EX)+PWRS(V(7), EX))/(2*KG1) }
RCP 1 3 1G ; TO AVOID FLOATING NODES IN MU-FOLLOWER
C1 2 3 {CCG} ; CATHODE GRID
C2 2 1 {CGP} ; GRID-PLATE
C3 1 3 {CCP} ; CATHODE-PLATE
D3 5 3 DX ; FOR GRID CURRENT
R1 2 5 {RGI} ; FOR GRID CURRENT
.MODEL DX D(IS=1N RS=1 CJO=10PF TT=1N)
.ENDS

For Sale House keeping amp boards

I have the following amp boards fully built and used for sometime. Moved on to other amps so these need to move, so offers are welcome and shipping to local CONUS only.
All of the boards have genuine parts and some expensive caps all per suggestion of original builds. They have been fully tested and used for 20-30 hrs with my Klipsch Forte speakers with perfect bias and offset as per the recommendation of the amp build guides. Parts have been sourced from either members part of the group buy and Mouser/Digikey/Newark, so rest assured very good parts especially on the Aleph J I have used all the PRP resistors.

1. Lu1014D cascade amp -- SOLD
2. Zdmini LH Quam member -- SOLD
3. Aleph J by RainfallSky member -- SOLD

Thanks

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Interested in Bottlehead Crack - Anything to know before ordering kit?

I am preparing to upgrade my HD600's to HD800S and my LittleDot MkII to a Bottlehead Crack.

First question: I know the Crack pairs well with the HD600, is it similarly good with the 800?

Second question: Are there mods I should consider, parts I should order separately, or generally ways to augment the kit?

Thanks!

For Sale Normundss Input and Switch boards v2.3 for Soekris DAM1021 + DimDim ArDAM lite for Soekris DAM1021

Hello,

Up for sale are two items related to the Soekris DAM1021.

First up is the Normundss Input and Switch boards. Complete set with connectors and most necessary parts already soldered. This set is just missing Coax and Optical parts that can be procured from Mouser/Digikey. The set includes input board, switch board, and RaspberryPi adapter board.

Price: $OLD

Next up is DimDim ArDAM lite assembled board with separate IR receiver. This board allows for an OLED display to be hooked up, which indicates input information, sample rate, etc. This also includes Arduino Uno board, which is pre-flashed with ArDAM firmware. Finally small OLED display is included as well.

Price: $60 shipped CONUS.

Will ship internationally. Add $20.

For Sale Various PSUs - Kits - Salas BiB v1.1, Salas L-Adapter, Salas Reflektor-D, DIYinHK 5V 1uV

I've got these PSUs for sale:

2 sets of Salas BiB v1.1 with IRF+, IRF-, BJT+. 1 board set includes remaining PSU +/- parts not included in IRF/BJT kits. One board set 3rd + power rail has been split off.
Set with just IRF and BJT is $50 shipped. Set with full PSU parts is $80 shipped.

1 set of Salas L-Adapter 5V - full kit. Missing Q1. $60 shipped.

1 Reflektor-D - full kit. $60 shipped.

1 DIYinHK 5V 1.0uV 800mA kit. $50 shipped.

Prices are CONUS.
I will ship internationally, however the price is $20 more.

Introduction

Just a quick intro here, hopefully more about myself will emerge from future posts.

Found this site looking up info on tube amplifiers after diving in head first and acquiring a couple of very interesting old things in various stages of neglect. Still working on them and looking forward to actually hear them sing.

See you in the tube section.

Yuichi A290, TAD TH-4001, Yamamoto F350, Crowe ES290: Horn in Your 2 or 3-way Speakers?

The specifics of horn design in speakers utilizing compression drivers determines numerous aspects of sound quality. And of course, the ultimate test of any well designed and built speaker is in the listening. Therefore, I’m hoping that I might be invited to hear speakers using any of these horns. Having these actual listening experiences will best enable me to decide between these horns for building my speakers.

I have my short list of drivers for a two or three way design: Radian 745 or 951neoBe, Yamaha JA6681B, SB Audience 65CDNT, B&C DCM50.

These are my Altec midwoofers. https://josephcrowe.com/blogs/news/altec-416-8b-in-100l-sealed

My subs. https://www.rythmikaudio.com/F12.html The Altec and Rythmik sealed cabinets were built by Jim Salk.
https://www.salksound.com/model.php?model=Rythmik+12+Subwoofer

I would only need for your system to include a nice DAC with a USB input. That way I can play via my laptop uncompressed WAV files
of CD track rips and what I believe are high quality Youtube files of live concerts.

I’m in New York and can travel a respectable distance by rail within the US.

Thank you.
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Liberty Praxis resurfaces as "PraxisFREE"

During my MEMs microphone project this year, I needed some specialized measurement features for calibration of reference microphones and of the MEMS microphones themselves. Since I could do get under the hood in Praxis code and (when I could remember!) knew how it worked inside, I went in and removed the necessity for the AudPod hardware and modified as needed. Since then, in some spare time, I've been cleaning up the user interface and making a calibration scheme that didn't depend on AudPod, and am posting it online as "PraxisFREE". Feel free to download it and play if you want, it's at


Liberty Praxis, from about 20 years ago, was kind of a swiss army knife for audio measurements with computer "soundcards" (nowadays known as audio interfaces). It was like a big matrix of very configurable measurement stimuli and signal acquisition types along with a bunch of math processes for time domain and frequency domain data. It can't do everything that modern systems like ARTA or REW can do, but maybe can do a few obscure things that others don't (?).

screen shot 2024.PNG


The Praxis scripting had to be dropped (the correct tools for that weren't found on any of my old backups) and a large number of measurement types had to be deleted or disabled due to their dependence on functions of the Audpod or their just being too much work to resurrect again. But PraxisFREE now supports sample rates up to 384k (or even 768k, if Windows ever supports that natively), and the FFT and IFFT processes, as well as curve smoothing are now much faster than they were.

