• 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.

Looking for high-voltage tubes

Jan, If i where you, I would just take one of those TV shunt stabilizer tubes to find out how suitable they would be for the task.
Build a fullwave voltage multiplier with some 400-550V CT transformer.
Hook up the tube with adjustable positive grid voltage, adjust necessay positive gridcurrent till max anode dissipation at the different high voltage steps you get from the multiplier.
DC link caps and avalanche diodes like the BYW96 are your friends.
The first cap of each halfway multiplier side could be taylored to limit the max short current .
Then one can safely climb up the ladder tubelabs style till the tube pops or sensible gridpower is exceeded.
I would thinck something up to 100mW on the grid is something just about any tube can take.
So, while I had the PD510 still on the bench, I measured some working points in A2:.

At 600V anode, it took +9.8 V and 6.77 mA into the grid to get 6 mA anode current.
I could not double the current by turning up the grid voltage, at this anode voltage.

At 1000V anode, it took +12.2 V and 10.8 mA into the grid to get 10 mA anode current.

This was measured with screen connected to the cathode.
 
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So, while I had the PD510 still on the bench, I measured some working points in A2:.

At 600V anode, it took +9.8 V and 6.77 mA into the grid to get 6 mA anode current.
I could not double the current by turning up the grid voltage, at this anode voltage.

At 1000V anode, it took +12.2 V and 10.8 mA into the grid to get 10 mA anode current.

This was measured with screen connected to the cathode.
Very interresting. Was that 10mA Ia at 1000V the max you where able to get even with increasing grid power, or did you just not want to take risk it?
Could you make one more measurement at 1000V anode? What would be needed at the grid to get the same anodecurrent, of 6.77mA, that you had with 600V. Or, what would even be better, some higher than 1000V on the anode, but same 10mA anode current? Should the required grid power go down then i could see some hope for sucess with this tube

Would also be interresting to see what kind of difference grid and screen connected together would make.
 
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Very interresting. Was that 10mA Ia at 1000V the max you where able to get even with increasing grid power, or did you just not want to take risk it?
Could you make one more measurement at 1000V anode? What would be needed at the grid to get the same anodecurrent, of 6.77mA, that you had with 600V. Or, what would even be better, some higher than 1000V on the anode, but same 10mA anode current? Should the required grid power go down then i could see some hope for sucess with this tube

Would also be interresting to see what kind of difference grid and screen connected together would make.
My reasoning went as follows:
1. I performed the first measurement at 600V but couldn't get the desired current.
To figure out whether the cathode is just too weak, or there is another limit, I increased the anode voltage by adding a second bench supply in series.
2. At 1000V, I stopped at 10 mA because it was already more then I could achieve at 600V and thus made me conclude the cathode might be strong enough.
I didn't perform more measurement in this configuration however, because I believe this tube is not suitable for the OP's needs;
If it cannot pass the desired max current of 25mA at relatively low voltage of 600V, it's just not going to work at the desired operating point, is it?
 
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Yes, I would thinck so too, cathode emission will not be the limit.
Maybe Jan could try with his 4kV PS what anode voltage is required to get 30W anode dissipation with kathode and grid1 and screen shorted.
Could be worth also to try a bit of positive voltage on the screen grid, or drive g1 and screen together.
Or, if you want to risk it, you could try how much the grid really can take.
 
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So, while I had the PD510 still on the bench, I measured some working points in A2:.

At 600V anode, it took +9.8 V and 6.77 mA into the grid to get 6 mA anode current.
I could not double the current by turning up the grid voltage, at this anode voltage.

At 1000V anode, it took +12.2 V and 10.8 mA into the grid to get 10 mA anode current.

This was measured with screen connected to the cathode.
Thanks, yes this seems a dead end.

Jan
 
I think I will order a couple of the 6LF6 and GMI-11 and do some experiments.

Jan
Jan
that`s just OK to made experiments with those tubes and to see the results , but IMHO you should not ignore those 2C53 triode tubes , since their overall characteristic is very interesting for one simple HQ- ESL-OTL -AB1 class full tubes amp , only drawback is that you will need about three or four 2C53 tubes per PP side , but one of the advantage is that you can drive them very easy with one more double triode such is let`s say 6SN7 or 6SL7 tube .
 

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As much as I love this attempt at being practical in audiophile madness, and I do, I really do...

At a certain point the speaker itself will arc over, regardless of how robust the driving amp is. I'm remembering early electrostatic reviews done in Santa Fe where the increased altitude alone caused trouble.

I do not know those limits in a '63 and I do not know how much beyond stock a superamp like this might push a '63. But for sure there's limit somewhere and way out at the boundaries where this project lives, this represents a non-negotiable limit.

(Unless your name is Michael Dayton Wright, then you find another answer lol)
 
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