• 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.

Help measuring output impedience

Status
Not open for further replies.
My Antique Sound Lab mg-s115 a kt-88 single ended designe
5w triode 15w pentode list it`s output impedience as 4,8ohm.

I am assuming 4 ohms in triode and 8 ohms in pentode mode?

I fed 3.55vac through a 8 ohm resistor into the output transformer and measured 1.76vac across the output transformer
so it does check out about 8 ohm. Did I do this right?

Thanks
 
Woody - Sorry NO, try to think of it this way

From an AC signal point of view -
you have a "signal generator" with a hot side going to the positive speaker terminal via a "Source Resistance" which is the output Impedance of the Amp and a return (cold) side going to the negative speaker terminal.

Measure Output Voltage with no connection to the speaker terminals and Output set to give you approx 1 or 2 V AC.

There is no voltage drop across the "Source Resitance" since there is no "circuit" to carry current so you are measureing the "signal generator" voltage. ( call it V1)

Connect the 8 Ohm Resistor to the speaker terminals and measure the voltage again. (call it V2)

The difference (V1 - V2) gives you the voltage drop across the "Source Resitance" which IS the Output Impedance in this case.

Now knowing the voltage drop across an 8 Ohm load (V2) and the voltage drop across the output impedance (V1 - V2) you can work out The value of the Output Impedance from a simple ratio calculation.

Using above terms
Output Impedance = [(V1 -V2) / V2] x 8 Ohms

Sorry if this was "talking down" to you. I wanted to make it as clear as I could not only how to do but why you do it this way.

For those of you who are paranoid about running your amps without a load ( to measure V1) an alternate method is to measure voltage across an 8 Ohm resistor and then across a 4 Ohm resistor. Using the visualisation above you can work out the algebra for yourself.

Aside: running your amp without a load is OK as long as you keep output well below maximum power voltages (clipping level) - say no more than half.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Status
Not open for further replies.