And a disclaimer: Since this is no longer commercial and just free use hobby stuff now, please don't expect a lot of support or ongoing bugfixes. I couldn't check all the possible operating scenarios, so I expect some of them may not work right. Non-buyer beware!

Have fun,
Bill

Parametric EQ project - not sure where to start - Kits? From scratch?

I want to make a multi-band analog domain parametric EQ to use for correcting headphone response. I have a few questions:

1. Should I try to find a kit, or start from scratch?
The kits I've found are all for guitar pedals, and I'm not sure how applicable they would be. The circuits don't seem that complicated, perhaps building from scratch is simpler?

2. PCB vs. point-to-point
I've never designed and printed a PCB before. I know there are services that make it easy. At the same time, if I can build this point to point, so much the better. Is this the sort of thing it would make much more sense to learn how to make a PCB for?

I guess that's only two questions. But it'll get on for now. I see several directions I could jump at, but I want to get some feedback from those more experienced before I go to Mouser....
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For Sale F4 PCB and Transistor Kit

Still sorting my stuff..

Here 1 set of F4 PCBs and 1 F4 transistor kit and some resistors and caps that I bought specifically for the F4 build.

Original prices without tax and shipping:
F-4 Circuit Boards 25 USD
F-4/BA-3 Transistor Kit F-4/BA-3 Transistor Kit x 1 $59.00

Offering for 60 Euros plus shipping from Germany.

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Another Earthquake PHD2

A friend brought me this from the states to be fixed, before lifting the board these are what’s obvious to my multimeter (except HIP4080 and TC4424) Sir Babin always insist the 4424 must be changed after PS failed also the audio driver IC must not be an overlook as they also fails easily. My problem now is can I just replace the one bank of P50NE10 only (aftermarket availability) or should I replace ALL?
IMG_1130.jpeg

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MOSFET mounting

Hi,

Two questions:

(1) I have a chassis with UMS heatsinks and a few boards that aren't designed around that specification. Is there any disadvantage to mounting MOSFETS on the heatsink and then connecting the pins to the board with some short wires instead of soldering the MOSFET directly to the board to enable me to use the predrilled and tapped holes on the UMS heatsinks with designs that don't adhere to those specifications?

(2) Could someone recommend a good thermal adhesive to bond some sheet aluminium to a pair of heatsinks for a DIY chassis project?


Thanks

DHT Headphone amp for HifiMan Edition XS

I'm looking for ideas/suggestions to make a diy DHT Headphone amp for HifiMan Edition XS.

Specs
Frequency response : 8Hz-50kHz
Impedance : 18Ω
Sensitivity : 92dB

Salas advice: "Needs custom opt ratio and 1W audio power at least", I guess after the output transformer.

To make a budget proto I want to use not too expensive tubes so russian 6C4C/6S4S (2A3 equivalent) or 4P1L or similars

TIA
Felipe

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Which affects input noise level most, input pair transistors or current-source transistors?

I'm planning to make a discrete headphone amp with SSM2212 as input pair transistors, who has an extraordinary performance with hFE higher than 600 and 1nv/sqrt(hz) input noise.
However, if I use NPN SSM2212 as input pair, i may need another PNP pair as current-mirror at SSM2212's collector side, and another single NPN transistor as current-source at SSM2212's emitter side.
SO, if I cannot find the PNP pair and the single transistor with such a great performance as SSM2212, will them eventually make the whole input noise level higher, making it worthless to choose SSM2212 as input pair transistors?

Technics CD Player - locating I2S signals for DAC upgrade?

Dear all,

my father has an ancient, fully functioning Technics SL-PG100 CD Player.
Technics SL-PG100 CD Players

We would like to upgrade the thing a bit, trying some other DACs, because the sound of the player is horrible (despite good reviews on the internet we simply don't like the sound). We listened to the same CDs on the same chain with my Mitsubishi M-C5100 (2x Burr Brown PCM56P) and the difference was like 😱😱😱

But my father insists on keeping his Technics due to functions, emotions, don't know the real reasons, except that he'd like to upgrade the DAC part now.

I told him about I2S and I think we could use tons of great DACs if we could feed them with the player's I2S signals coming from the transport.

I found a basic DAC-related schematics of the Technics, here it is: MN66271 Datasheet(PDF) - Panasonic Semiconductor

From that it's not sure for me where I can locate the I2S input signals going into the DAC. Or maybe I should look elsewhere within the player and try to steal the I2S signals from there ?

The first we would try is this one for example: AKM AK4495EQ DAC Module Board I2S 32bit 384khz 2x L7805CV Regulators

Would you be so kind helping me figuring out what to connect with which corresponding side, if possible electrically at all ? (Without conversion).

