• 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.

First stereo tube amp build advice

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Merlin Blencowe talks about 'switching noise' in his hifi preamp book. He states fast diodes and a snubbing network will do the job and the quietness of a tube rectifier is because of its internal resistance which can be purposely be added to a ss one.

I'm a big fan of his work, especially his guitar book and website. I value his opinion a lot.
 
Experience has shown that it is necessary to boost the N-77U's O/P, in order to obtain a sufficiently "tall" B+ rail. "Stealing" volts for the negative supply is a very bad idea.

Does anybody know the specific reason the Triad N-77U is forbidden in The Netherlands and (possibly) other EU countries?

How tightly matched are the O/P tube pairs going to be? Close matching of gm is always required. A shared bias network per pair saves some money and also compensates for minor cathode cathode current imbalance. Substantial differences in cathode current are not acceptable.
 
You can get two top quality output transformers and a power transformer for a PCL86 push pull amplifier for €200 ...
toroidy.pl TTG-ECL86PP-Tube-output-transformer-10kOhm-2xECL86-2xPCL86-Push-pull-or-similar

I wouldn't recommend a toroidal output transformer for a first-time project. It does not take a lot of DC to saturate the toroid core, so one has to be very careful with DC balancing the output stage, and to keep it perfectly balanced in the long run. This is possible, but requires some extra circuitry that may not be ideal for a first-time project.
 
While the N-67A is more than adequate in the VA department, it still requires boosting.

Triad's N-67A, N-77U, and N-68X have dual primaries, which makes them "universal". The dual "12" VAC Triad item previously mentioned also has dual primaries. The B- trafo is the "problem child".
 
Experience has shown that it is necessary to boost the N-77U's O/P, in order to obtain a sufficiently "tall" B+ rail. "Stealing" volts for the negative supply is a very bad idea.
Well 5V from 350V is
less then 1,5%.No big deal.
Does anybody know the specific reason the Triad N-77U is forbidden in The Netherlands and (possibly) other EU countries?
Here in Europ one could use the TSTA60/002 from Toroidy (Poland).
It is 230V in and 250V + 2x 3,15V out.Skip the doubler and use a bridge rectifier.
And only 6AQ5 :eek: but also no heater transformer :) .
Mona
 
I wouldn't recommend a toroidal output transformer for a first-time project. It does not take a lot of DC to saturate the toroid core, so one has to be very careful with DC balancing the output stage, and to keep it perfectly balanced in the long run. This is possible, but requires some extra circuitry that may not be ideal for a first-time project.

Not necessarily true as long as the core is large enough / transformer is designed for power. When I interleave two Triad PTs, a pair of 250VA coils allows for almost 500mA of misbalance before it becomes audible. I found this out when one side of the PP output stage was disconnected making it an SE using half a PP output. YMMV.

For the record, I have built about 15 amplifiers now. Only two of them used EI outputs. A friend comments on how much better it sounds than the Hammond 1650N coils on a more traditional amp build :)
 
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CC resistors are both non-inductive and non-metallic. That's great for grid stopper duty.

Vishay/Dale 1% tolerance RNnn milspec metal film resistors are quiet and non-magnetic. They are excellent where low noise is important and the tight tolerance is (obviously) good.

During the development of "El Cheapo" DIY Audio "guru" SY pointed out that the NFB was working into a high impedance non-inverting control grid. An inductive NFB resistor could cause trouble. Both MF and CF resistors are spiral trimmed and that introduces inductance. The low cost answer was employing meter matched (between channels) CC resistors. Use Caddock parts, if your bank balance can tolerate the "hit".

That's not about heat.

Grid stopper resistors are used to suppress oscillation. They introduce a non-inductive resistance into the grid circuit that interacts with the Miller capacitance of the tube's grid (input) to form a low pass filter (LPF) that passes everything in the audio band, but attenuates radio frequencies.

The third statement is about using a carbon composition resistor in the negative feedback loop, where an inductive resistor would introduce an unwanted filter element into the signal there. I can't believe the tiny little bit of inductance in a typical half-watt metal film resistor would make a difference in a typical circuit, especially at the relatively low levels of NFB used in a tube amp, but I can see the basis for it.

But that still has nothing to do with heat, per se.
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The 10 Kohm CF resistor between the LTP's tail and the CCS drops some volts and also blocks the conduction of heat from the tube (via the wiring) to the CCS. Unwanted heat is the mortal enemy of all things electronic, especially SS. I took no prisoners. ;) BTW, that resistor also slightly increases the net load the LTP tail works into.

... but that is about heat.
 
I don't see any mention of a carbon composition resistor in that passage.

CF = carbon film (not carbon composition)
CCS = constant current sink

??

The resistors wattage rating is relevant to heat (power dissipation).

A metal oxide or wirewound resistor would do just as well dropping volts. Possibly even better, as long as it was rated for a high enough voltage drop and high enough power (heat) dissipation (in watts).
 
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