E88CC/6922 battery supply

[ulle]

Hi!
Would it be possible to run these tubes solely on battery supply and in case how? Heaters are 6,3V for pin 4 and 5 but for the rest I`m not sure what it would need to operate optimal? I`m a newbie with tubes and the answer might be very obvious, but your answers will be be most welcome!

 

[DF96]

How much distortion do you want? The ECC88 and its cousins was intended for operation at around 90V on the anode, but can cope with significantly less than this. Unless you want an FX box I would not go much below a supply rail of 50V.

 

[ulle]

Hi!
Thank you for answer. That sort I was thinking about. Well distortion is absolutely no option and besides my transport my system is run on batteries. (Altmann amp and TDA 1543 dac)
I`m just experimenting with a tube output for my dac and trying to figure out a way to use these tubes with battery. Have a small/simple preamp as working base.
If I understand you right I could go for maybe as less as 48volt for supply rail without creating to much destortion? I could use four 12V volt batteries to create this......
Actually Redwine preamp uses four 12V batteries without me knowing anything more about their circuit.

 

[DF96]

If you only have battery supply then I would stay with solid-state. Most of the people running valves at low voltage are actually using FX boxes even if they deny it. When anyone talks about 'musicality' or 'tube sound' you can assume they are not too interested in simply reproducing an unmolested music signal.

 

[deicide67]

http://digilander.libero.it/paeng/projects_frame.htm

I have built this. It's not bad, but properly designed PS and layout yield better results with a power transformer.

 

[ulle]

Unmolested music signal is what I feel I have so far and there is no point in starting any degrading process. Maybe I will try some tweaking anyway just for fun.

 

[ulle]

90 volt battery

Unmolested music signal is what I feel I have so far and there is no point in starting any degrading process. Maybe I will try some tweaking anyway just for fun.

Well, I have tried it out. 12volt motorcycles batterier in series gave me almost 90 volt supply. I then had one 6,3 volt battery for the heaters. Everything is soldered point to point without any caps or resistors.

I have one tube pr. Channel and use Tesla goldpin type of very good quality. It makes the output for my TDA 1543 dac.

How does it Sound? So far very good. More dynamic and overall balanced. If you can store away the batteries I would recommend anyone to try it out. Using batteries in general is a relevation. Much better then AC current from your wall...Sound is much more relaxed, totally free from, yes distortion. But as said here you will not get it right unless you have sufficient power. 90 volt in batteries is maybe not what your wife is dreaming of in your living room? I can store it neatly away so it is ok. Lucky me.....

 

[45]

Using batteries in general is a relevation. Much better then AC current from your wall...Sound is much more relaxed, totally free from, yes distortion. But as said here you will not get it right unless you have sufficient power. 90 volt in batteries is maybe not what your wife is dreaming of in your living room? I can store it neatly away so it is ok. Lucky me.....

I do not agree. For signal level, a well made and regulated power supply is at least as good as the best batteries you can find and in general is better! The noise performance of batteries is quite dependent on how much current you draw from them. Maybe we could say that often power supplies from AC are not well designed but that's another story....
I can't see all this advantages of batteries. Apart from the above performance aspects, valves are not used at their best and there are no space and weight savings (actually it's typically the contrary) with the additional fee of re-charge. It's quite annoying after some time.

 

[ulle]

I beleive you could be right in this matter but all my experience so far tells me that it has to be a damn good PSU to match batteries. A top notch supply would recommend both a well designed circuit and the best components. In the latter very few do.
And as for everything else in this hobby. Have you really tried it out? I'm not saying you have not, but when I got my Altmann amp there where no turning back. At that time I have had several heavily upgraded tube amps and even two 2x100w Electrocompaniet poweramps run together. None could match the sonic pleasures of this Altmann battery amp that also have been upgraded. Recharging is no problem and free of charge...I take it from the AC socket 3-4 times a year. I understand that people are reluctant to building this kind of system, but I strongly beleive that many would think otherwise if then had heard how good it sounds.

 

[ruffrecords]

Why not use a dc/dc converter to make the HT. Already been done in 500 series tube mic preamp modules.

Cheers

Ian

 

[oldschooltube]

Not much of an advocate of using batteries indoors. Charging batteries indoors can be dangerous as they produce explosive hydrogen gas and a small amount of poisonous hydrogen sulfide as well! Also, I have never seen a battery that didn't puke at least a little electrolyte out of the vents while charging. I'm with the rest of the folks here that say a well designed PSU is the way to go.

Just my 2 conts worth.