The BA-3 as preamp build guide

Heh, yeah I tried bypassing various projects over the years, including the BA-3, always sounds the same: like $%it. False "air and detail". Overly bright. I use to always buy botique caps, now I just buy these: incredibly low ESR: Very transparent product.

940C6W3P3K-F Cornell Dubilier - CDE | Mouser

I dont work for CDE or Mouser:rolleyes: So, please skip the flaming.

Cheers,

Greg

+1 on the CDE polypropylene. I used these in a recent recap of my Audio Research / Dynaco ST-70-C3 with excellent results.


Thanks, added to my Mouser project along with Silmics and MKPs to try.
 
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Wow - I'm genuinely impressed at the HP engineer so may years ago who designed that PSU to gracefully operate whilst being hooked up inside-out like that. (I have one of those, BTW, they are awesome... :) )

Please attach your green wire to the INSIDE + and -, take your output from the outside + and -, and attach your ground wire to either of those inside posts with the green wire. Leave both of the posts marked GND alone, as you already are doing.


Thanks - it's producing + and - 28v, can you explain the difference?
 
I'll take a stab at this. (Someone will no doubt correct me if I've got the wrong end of the stick.)

If the two power supplies are truly floating (ie: they use separate transformers or separate secondaries on a single transformer) then it won't make any difference. However, if they're not (ie: they use a split secondary), then the middle -/+ are already connected and connecting the outsides will short out the secondaries.

Always doing it the way 6L6 suggests means that you don't have to know which it is.

All my supplies are fully floating, but I can't remember if I specifically looked for that when I bought them or not. (Or maybe non-floating were more common "back in the day"?)
 
Well the unit seems happy either way, but it's now connected per 6L6 recommendation. Using this until I get around to a more permanent solution.

Edit - I just looked at the schematic and it shows only one side, with a note at the bottom saying everything to the right of the transformer is identical.
 

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Heh, yeah I tried bypassing various projects over the years, including the BA-3, always sounds the same: like $%it. False "air and detail". Overly bright. I use to always buy botique caps, now I just buy these: incredibly low ESR: Very transparent product.

940C6W3P3K-F Cornell Dubilier - CDE | Mouser

I dont work for CDE or Mouser:rolleyes: So, please skip the flaming.

Cheers,

Greg
Do you choose 3.3 uF for C3 of BA-3 preamp as this links?
I will try your Capacitor branch and Elna Cimic as JeffYoung said.
Thanks for kindly sharing.
 
V-Cap Capacitor 10.0uF 150Vdc OIMP Series
This VCap 150VDC is enough for output voltage ?

In a push-pull design the voltage the coupling cap is blocking is only the DC offset (ie: the difference between ground and the centre point of your push-pull). In an ideal world that would be 0 (and there would be nothing to block), but in practice differences between components (and in particular between complementary P and N pairs) means it can be a few volts.

The other thing to consider is what happens if one of your output MOSFETs fails. Depending on the failure mode the DC offset could rise to your + or - rail voltage.

So, even though the cap will normally only be blocking a few volts, it's best to spec it at your rail voltage. Since that's still well under 150V, the mentioned cap would be fine.

Cheers,
Jeff.
 
In a push-pull design the voltage the coupling cap is blocking is only the DC offset (ie: the difference between ground and the centre point of your push-pull). In an ideal world that would be 0 (and there would be nothing to block), but in practice differences between components (and in particular between complementary P and N pairs) means it can be a few volts.

The other thing to consider is what happens if one of your output MOSFETs fails. Depending on the failure mode the DC offset could rise to your + or - rail voltage.

So, even though the cap will normally only be blocking a few volts, it's best to spec it at your rail voltage. Since that's still well under 150V, the mentioned cap would be fine.

Cheers,
Jeff.
Many thanks for your detail explain. I'm a newbie. And this is my first DIY preamp, before that, I finished my first +_15V PSU ( Salas UltraBiB V1.3 ) for Allo Katana DAC. I'm glad to joining you guys DIY world.