Hello from the Carolinas USA

[sweet]

Hello All.
I am from the Carolinas USA. I have been following this hub for awhile now and decided to join. I am an Automotive Paint Sales Rep for a large Paint Manufacture. I have no electronic experience, other than DIY self taught...trial and error. Up until recently I have been into the 70's monster equipment ie..Sansui Pioneer Marantz you get the idea. I enjoyed the sound so much better than new equipment. I have tons of amps, recievers, speakers from this era. All SS. I also have a collection of over 10,000 vinyl albums.

My passion for great sounding music has matured to the point that I now want to get into tube amps. That is what brought me to this site and I've been following and trying to learn everything I can about building one. Having no formal Electronic experience is going to be a hinder for me, However I promise to learn and not be a pain in the process.

Great meeting you all, Hope some day I can be a contributer to this hub.

 

[Bas Horneman]

Sweet dude!

Have you a tube design in mind allready?

 

[sweet]

Not being famliar enough, what I was thinking of doing is gutting and old GRUNDIG in an atempt to learn alittle more.

Is this a good Idea because I see mixed comments on doing this but keep in mind I am learning

Thanks

 

[Bas Horneman]

I think it would be a good idea. But as a starter I would just use the output transformers, powertransformer(s) and possibly chokes...and start with some fresh design ripped from the internet.

What tubes did the Grundig use?

 

[sweet]

The tubes it has is
1 ECC85
1 ECH81
1 EAF801
1 ECC83
1 ECC81
1 EC92
2 ECLL800
1 EM87

is there anything usefull here?

What I am attempting to do is have a visual to help me understand as I go through all the post and diagrams as to what does what and why.

Thanks

 

[Bas Horneman]

Aah so it's a radio as well...don't know many of those tubes.....

Don't know if you know this program...

http://www.duncanamps.com/tdslpe/download.html

but here is a great program to find out the pinout of all those tubes..

 

[Bas Horneman]

is there anything usefull here?

Depends if you want to fix/restore the radio...or just make a little power amp from all the parts inside....if it is the latter..

You could use the ECC83 as gain stage...ECC81 as phase splitter....and the ..2 ECLL800 as output tubes

 

[sweet]

Depends if you want to fix/restore the radio...or just make a little power amp from all the parts inside....if it is the latter..

My intensions are to understand tube circuitry and build a power amp.

I downloaded the program...alot of info on it thanks. I would eventially love to be able to do what you just did and right off the bat with just a list of tubes, to know what I had. I am 48 years old and have decided to take an Electronics course at the local Tech School to help me. I guess you have to understand the Theory behind it before you can use the pratical.

Thanks

 

[Bas Horneman]

I guess you have to understand the Theory behind it before you can use the pratical

Yes and no.

It sure helps to understand the theory...but I still don't. And I can easily build a good sounding tube amp.
I look at almost everything as a black box.

Take the tube. (Triode)
1.) Feed the grid with your signal.
2.) Place a resistor between the cathode and earth to set the bias/current.
3.) Place a resistor of say 33k between the b+ and plate/anode so the tube has a load it can work into.
4.) Place a capacitor between plate/anode resistor to get your amplified signal for output or to drive the stage after that.

In the output stage replace the plate/anode resistor with a transformer which reflects the load that is the speaker.

Voila...that is the basics.

O yeah and watch out for the power and danger of a high voltage supply...there are only 2 types of tube amp builders ....those that have been shocked and those that still have to be shocked...especially with the first couple of amps you tend to go to fast and not think about safety enough...

also check out this excellent navy manual chapter 6 on my site.
http://basenjes.de/tubes/data/neets_ch6.pdf

After that try downloading psud2 also from duncanamps...after playing around a little you will get a feel for what caps and chokes/resistors do in a circuit.