Based on the linked datasheet above for the Technics, I see following:


AKM DAC left, TECHNICS (PANA MN66271) right
-------------------------------------------
MCLK <- ?
FSCLK <- ?
BCLK <- Pin1 BCLK (SRDATA bit clock output)
DATA <- Pin3 SRDATA (Serial data output)


The missing parts I need to figure out still + the 2 other findings to be validated ..
What do you think, can it work somehow to get "standard" I2S out of the player and feed this DAC board with that ? 😕

Vanguard Archer Speaker

I have been discussing the development of this special speaker in the What’s On the Bench Tonight thread lately. It’s matured enough to deserve its own thread now. This is a 2 way stand mounted speaker, originally inspired by the 10F/RS225 FAST speaker but now with a Dayton PS95-8 paper cone midtweeter and SB Acoustics SB23NRXS45-8 paper cone woofer. The tweeter is now on top and there is a reflex port for extended bass. The crossover is kind of complicated, but the result is worth it because this PS95 has incredible reach into the upper registers for a lot of air. The SBA woofer has great bass and a superb mid range. Custom crossover uses all bespoke components including all air core inductors. No iron cores here for this special speaker. Xo point is at about 900Hz (FAST) and about 2nd order but positive absolute phase. Cabinets will be hand built and assembled one by one in Texas.

Here is the design thus far on CAD:
1713713885530.jpeg


Prototype tested looks like this:
1713714032097.jpeg

1713714171815.jpeg

1713714189297.jpeg

Measured response:
1713714475515.jpeg

Impedance sweep (blue trace) nominal 8ohm speaker with minimum dip to 5ohms from 2-3kHz:
1713714307657.jpeg

This is a commercial speaker so I can’t give away the crossover. Crossover PCB layout looks like this:
1713714399092.jpeg


Subjectively, it is similarly voiced to 10F/RS225 FAST but with higher top end reach, lower bass extension (vs sealed box) and slightly higher 85dB sensitivity.
You can listen to a recording of sound clips here:
Login to view embedded media

Hafler DH-500 shuts down after 4 tunes

A friend asked me to look at a Hafler DH-500. I have yet to see it.

He's complaint is the amp shuts down after four songs. He thinks the thermal protection may be causing it, but the amp is not getting hot.

I know this info is minimum, but was hoping the issue has been addressed before and whether someone knows what the fix might be or
where to start.

I'm an Electronic Tech by trade and have worked on audio gear for 30 plus years.

Thanks in advance. Bill KR3LL

Epique 5.5” with dual PR

Horn response nails it again (Fb)

Sounds pretty good, but it’s a mouse fart compared to the tapered pipe I put the other one(7” version) in.

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NJSwede reporting

Hi!

I'm NJSwede. I'm originally from Sweden and live in New Jersey, USA. Not too surprising, I know.

Although I don't work with electronics for a living (I'm a software guy), I like to say that I pretty much grew up in an electronics lab. My dad worked for Ericsson and designed some of the cell phone and cell tower chips you've all used thousands of times. So electronics was a very common dinner conversation topic. Now in my 50s, I decided to take up electronics as a hobby a bit more seriously and one thing led to another, and I started getting into amplifier design. Now I'm totally addicted to it and literally dream at night about amplifier topologies. I like to design and build things from scratch and so far I've designed and built an experimental from scratch Class D amplifier and a couple of blameless-style Class AB and I think I'll get the hang of it once I have a few dozen under my belt. 🙂 No, but seriously, the latest one sounds pretty good.

I live in a small town in New Jersey with my wife, two teenage kids, four dogs and a bunch of other animals. When I'm not busy with family, animals and amplifiers, I love to go for long (and by long I mean 200km and above) bike rides. Yeah, lack of activities isn't my biggest problem. Finding time is.

I'm a bit of an audiophile skeptic which tends to annoy some people. So my preemptive apologies for believing things like human hearing maxing out somewhere at 20kHz. 🙂

I joined this site because the quality of the content and the knowledge of the users seems a few notches above other communities. While I tend to have problems keeping my blabbering mouth shut, I'm mostly here to listen and learn.

The quest for a new DIY-speaker kit

Hello all.

I am looking for a DIY speaker kit. Maybe someone of you has an idea with DIY kit could fit to the following requirements.

1. Music: mainly Jazz, chamber Music, Old Music (Bach, Handel etc), Vocals, sometimes big orchestral music. some Rock and Pop
2. Smallish room (12. sqm, 3x4 meteres),
3. Near and mid-field listening, 2 meters (sometimes 1,5 meters, sometimes 2,5 meters)
3. listening mainly medium or lower volume level
4. Ideally 89db or a bit more. not difficult to drive
5. I prefer 3-ways systems

Thank you.
Christian

Dual Pcm 1794 Dac.

I'd love to be able to afford a DDAC but it's impossible so I bought a dual dac board from Aliex.
Its an LHY Audio product as is my SPDIF to I2S board that uses a Dir9001.

I didn't buy it with the opamps as I planned on using my Sowter I/V transformers.

Pleasingly it worked first time and sounds very good both via optical (LG Oled tv) and coax (Teac VRDS10) inputs.

I used 150R 0.1% I/V resistor which give the correct output level. The dacs are correctly configured for Mono, I2S, Left and Mono, I2S, Right.

It is powered from my 8ah Lithium power box which provides +18 and +7v and are regulated down to +5 for the digital part and +12 for the analogue sections. Onboard regulators then reduce the 5v to 3,3 and the 12v down to 5v..

I e xperimented with the secondary load resistor and found 3k3 to give the best results at the expense of a about a 3db drop in output (when loaded with the 22k input impedance of a Behringer UCA222.

I did a few checks using REW's spdif output and nothing untoward was seen.
Frequency response is flat as is phase zero degreee.

