• 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.

eBay 300B PC board kit



I emailed the seller and requested an updated schematic which I advised I would post here.

The seller sent the schematic which is as you linked to. Unfortunately it lacks values. I have attached it.

After reviewing it I find it is going to be problematic as the SRPP with 6SN7 has insufficient gain, unless a preamp is used from a CD player, etc. It looks like it will require 5V input to fully drive the output. One possibility is to change to the 6SL7 instead of the 6SN7.

I really wish the layout had been for the two cascaded triode stages as they had sufficient gain and is more of a standard topology for a 300B amp.
 

Attachments

  • DJ086.pdf
    105.1 KB · Views: 159
Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
This 6SN7 SRPP unable to drive 300B to full (A1) power (probably 65-70V peek need).

p.s. component values are in the ebay site.
 

Attachments

  • Chinese 6SN7 SRPP driver.jpg
    Chinese 6SN7 SRPP driver.jpg
    81.5 KB · Views: 322
Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
If you have enough large input voltage (3.5V RMS about 5V peek) try to drive harder 6SN7 tubes, thus in this mode reachable 6-7W in A1 region 300B.

But no free lunch, driver distortion will be growing.
 

Attachments

  • Chinese 6SN7 SRPP driver_V2.jpg
    Chinese 6SN7 SRPP driver_V2.jpg
    76.9 KB · Views: 479
Actually, the components and values shown on the PWB in the ebay posting match the schematic with three gain stages and include the 22pf cap to ground on the input stage, which is not in the SRPP design.

At this point, the seller has given information for two totally different designs and I don't know what I am getting.
 
Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
The 6SL7 version has enough gain ... but the current is very low, so driving capacity (without another stage) not so good.

BTW it would be the "original" schematic (with 6SL7).
 

Attachments

  • Chinese 6SL7 SRPP driver.jpg
    Chinese 6SL7 SRPP driver.jpg
    79.9 KB · Views: 287
  • S-300B.sch.gif
    S-300B.sch.gif
    16.9 KB · Views: 301
Sometimes I worry about Miller Effect Capacitance, sometimes I do not worry.
For a 300B, it is in the region of 60pf or so, and depends on the in-circuit gain, not on the mu (u).

And then I remember my high frequency hearing is limited to about 14kHz.
Miller Effect Capacitance can cause early high frequency roll off, and the lower impedance can cause the driver to have additional driver 2nd harmonic distortion at high frequencies.

Oh . . . never mind, the 2nd harmonic of 14kHz is 28kHz.
Well, my tweeters do not work at 28kHz, and my ears sure do not work there either.
Problem solved!

Another way to say all of the above is that a 6SL7 SRPP probably will work just fine to drive a 300B.
Your Ear's Mileage May Vary.

Just my 'practical' opinion.
 
Last edited:
I also put together this pcb and used it for about 12 months. I thought it sounded great. It was my first diy project I didn’t really have any other tube amps to compare it to except a quad I had heard in the early 80s that sounded pretty good too. I had a guitar tech look over it. I later modified it according to a Renaud design from diyaudioprojects and converted it to point to point. Happy with that now, listen to it every day. There is another guy here who built the same eBay pcb in 2018 a little before me. He decided to use 6sl7 driver tubes to get more gain and seemed to be happy.
 
Hi,

did you have any problems with hum?
I tried the DOUK AUDIO pcb Stereo 300B Vacuum Tube Power Amplifier DIY KIT HiFi Audio Amp PCB Board Module | eBay and it hums a lot so i was in fact thinking of picking this kit.

Thanks,

This board has hum pot, look well design/clone that similar to others that I have seen. 5U4G is driving 300B while 1N5408 is for 6SN7. Wonder if you use choke. You may need to check the voltage again. It's similar to J.C. Morrison 300B
 
This board has hum pot, look well design/clone that similar to others that I have seen. 5U4G is driving 300B while 1N5408 is for 6SN7. Wonder if you use choke. You may need to check the voltage again. It's similar to J.C. Morrison 300B



Yes I use a 10H 250mah choke
I will check the hum pots then, for the moment they are set to half of the resistance of the pot as described in the assembly guide DOUK sent me.