• 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.

#26 pre amp

Problem to solve in the next:


1) great microphonic effect.... all noises generated near pre will sound on speaker

Ciao,

Anto

Ciao Anto,
Look at the rubber dampers here. DHTRob posted a link before if you are interested in contacting the supplier:
http://www.bartola.co.uk/valves/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_8680.jpg

Try to starve the filaments. A slight starvation (e.g. 900mA) may help reducing the microphony. Also try using 26 instead of 226, as the latter tend to be more microphonic
Cheers,
Ale
 
Andy,

what is the less microphonic in your experience? It depends from brands, structure or between same type is random?

I too have bought from usa vendors on ebay.

Regarding hum I must separate the two woods around 1,5 metres for a inudible noise.

Ciao,

Anto
 
Ciao Anto,
Look at the rubber dampers here. DHTRob posted a link before if you are interested in contacting the supplier:
http://www.bartola.co.uk/valves/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_8680.jpg

Try to starve the filaments. A slight starvation (e.g. 900mA) may help reducing the microphony. Also try using 26 instead of 226, as the latter tend to be more microphonic
Cheers,
Ale

Hi Ale,

I was thinking about similar rubber support, thanks for your confirmation.

Starving the filament could shorts tube life?

Ciao,
Anto
 
Anto,
Reducing filament current will increase Rp and impact the operating point. Don't know what circuit you are using, but try and listen. You may take the bias point far too out and the distortion may increase. I'd suggest to try adjusting the Coleman regulators and testing microphony and sound of the preamp. Then you can measure new bias point.

Re the rubber suspenders I got them kindly from DHTRob. There is a seller in Netherlands, they are not cheap though. I think Thomas Mayer may supply a different set of dampers if you fancy that alternative. Otherwise search this thread as the link of the supplier was posted time ago.
Ale
 
Re: microphonics, if you look back a while in this thread, you can see what I did. I mounted teflon sockets on a heavy support I made from two 4mm thick aluminum plates sandwiching a layer of soundcoat damping material, then mounted the support to softwood brackets using Deflex bushings and washers.

I used wood to mount them because I wanted dissimilar acoustic impedances, I.e. aluminum-wood-aluminum-soundcoat-teflon.

In any case it worked great. I can tap on the shelf or even the preamp itself and not hear anything through the speakers. A lot of work, though...
 
From what I've read when I was researching VR tubes and their application, you're basically increasing the output impedance of the VR tube as seen by the 26, so you get poorer regulation. Will it be enough to make an audible difference in that circuit? I don't know.