I have built two versions of the Aikido preamp using Brosky's kits, the nine pin all on one and a dual mono using Janus psus. There is not a big difference between them. I use the with Pass class A amps. The nine pin all in one is a much easier and less expensive build and gives 99% of the dual mono. Well worth building if you have the itch to try tube pre.
Bigun, disconnect the speakers of your tube amplifier while its powered on and see what happens. Everything can be made to break down and sound design makes things a bit more reliable. In this case the amplifier should be protected against the peculiarities of the buffer. It is the buffer that has uncommon dangerous DC voltages that may damage the amplifier, not the other way around. If nothing is done the buffer might damage the amplifier and then we would blame the amplifier?
The OP has a fine solid state Parasound A21, apparently no intentions to get rid of it whatsoever, and he will insert an Aikido tube buffer. This interracial marriage should not be forbidden and it should last till death do them part. So ... let's not condemn this relationship of love, accept both partners and try to make it a nice party 🙂
The OP has a fine solid state Parasound A21, apparently no intentions to get rid of it whatsoever, and he will insert an Aikido tube buffer. This interracial marriage should not be forbidden and it should last till death do them part. So ... let's not condemn this relationship of love, accept both partners and try to make it a nice party 🙂
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I bought some little spark gaps for protecting output transformers from the danger of the disconnected speaker load - saw the idea on a schematic from ‘oldeurope’. Haven’t tried them yet though.
Since I use toroidal PTs as OPTs, and sweep tubes, I can unplug the speaker load while the amp is playing at full power without any damage. That type of thing might happen at a party with a lot of drunk people... You can hear the music through the transformers 😀
The spark gap is a good idea though for proper output transformers.
The spark gap is a good idea though for proper output transformers.