What should I build

[kevilay]

Hey guys, I built a 100watt tube guitar amplifier a few years ago and it sounds awesome and is still going strong.

I was looking into doing another project and am looking for suggestions. I want something that sounds great. I am really big into high quality audio. Is it possible to make a 5.1 home stereo in a tube amp? How would it sound in comparison to some of the current solid state stereos. My other idea is a 2 channel tube amp to play music from a computer or mp3 players. What do you guys think i should do, are there any kits? or layouts? What are the approximate costs. Also what is recommended for speakers?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Richard Ellis]

Congrats on your successful guitar amp...I'll assume it was a push-pull.....as Class A would have been kinda hard & $$$ to build.
A Home theatre 5.1 ??? Multi-channel amps tend to not lend itself to tubes much. As tubes are space consuming, Iron consuming.........& what if you go push-pull on all the channels??? My thinking is Class D with all those little compact modules neatly arranged in a case.
This leaves an amp-speakers combo for your PC. A nice little/simple class A 2A3 ......with a unique chassis to fit somewhere in your PC station.....some Fostex Full-Rangers in a pair of back-loaded horn towers........& you'll be set.

__________________________________________________Rick.........

 

[Eli Duttman]

2A3s are costly and so is the "iron" that's used with them. Triode wired 6V6 family tubes sound GOOD and cost less too. Go push/pull and the "iron" is reasonably priced too. A mild Class "A2" operating conditions set, as used in "Musical Machine" and "El Cheapo", yields approx. 6 WPC. That's plenty, when mated to mid 90s sensitive speakers.

BTW, people have done HT setups with tubes, but the cost to build and operate is very high.

 

[kevilay]

do you guys know where i can find a schematic and/or layout?

 

[Eli Duttman]

My previous post should have said Class "AB" not Class "A2".

I've uploaded the "El Cheapo" schematic. The 'AQ5 shown is, for all practical purposes, a 6V6 in a 7 pin mini package.

 

[bayermar]

Triode wired 6V6 family tubes sound GOOD and cost less too.

+1
and the alter-ego 6P6S can be bought for very little money, although JJ or EH 6V6GT are not particularly expensive either.

For a small computer system, a simple SE design with recycled console transformers might also work, if max. SPL and thundering bass are not a requirement.
I finished one recently: Trioded-wired 6P6S driven by 6n8s with CCS at the plate and LED bias.
I am still experimenting with some cathode feedback to get more low end out of the somewhat challenged OT but the overall performance is not too bad.

Martin

 

[kevilay]

My computer has a great audio card, and im pretty big into music. Id love to have a nice sounding system. I dont mind spending a bit to achieve this