Hi everyone,
After playing with DHT preamps (26, 71a, 4P1L, 46), I ended up staying with a CX301a version of it. I liked its warm sound and tone so I decided to stay with it. It's been over 2 months so far that I haven't returned to my precious 26 preamp (I will probably revisit my 26 preamp based on latest updates from Andy Evans).
As I'm working on a version of the 4-65a SE amp by Michael Koster, I started investigating options and ways of improving the 01a as will be the first valve of my amplifier.
Using curves plot with my curve tracer and Dmitry's composite model, I got a very well matched spice model for the 01a.
I modelled in LTSpice two versions of the gyrator loaded preamp with filament bias and Rod Coleman's superb filament regulator:
1) Version 1: Using Anatoly's PNP-FET Gyrator
2) Version 2: using classic cascoded-FET gyrator with mu-follower output.
Interesting results came out of this first simulation test. I think I haven't managed to optimise (again) Anatoly's gyrator despite have managed to keep good VDS (38V) to keep the CoSS low. I get slightly worse THD (0.03% versus 0.016%) compared to the MOSFET version.
Looking at output impedance, version 1 has 10K @1kHz whereas the version 2 can get as low as 734 ohms but impedance raises significantly at low frequencies (70k version 1 versus 80k version 2). This can be reflected in the frequency response where version 1 performs better than version 2.
At high frequency both preamps perform very well up to 1MHz despite version 2 performing slightly better.
At this point, it looks like if output capacitor of version 2 is increased in value to improve the LF rolloff, it seams that overall performs better than version 1 as THD and output impedance are better?
Have I missed anything here?
Has anyone tried both circuit and compared sonic differences?
Thanks for the help
Ale
After playing with DHT preamps (26, 71a, 4P1L, 46), I ended up staying with a CX301a version of it. I liked its warm sound and tone so I decided to stay with it. It's been over 2 months so far that I haven't returned to my precious 26 preamp (I will probably revisit my 26 preamp based on latest updates from Andy Evans).
As I'm working on a version of the 4-65a SE amp by Michael Koster, I started investigating options and ways of improving the 01a as will be the first valve of my amplifier.
Using curves plot with my curve tracer and Dmitry's composite model, I got a very well matched spice model for the 01a.
I modelled in LTSpice two versions of the gyrator loaded preamp with filament bias and Rod Coleman's superb filament regulator:
1) Version 1: Using Anatoly's PNP-FET Gyrator
2) Version 2: using classic cascoded-FET gyrator with mu-follower output.
Interesting results came out of this first simulation test. I think I haven't managed to optimise (again) Anatoly's gyrator despite have managed to keep good VDS (38V) to keep the CoSS low. I get slightly worse THD (0.03% versus 0.016%) compared to the MOSFET version.
Looking at output impedance, version 1 has 10K @1kHz whereas the version 2 can get as low as 734 ohms but impedance raises significantly at low frequencies (70k version 1 versus 80k version 2). This can be reflected in the frequency response where version 1 performs better than version 2.
At high frequency both preamps perform very well up to 1MHz despite version 2 performing slightly better.
At this point, it looks like if output capacitor of version 2 is increased in value to improve the LF rolloff, it seams that overall performs better than version 1 as THD and output impedance are better?
Have I missed anything here?
Has anyone tried both circuit and compared sonic differences?
Thanks for the help
Ale
Attachments
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01 Preamp1 Output impedance.png21.7 KB · Views: 951
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01a Preamp 2 Frequency response.png19 KB · Views: 916
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01a Preamp 2 Output impedance.png29.6 KB · Views: 915
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01a Preamp version 1.png52.7 KB · Views: 939
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01a Preamp version 1 Frequency response.png19.1 KB · Views: 915
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01a Premp version 2.png42.3 KB · Views: 485