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Nippon Chemi-Con capacitor

Hi,

Just bought some brand new Nippon Chemi-Con electrolytic capacitors from Mouser. Is a KMZ series, 470uF 420V.
I am surprised that all the 4 pcs have value 412....414uF. So is below with 13% from nominal value. I agree there is on +/-20% limit, but being brand new, I expected to be closer to the nominal. I tried to apply voltage for 24 hours and still the same, no change. I measured it with a RLC meter.
The date code is 1NT058. After some research, I found that the first digit represents the year of manufacturing, so is 2001, 2011, 2021....??
Any comment on this?

thoughts on powering heatfilaments

I have closely examined diagrams of power supplies that use rectifier tubes and have noted that they feed the filament with alternating current (AC). I have considered whether it might be an improvement to drive the filament with direct current (DC) instead.

The purpose of the filament is to generate an ionized field by releasing electrons, which are then attracted to the anode (I am disregarding the grid here). When current passes through the filament, a magnetic field is generated. With alternating current (AC), this magnetic field constantly changes direction, which can lead to changes in the geometry of the ionized field. This phenomenon could negatively impact the efficiency of ionization, as the free electrons will be influenced by the fluctuating magnetic field and may not move stably toward the anode. The constant change of the magnetic field could thus disturb the desired ionization process.

However, if the filament were driven by direct current (DC), the magnetic field would be constant, potentially creating a more stable ionized field. DC could therefore possibly improve efficiency by avoiding the disturbances caused by the fluctuating magnetic field from AC. The constant direction of the current would ensure more stable movement of the free electrons and more consistent ionization of the gas in the tube.

We are familiar with a similar phenomenon from old cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, where a magnetic field could distort the image by altering the electron's path. This interference is an example of how a changing magnetic field can affect a process where the path of the electrons is crucial. In the same way, a fluctuating magnetic field in a filament tube can alter the movement of the ionized electrons and disturb the ionization.

Luxman PD 441/444 tone arm ideas?

Hi, first time Post, here goes. I purchased a Luxman pd-441 from usual place ,ebay waiting for delivery, but it does not include a tone arm or cartridge or arm board. I have a Hana SH cartridge I bought after seeing lots of good press on it, probably should have got the sl mc but I have 3 phono pre amps, a Rega mm, a Music Hall mc/mm and a Vincent 701 tube 2 box mm/mc. Along with Marantz 7702 pre amp processor, and Crown CS 8200 , Carver/Subfure 2 ch amp, & B&K signature 200.7 and 4250 amps with Martin Logan ReQuest, CLS II and Summit 'stats. Need advice on choosing a Tonarm for the DD pd-441? My budget is $500, but could spend more if there was a unicorn that was such a good to match. Seen SME and FR-54/64 advertised, and found a link for Italian Arm Bosrd maker for a variety of collars . Graham looks interesting, but seem in the $5000 what about linear tracking arms? I thought they made sense, but have been mostly a digital music collector. Found a neighbor with a collection of lps he needed to frt rid of, so I became a vinyl collector.

Borrowed a Pro-Ject debt carbon from friends, have owned Tecnics and have a Gerard 301 in storage, but the Gerard looks like a changer, in a deep plinth eith a rats next of wires, no plug, like it came out of a console. Also have a old Dual needs work, what project should I concentrate on? I appreciate the community, and have knowledge building engines for Drag Raving along with computer building and ripping bluray and said & cds to my computer. I use driver and Make MKV daily. Love Atmos and projection movies, let me know if I can share my knowledge.

Leftovers - A big horn loaded 2-way using what I had

I'm a wee bit of a hoarder when it comes to my hobbies (but nothing like some people - Cal Weldon, I'm looking at you ;-)) and for most of the past decade I've been rather busy with work and life. However as I've been winding down the work a bit I finally found time to build the big 2-ways I've had in mind for a while. In the spirit of using things I already have stashed away I tried to buy as little as possible - and I mostly succeeded! I recycled a pair of >30 year old cabinets I rescued a decade ago. The baffles were made of half a sheet of MDF I had lying around. Stuffing was from a half roll of fiberglass that I had leftover from a construction project. Vinyl wrap was from a 15 years ago project. I used whatever fasteners I had (to be fair, I have a lot of fasteners as I tend to buy in bulk whenever I need something). I even used leftover spray-paint (from painting my shutters) for the front baffle. You get the idea.

To be honest, It would have been a lot easier and taken a lot less time to complete had I just built new cabinets from scratch. But speed was not my aim here.

The business end of these are JBL2217s for mid-woofs, Radian 650B CDs mounted to the well know QSC 14"x10" waveguide Parts Express sold long ago. For those unfamiliar with the 2217, it's almost identical to the 2226, but with a 14" basket. The same motor is used for both, so TS parameters are almost the same. But the 2217 has a lighter cone due to its smaller size. If you like 2226s for domestic use, you'd probably like the 2217 even more. The only real rub is that JBL doesn't appear to have made very many and 2217s are very hard to find. The Radian 650B appears to be very similar to their current 1" products. It's pretty beefy and unlikely to fail in any domestic application. You can probably get a Be diaphragm for it, but my hearing no longer extends high enough for me to try. Crossover is active - I use a MiniDSP 4x10HD along with an 8 channel 125W/channel amp (a Savant 8125 - similar products are marketed by Lexicon and Crown).

The old cabinets are mahogany and built with dovetail joints. The cabinets are quite stout, but cosmetically terrible. They were built to house a 12" coaxial and 15" sub, so I had to turn them around, uusing the former back as the front and former baffle as the back. Some surgery was needed to make that work. As you can see, the corners were in bad shape and needed extensive surgery. The finish was quite bad as well. I quickly gave up on the idea of refinishing the mahogany and went with vinyl wrap (which actually looks pretty good from a couple a feet away). Cabinets are about 38" x 20" x 13", so a little under 4 cubic feet (about 100 liters). Given that these are sealed, exact volume isn't so important.

