• 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 in triode

Status
Not open for further replies.
(4.65 v on secundairy ) 58.6v in the primary


measuring 2de output tr.

4.65 in sec 59.6 on primary.....1v difference
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0001.jpg
    IMG_0001.jpg
    527.4 KB · Views: 384
  • IMG_0004 (2).jpg
    IMG_0004 (2).jpg
    557.4 KB · Views: 374
Last edited:
Choke input results in a much lower HT than cap input.
Possibly it is all you need to lower the voltage (without heat and keeping the existing power tranny).
A possible reason for the high HT could be that it was originally intended to use a valve rectifier and somebody changed that to ss.
I've seen it with a Vox AC30: the GZ34 was replaced with ss diodes and the 5V heater winding was feeding a voltage doubler to raise the HT even higher. Amazingly the EL84s were still working.
 
Cathode resistors are 10ohm paralled with a 100uf elco
A Manley PPP EL84 + ECC81 amp. That could be the Stingray. Or the mono block version Mahi
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


You measured the winding ratio 1:12,8 resulting in an impedance ratio of 1:164,3 what translates for a 8 ohm speaker in a 1K3 load. That's low. How many EL84s has the amp?

The high supply voltage might be a sign the tubes are not biassed correctly because of some reason. That can be misbalance of tubes, worn out tubes, missing negative supply or a combination.
 
Last edited:
So, what do you want? In my opinion you should try to resurrect the beast. For repair you have to investigate voltages at all electrodes and compare tubes with each other, to expel the possibility of loose solder contacts or tube oscillation. With voltages we have a starting point.
 
yes new trafo needed

voltages on the old trafo were to my best knowledge

See pics
Pin:
1: 155v
6: 175v

combined they feed the 4 diodes > to 'cause' the 430V Anode of the 4 El84
after elco's

2: 60v/58v
5: 60v/58v both linked

3: 13v
4: 13v both to heather of EL84 and Ecc81
 
To lower the anode voltage can i lower the pin 1 and 6 from 330 to 230v.....?

and raise the voltage of the Bias from 13v to 20-24 v ..?
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0001 (2).jpg
    IMG_0001 (2).jpg
    539.8 KB · Views: 244
  • IMG_0001.jpg
    IMG_0001.jpg
    527.4 KB · Views: 227
Last edited:
Is that Stingray amp really using a +420V plate supply for fixed bias EL84's? I'd think that would melt standard Russian 6P14P tubes.

Perhaps the JJ EL84 can work with that high a B+ and yield a reasonable service life.

I'd rather reduce the B+ to 325V or so, and have a wider variety of EL84 type tubes to choose from.

4x 0,35mA EL84 = 140mA
2x 15mA ECC81 30mA
total 170 mA

ECC81 = 12AT7. 15mA plate current would put it way over max plate dissipation. Are you sure it's supposed to take 12AT7?

35mA each EL84 at 320V plate-cathode looks exactly right.

--
 
Last edited:
Half 12AT7 looks like it's pulling 500uA.

The follower half is pulling 3.7mA.

The LTP is also pulling 3.7mA.

Total current per channel is 147.3mA.

The easiest method is to add a resistor between the parallel input capacitors after the bridge rectifier. You would also have to add two more balancer resistors to the series caps. So three resistors per channel. A 670 ohm resistor should drop close to 100v.

I will add a schematic of my proposal. Since this amp is biased pretty hot maybe the tubes don't go into cutoff giving mostly class A operation, the extra resistance in the power supply might not be even noticeable.
 
Why are you guys calculating the current draw based on the idle current (assuming that it is correct in the first place)? Consider that the peak current of class AB1 is significantly higher than the idle current, you can't size up the PT properly this way. Also what does it mean that the amp is kinda like the Stingray, is it an exact clone (or not)?
 
So, the only thing wrong is the temperature. The obvious is to add cooling because it's a proven design (?)

Max, if you want to build your own design you have to study. One thing that's not clear to me is the OPT impedance. That can't be 1K3. You probably measured CT to UL.
 
Sorry 25mA per tube is 107mA per channel.

The 670R should still work, if not increase to 820 or 1K. Shoot for the same bias of 250mV which is 25mA per tube, Va=330. We don't know the actual load impedance so maybe it is designed to run so hot.

I would still lower things to normal values so you can use a lot more valves and they will be a lot happier and last longer. And run a lot cooler of course.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.