• 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.

A Heretical Unity Gain Line Stage part III

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GK

Disabled Account
Joined 2006
Who is offended?

Why don't you get rid of the tube, the heater supply and the plate supply and use the opamp as a unity gain buffer? Get rid of a lot of parts that way :D
BTW, a with a bootstrapped (or non bootstrapped even) cascode the PSRR is significantly improved, so the HV regulator could be done away with in favour of just some stages of RC filtering after the power rectifier.

Nighty night.
 
Well, why not use bipolar transistors in your new Blameless design?

In essence, a non-bootstrapped cascode simply trades a solid state voltage regulator pass device for an inferior tube one- when it comes to keeping voltages and currents constant, solid state does a better job. That's why it's done this way. A bootstrapped CF will also work fine, though not gaining any performance in this application.

There are many ways to design a preamp. In this case, res ipsa loquitur. It's simple and the performance is... blameless.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2006
There are many ways to design a preamp. In this case, res ipsa loquitur. It's simple and the performance is... blameless.

( SY... a nice way to sign off! Except that Gordy then chimes up... )

I've some experience with common-cathode designs but now want to build a CF. However it seems (from starting to read up on the subject) that CFs 'fall over' when driving a low impedance load? Why is that?

I have a load of 480 Ohms (actually 30 Ohm headphones through a 4:1 turns ratio, 16:1 Z ratio, transformer) and I would like to deliver about 6mA at 3V peak into the primary. I have a notion of using a 6H30 with a CCS in the cathode running at 30mA. This should have an o/p Z (pre transformer) of about 100 Ohms. So is this likely to 'fall over' or might it be OK?
 

GK

Disabled Account
Joined 2006
Well, why not use bipolar transistors in your new Blameless design?

In essence, a non-bootstrapped cascode simply trades a solid state voltage regulator pass device for an inferior tube one- when it comes to keeping voltages and currents constant, solid state does a better job. That's why it's done this way. A bootstrapped CF will also work fine, though not gaining any performance in this application.

There are many ways to design a preamp. In this case, res ipsa loquitur. It's simple and the performance is... blameless.


You are taking this rather seriously, hey?
The op-amp as a unity gain follower would have a lower output Z :D
 
It'll work after a fashion, but not be optimum. Think of it this way- if you put a 480R load on the plate, measured the distortion, then divided by the gain, what would the distortion be? In this case, higher than you might like. You need a lot more transconductance and mu than the 6H30 appears to give (judging from datasheets- I've never used one).

I'd be tempted to try a sweep tube in this application because of the perveance and low cost. Triode-connected 6JN6 with 100V on the plate and idling at 60mA...? As a pentode, the CF becomes a bit more complicated (you have to hold the cathode-screen voltage contstant), but the performance is excellent. 100V on that self-same 6JN6 would be where I'd start in the design process.
 
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