The baffles are made of 1" MDF, but those drivers weigh a ton! So added some blocking to the MDF at the attachment points for better screw holding.

I don't have much of a workshop and most of my tools are really for home construction/repair. So I had to DIY a bunch of jigs and such (remember, I'm trying not to acquire more things) and I mosly worked outside. So that slowed me down as well. Yes, that's a DIY trammel you see on my pawn-shop router to cut nice circles.

After holes were cut, I did a test fit (looked good) and then painted and clear-coat the baffles in "almost JBL blue". The exact color name is "Inked" by Behr. For reference, that ruler is 12" x 8" (it's a big cabinet).

I also added 57uF of blocking capacitor ahead of the CDs to protect them from user error. These were some film caps mounted to tags I had in the parts bin.

Finally, here they are in their natural habitat. I had to build a couple of dollys for them as they are just too heavy (about 90lbs or 40kg) to reasonably move around. A quick 850Hz/24db crossover and a little eq later they sound quite nice. Lots of slam. Plently of extension. Distorion is quite low. Needless to say they can get "call the cops" loud before distortion kicks in (I was wearing big gun muffs when measuring distortion at about 120db @ 1m and I still could have gone louder). Given that they are sealed I use a fair amount of low end boost on the 2217s, but I also have 3 subs distributed around the room (one visible inside the fireplace), so I have them rolling off at 50Hz.

My room is not great acoustically, so my frequency response measurements are a bit suspect. Over the winter I plan to build and deploy some room treatment and at least one bass trap. I'll post some response graphs once the room is improved for better measurement accuracy. I'm happy to share any information anyone would like about this project, but I doubt anyone else would replicate this given the scarcity of the drivers used.

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Noob requesting permission to come aboard

yet another noob here.. can somebody tell me if there's a way (test) I can do to find out if I didn't fry the mosfets I just soldered onto the F5M board? (They got pretty hot) Forgot to use the ol' tweezers as a heat sink trick.

Long Live W. C. Fields (one of a few great comedians to ever live) you are not forgotten m'friend - don't ask me where that came from.. lol

Marantz Model 140 - Service Manual Question

G’day,

I’ve recently bought a Marantz 140 amplifier - Japanese Version (Using a Step down transformer in Australia). I would like to know if anyone has a Japanese service manual for this amplifier? Otherwise, is there any difference apart from the transformer to the American Version in regards to replacement capacitor values/resistor values/other parts inside as I have an American Service manual here.


Thank you

Kaneda DC1 preamp PCBs for free

Hello dear diyaudio friends

I'm giving away these Kaneda DC1 PCBs for free. You only need to pay the shipping costs

It is a Kaneda DC1 line preamp PCB, a phone preamp PCB and a regulated power supply PCB

These are used PCBs and I'm not sure that they are still OK

I can desolder the big "golden bullets" Roederstein electrolytic capacitors so I can ship everything in a bubble wrap envelope

I’m searching for the following items. If you have one a more items, please make me an offer.

Manufacturer sealed bags of:
2SJ74-BL
2SK170-GR
2SJ74-GR
2SK370-BL
And maybe other rare signal JFETS or dual JFETS

BurrBrown PCM1704-K DAC chips

Analog Devices MAT02 and MAT03 dual monolithic transistors

2 x Starkrimson® Ultra Amp Module

XRK Audio RTR TPA3255 Reference Class D amplifier

Please also take a look at my other offers in the Swap Meet


Here are some different shipping rates:
They may differ a little from country to country, for a exact quote for your country please ask.
Of course, I will charge only the prices I will have to pay)

(Prices for bubble wrap envelopes are valid for most countries worldwide, DHL package prices are a bit cheaper within Europe)

Bubble wrap envelope up to 500 grams (Deutsche Post):
Without insurance and tracking: 3.70 Euro
With insurance up to 30 Euro and tracking: 7.20 Euro

Small DHL package worldwide (up to 2KG):
Without insurance and tracking: 10.99 Euro
With insurance up to 50 Euro and tracking: 14.99 Euro

Small DHL package within Europe (up to 2KG):
Without insurance and tracking: 5.99 Euro
With insurance up to 50 Euro and tracking: 8.49 Euro

Shipping within Germany will be cheaper, please ask.

I will ship anywhere in the world. Shipping costs strongly depend on the number of capacitors you are going to buy and which shipping method you prefer. Of course, I will only charge the real costs, I won't charge anything for packing materials and effort. I prefer to use Deutsche Post/DHL, but you can decide which shipper and which shipping method (letter, registered letter, small package, normal package, insurance, tracking) I should use.

As payment method I prefer PayPal for friends and family, so no extra fees will be added. Of course personal collection of capacitors in Cologne and payment in cash is also possible.

Kind Regards

Phil
IMG_2124.JPEGIMG_2125.JPEG
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6BQ5 push pull amp conversion to fixed bias

I've got a push pull 6BQ5 amp that is cathode biased.


6BQ5 amp 2.png


The measurements are as follows with a 130.1 ohm cathode resistor.

Plate voltage 340.3Vdc

Screen voltage 341.7Vdc

Cathode voltage 10.27Vdc

Cathode current 78.94mA

I'm thinking of converting it to fixed bias as that eliminates the need for the cathode bypass cap and gives slightly more power output.


