• 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.

EL84 driving EL84 SEP

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Thanks "tin" what an interesting site!

"sp",

I'm sorry to say that I need a schematic to work off of and told specificly where things go although I know the basics of your recommendations. Thanka ya...
 
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The basic premise of this circuit is false. A particular valve has a particular 'sound' at a particular point in a particular circuit carrying a particular signal at a particular bias point. Using the same valve twice does not mean that you get more of that sound.

In this case the input EL84 is used in triode mode at one bias, while the output is run as a pentode with a different bias. The signal in the first valve will be much smaller than in the second valve.

In addition, the circuit has some shortcomings. The first stage has a grid stopper, but not the second stage where it is more likely to be useful. The first stage relies on the volume pot wiper staying in contact with the track. Better to have a coupling capacitor and a grid leak resistor. Finally, as other have said, the feedback goes to a decoupled point so will have no effect except possibly to create infrasonic instability.

The website is full of fine sounding words, but a poor design based on a misunderstanding.
 
Seems like you're in a bad mood DF.

Where does the guy get unreasonable with "fine sounding words". He just sensibly offers the concept, advises researching the origin and then states:

"I'm not looking for anything quite so exotic - I'd be happy with a clean 3-5 watts per channel from a fairly straightforward and simple circuit that utilizes commonly available and widely manufactured valves."

Your fixes to the circuit are noted but minor are they not? When I build this I'll try it your way. BTW the feedback doesn't go anywhere because none is implemented in the final design.

As far as the EL84 sound not adding together I'll bet it's a lot closer than using different tubes. Besides the EL84 is not too shabby as a driver and output tube so why not?

What you seem to be missing from the original article and this thread is the fun factor.

Lighten up brother...😛
 
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Thanks for the link. Some pics don't come up for me though. I'll try installing another browser and hope that solves it. I might contact "DIY" but I haven't seen any action on their web site for a while as far as the DAC I would like to try. Thanks bro...
 
Hi!
For what it's worth:
I took the idea from the very same webpage, but trying (on the simulator) the driver tube in pentode mode
The reason why, is that from more sources it has been said that, this kind of feedback arrangement, is better implemented using a pentode driver..
I'm still learning about all this stuff, so...
FFT at 1W out looks good (I think), but I'm not sure if the simulation conditions are correctly set for a meaningful FFT plot...
Regards
J.
 

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