• 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.

Output transformers

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Just to be helpful, an output transformer with an anode to anode impedance of say 4000 ohms will present a load of 2000 ohms to each valve while in class A.

Why? Well, a 4000 ohm winding is actually two 1000 ohm windings in series (with a centre tap in the middle), because impedance is the square of turns ratio. If you double the turns on a winding, the apparent impedance of that winding quadruples (provided the "other" winding stays constant)

Why does each valve see 2000 ohms then? Each valve is working into its own 1000 ohm load (remember that B+ sits on the centre tap and stays constant), but since they are coupled, the load is shared roughly equally between them. As one moves into Class-AB, one valve cuts off and the other then sees the entire 1000 ohm load.
 
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