6BQ5 amp 3.png


All I should need to do is set the grid bias voltage to where the cathode current is around 78.94mA, right?

I have a 500 ohm pot listed on the schematic as that's what I had on hand. I suspect that I will need a second filter stage for the bias voltage.

I'm also thinking of adding a 100mA meter to measure the cathode current so that I do not need an external meter to measure it. I may also install a SPST switch across the meter so that I can bypass the meter if needed.

I am, however going to have to get creative on installing the meter as it will not fit on the chassis due to the chassis being rather compact.

I currently have a 15Vac supply for the - bias power supply. Is it possible to use the 5 volt ands 6.3 volt windings in series for 11.3Vac and get enough bias voltage to bias the tubes at 70mA? If so that would eliminate one transformer.

What I will do is use a variable voltage power supply to set the bias voltage and see what voltage is needed for 70mA cathode current.

Also will the B+ voltages be too high for the 6BQ5 and 6SQ7 or are they ok?

Here's the measurements for the 6SQ7

Plate voltage 299.7V
Cathode voltage 43.2V
Cathode resistor 22.28k
Cathode current 1.94mA

Are the voltages and currents ok?

I could use a 6SR7 for lower gain if so desired.

In the communications receiver that is driving this amp I used a voltage divider at the 1 meg volume control consisting of a series 1 meg resistor and a 1 meg resistor in parallel with the volume control so lower gain from the amp would be beneficial.

It isn't shown on the schematic, but there's a 1 ohm resistor between the CT of the HV winding and ground which I used to measure the total B+ current. I might reduce the wattage of that resistor so that it acts as a fuse should B+ current jump up too high due to a fault or red plating tube.

I do have the Russian equivalent of the 6BQ5 installed.

Also the output transformer was what I had on hand (came from a GEC 912 PLUS amp I built maybe 15 years ago) and I know I could get more output power with a higher primary impedance.

One further question. Keep in mind this is not a HI-FI amp.

There any faults with the design or improvements that can be done to the amp?

OJAS speakers

I came across this exhibition too late to go and see it

https://www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/devon-turnbull-ojas-hifi-listening-room-dream-no-1

I wondered what people thought about the speakers OJAS builds? I'm temepted to DIY a pair of these...cut my own wood and source the speakers (JBL 8" coaxial ceiling speakers.


https://ojas.nyc/collections/frontpage/products/artbook-shelf-speaker-2

300B AB2 Push-Pull power output stage design and calc, Peak Ia concerns

Hi guys,

300B Push-Pull is normally being designed in class A or class AB1, which means there is only negative grid voltage applied and there is no grid current input. While if we go w/ positive grid voltage and provide the related grid current accordly, means let 300B work in AB2 mode, how it would be?

Let‘s take a look at the integrated 300B curves, together w/ negative grid curves and positive grid curve ( up to +40V), it's the real curves and scanned by the tube curve tracer,

300B_integrated_curves.png


As you can see, the linearity of positive grid curves looks not so good, not like the curves w/ negative grid values, that's why I'm thinking to use them in AB2 Push-Pull, instead of A2 SE output stage...

Now, how would it be happened if we put the load-line on this curves and calculate the related output parameters? Pls see the picture below:

loadline_calc_AB2_en.png


Primary Zout of OPT is selected as normal value, 5Kohms, and the Q point is selected as: -90V grid, 420V (P-K), w/ 5Kohms load, making sure the load-line does not go across the maximum static Pa, then as you can see the output power is up to about 52W, it is almost double of normal AB1 PP... in this case, positive grid value is up to +40V, and needs about 50mA grid current input...

While, the BAD thing is, Peak Ia now is coming to about 290mA when output power comes to the maximum of this design! This is almost the saturation value of this 300B, although the manufacturer does NOT provide this value, but I tested it and got this saturation point.

Normally, like WE, peak Ia of AB1 application in the 300B datasheet is recommended to no more than about 200mA, and definitely there is no reference value can be found for the application of AB2 push-pull, as this tube is originally designed to work w/ negative grid only, no one would expect to use it by positive grid value......

So, the concerns now on my side is, can this design be working, or 290mA peak Ia is safe for the tube?If I really wanna this PP amplifier to work w/ about 50W power output?🙂

Any comments are really welcome, and appreciated...🙂

Thanks

Rockport (Avior2) styled 3way speaker DIY

Rockport (Avior2) styled 3way speaker DIY - finally completed.!

I love rockport technology speakers, both sound and style.
So I decided to make it by myself.

TZ1gl1h.jpg


aCa5eMZ.jpg


BmRuWYI.jpg


AMc4e9I.jpg


GdtZQlI.jpg


2BvSqb5.jpg


wIMSsmG.jpg


tweeter : scanspeak 6640
mid : audiotechnology 15H
Woofer : audiotechnology 23I * 2

aC2cDvb.jpg


Lgtn0RU.jpg


r5pOo7H.jpg


p3Kh60x.jpg


qC95qsd.jpg


Frequency response as follows. Crossover design is not finished yet.
Ew1G0oX.jpg

For Sale Wavecor TW022WA09, Kartesian Wom-165vMS, pairs, new

New units, bought quite recently, not soldered, not measured.
Selling due to changes of the projects.

TW022 140Eur/pair
Wom-165 150Eur/pair

EU only, bank wire or Paypal.

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Need help on learning crossover

Hello

I planned to build a budget 5 inch bookshelf speaker (either classic 2 way, MTM or TMM) for learning purpose (I don't dare to start with expensive stuff because I don't have the equipment or the knowledge atm)

planned to use this local brand driver as the midwoofer which is dirt cheap (about 3-5 dollars each) :

https://acrspeaker.com/product/5-538-curve/

Based from the woofer parameter in the pdf, I should go with sealed enclosure (probably smallish one per speaker with qtc 1.1-1.2 & then add either 220-330uf capacitor, make it third order sealed)

as for the tweeter probably gonna keep it on the same brand. just some mylar tweeter should be fine (don't worry that it can't reach 20khz its not intended for hifi, but I do wish it to be balanced enough) the tweeter no longer in the site specs but I still have the word document even tho its bare (screenshot attached)

question is what component should I need to cross it? & what order? also how is the schematic if I wanna combine it with the 220uf-330uf capacitor as well?

oh yeah also it got different impendance, (woofer 6 ohm, tweeter 8 ohm)

is 2 way vs 2 way with double woofer have different value for the capacitor & other stuffs? how to decide the value as well? how should I connect both woofer if I wanna go that route?

thanks in advance, best regards.

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WF-55 guitar amp, hum and strange output

I sent this message to Barry, but his site says he stopped dealing... so here I'm with the same message:

a friend of mine bought a WF-55 a good while ago, and tried to build it, he's a naval architect and is not used to soldering and building kits so he failed. I do have some experience with electronics (learned 30 years ago) and did built a few audio amps. This WF-55 landed in my hands to "make it work".

I fixed the wiring errors, re-did the heather cabling better, re-soldered all dry points, and the amp is now working... almost. All tests measurements are within specs. However, I do have a solid hum in the output, without anything at the input. The hum rises with the volume. I verified the grounding, looks ok to me. Below find attached two scope dumps. One at half-volume, the other at full volume.

With a guitar it sounds decent (I'm not a player), but the hum is very disturbing, and in some forum the builders say it's dead-silent. So I think I must have something wrong.

First, output at half-volume, no signal at input:

1733588642362.png


First, output at full-volume, no signal at input:

1733588642372.png


the peak-peak hum is about 150mV, which is clearly audible. What annoys me more are the spikes. I verified the rectifier diodes (powered off, in-circuit), they look fine.

Would you have any idea what could cause these spikes ?

The distortion on the full-volume shot is as well strange. I could do more measurements, let me know what you think, and thanks for the advices !
Charles

Edit 8.12.2024 : the schematics is public on this URL. Sorry I should have added it.

Bipolar power amp with cascoded output, stability advice, please

The design

Hello,

Back when I was just thinking about getting into electronics, a magazine in Denmark, 'High Fidelity,' published some very nice looking DIY articles. In the fall of 1984, they published a Class AB power amp and I joined a group buy to build these in 1990. Slow forward to 2024, and I thought that I would progress from looking at the pile of bits to actually making a PCB and throwing it all together.

Far more detail than you might want, in our local lingo, at Hifi4All thread .

Schematic below, just showing the amplifier part. (There's also a regulated power supply for the input stage, generating Vcc52/Vee52, and a relay DC protection / slow start circuit.)

Amp_Sch_240725.png


There are cascodes in two places, at the 2nd stage with a constant collector voltage for the amplifying device, Q109, and at the output, with a floating cascode bias keeping the Vce of the output device Q115 constant (-ish).

The design evolved a bit after the original article. Originally, the cascode bias at the output was a resistor to positive supply (instead of Q120/R145/D105) and the same Zener diode plus resistor to produce the actual base voltage for the cascode device. The update to current sources was described in a reply to the letters page, noting that for high loads, stability problems in the original design were alleviated by the constant current.

I regularly work with amplifier design, but only in CMOS and only in integrated circuits, so I have never had reason to design exactly this type of cascode stage. In the article on Pass Labs about cascode amplifier design, Fig 9 shows both types of cascodes deployed in this amp. So far, so good.

I also read some detailed advice by Nelson and others, to add a bit of resistance in the gate of the cascode device, to dampen the possible oscillation based on lead inductance in the cascode device package., This design has that, indirectly, so still good.

I did frown a little at the capacitors connected to the cascode voltages, C114 / C115. They are described in the original article, and it is noted that their value controls the slew rate of the cascode voltage. If I were designing a cascode amp with a floating cascode bias, I think the first place I would put the capacitor was across the cascode voltage, i.e. across the output device Collector-Emitter Zener diode/Resistor pair, to stabilise the cascode voltage. But, since simulations showed OK-ish transient response, with square waves into 8 Ohm || 1 uF, I thought that I would give it a go. No device type was given for the cascode bias current generator, so I picked a slow (fmax 4 MHz) TO-220 housed pair of devices, KSA940/KSC2073. The cascode devices themselves are high power but not very fast, Motorola MJ11015/MJ11016. The signal output devices are pretty high power and very fast, Toshiba 2SC2565/2SA1095.

I am not very optimistic about the accuracy of the simulations, since the transistor models look pretty sketchy (well, compared to the quality we get at work). On the other hand, there is degenaration in all the voltage amplfication stages, and explicit capacitors to set the bandwidths, so I figured I would plow ahead. I was convinced by a wise member of the board where I described the project to build a prototype, so I did.

I did not keep a lot of the old PCB design, since I am using double-sided PCBs and I thought that I could get some benefit from deviating, notably a ground net which didn't have to connect all over the PCB by wiggling between other nets...

Here's the output stage board design, showing the part which is powered by the high-power supply, Vcc48/Vee48

Layout_Out_0809.png


Best Regards

Jens

Quick win: My Tweeters are too quiet!

Hi Guys!

My 3-way speakers sound nice - but the tweeters are just too quiet.

We know what these tweeters are capable of, as we have the same tweeters in a smaller model by the same maker.

I have removed the aging crossover caps and measured then [ESR - METER] and they are all near perfect, with minimal loss.

Below is a pic of the crossover.

Is there an easy way of making the tweeter a bit louder, without having to completely replace the crossover tweeter resistor and try reduced resistor values?

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New Member

I occasionally read forum posts on this site as a result of google searches, usually specific to audio speaker and speaker array applications and occasionally in regards to some specific tube amplifier I am researching. My audio focus for the last few decades is strictly related to the music business, not audiophile, car or home audio. My knowledge of those categories is mostly 1970's - 1980's generation equipment.
I created this account to provide information to someone looking for information on a rare 1940's - 1950's tone generator/amplifier that is most likely Canadian military. I have a bit of a background in older Canadian military equipment as an end user of it in the 1970's.
My initiation into DIY electronics was making 1940's - 1950's floor model multi-band (SW1/SW2, etc), radios work again in the mid - late 1960's and playing around with that time period tube driven portable record players, Mantlepiece radios, etc., as well as regularly testing tubes at the local auto parts supplier or with my father's portable tester. Currently I regularly restore mostly 1960's - 1970's instrument and PA cabinets, generally using period correct speakers, as well as repairing and restoring electric and acoustic guitars, which I have also done for a few decades. I also dabble in mostly 1960's - 1970's Traynor tube instrument amps and their solid state pa mixers.

AZ OLED setup kits for Soekris dam1021/1121 control

Hi guys,
After more than half a year of revision and testing, the official version of the installation kits are finally ready to ship. There are 2 models,AZ1021 SK andAZ1021 SK lite.
User Manual please see #55 and #108,DWG file of back panel please see #344.
DAM 1021 SK lite specification
1. MCU control DAM1021/1121 via isolate serial port. Real-time volume control, digital filter switching, input selection, PCM / DSD sample rate display.
2. 3.1 inch OLED display(256 * 64 resolution).
3. One key mute (IRRemote only).
4. Rotary encoder or IRRemote will be control full function.
5. IR Remote control support learning function, support most kinds of IR Remote.
6. Power-down memory, automatically load the last shutdown settings.
7. With two different styles of display window, the screen display can be turned off
8. Using ISO7421 isolation chip between MCU and dam1021 / 1121, to ensure that MCU noise will not be introduced dam1021 / 1121.
9. There is a onboard transformer for power supply, AC 115V / 230V switchable. The output is completely isolated from the double winding, one power supply for the MCU and display part. The other power supply for the ISO7421 isolation chip, And provides 5V (400ma) and 3.3V (200ma) output, easy for the USB module and 1021 isolation chip for independent power supply.
11. Using high-quality solid capacitors, tantalum capacitors, ultra low noise ADP151, rotary encoder using ALPS EC11 type.
12. Display screen with FPC connector. While retaining the 2.54mm display interface(suppose SSD1322 256*64).
Attention: The transformer is included in the kits.

DAM 1021 SK specification
1. MCU control DAM1021 via isolate serial port. Real-time volume control, digital filter switching, input selection, PCM / DSD sample rate display.
2. 3.1 inch OLED display(256 * 64 resolution).
3. One key mute (IR Remote only).
4. Rotary encoder or IR Remote full function control.
5. IR Remote control support learning function, support most kinds of IR Remote 6. Power-down memory, automatically load the last shutdown settings.
7. With two different styles of display window, the screen display can be turned off
8. Using SI8642 isolation chip between MCU and dam1021, to ensure that MCU noise will not be introduced dam1021.
9. Input support: Optical fiber,Coaxial, AES, USB(not included), external I2S (LVDS mode).
10. RCA output can be switched between Buff and RAW.
11. Transformer board are detachable, support AC115V / 230V.
12. Use a separate winding transformer to power the USB module (amanero) and use ultra-low noise TPS7A47 for regulation.
13. Onboard TPS7A47 / TPS7A33 PSU.
14. A variety of DAM1021 power supply options.
Attention: USB module (combo384), the transformers are not included in the kits. In order to be more compact, the official delivery of the PCB will be smaller than that of the photo, removing the extra edges

PCB size & OLED colour
-AZ1021 SK : 220mm x240mm PCB 2OZ copper and immersion gold
- AZ1021 SK lite: 50mm x 100mm
-OLED colour:Green, Orange or Blue.The default is blue, please note the other colors.,There's only the blue OLED stock. If you need another color(green or yellow), you need an extra $5 for the freight of purchase.

What is in the offer?
  • AZ1021 SK: 169 USD , Not available
  • AZ1021 SK lite: 99 USD , Not available


What do you get for the price
  • AZ1021 SK lite: Finished board, what you see is what you get.
  • AZ1021 SK: Finished board, USB module (combo384), the transformers, dam1021 are not included in the kits.

Shipping & fees, payment,Tax
ePacket (from China) shipping worldwide for free.If the ePacket does not support the area, need to pay an additional fee(ePackte, USPS FIRST CLASS MAIL INTERNATIONAL,Because of the delay of data exchange between China Post and USPS. It will take a few days for USPS to track the status.You can also track on this site without delay. ALL-IN-ONE PACKAGE TRACKING | 17TRACK. Shipment is going to start in May 17th, once a week. I accept only PAYPAL, fees are included in the price.Please PM your email to me and you'll receive an paypal invoice for what you are buying.
Exclusiveof tax;

Best Regards,
Audiozen

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