Schematic of a class ab tube power amplifier with negative feedback. Richard kuehnel, circuit analysis of a legendary tube amplifier. A trio of software programs for the intrepid tubephile. Sep 09, 2017 understanding vacuum tube amplifier schematics power supplies part 2 duration. Tube amplifier power supply unit designer electronic circuits. Never touch the amplifier chassis with one hand while probing with the other hand because a lethal shock can run between your arms through your heart. Covers how tubes work and how to design circuits around them, with chapters on class aab1 and ab2b amplifier design, power supplies, and more. Mcs 3865 integrated amplifier serviced 100 % working. Tube based buffers provide no gain, but do offer a low output impedance and can deliver the current needed to. Luxmans original, high quality playback software new. Very quick and easy tool for more designs than just tube amps. Simulate preliminary designs in orcad cadence simulation software 3. It uses 4 6lw6 tubes per channel running on 750 volts.
Dared i30 hifi audiophiles professional class a vacuum tube integrated amplifier usbdacline input and headphone output,30w2,with 6l6g5881,12ax7ecc83,12au7ecc82 tube by dared. This is a highmu dual triode that is generally incorporated into an rc coupled class a audio pre amplifier configuration and its design is optimized to minimize harmonic distortion. Understandably, the properties and response of the vacuum tube triode have a great effect. Designs tubelab sse simulations simulations tubelab. Guitar amplifier preamps, second edition paperback september 8, 2009.
A resource for designing tube amplifiers with spice simulation. Details of input stages and how they interact with guitar pickups and controls. It is easy to get sound out of vacuum tube audio circuitry. Printed circuit boards and kits glassware audio design. Welcome to my vacuum tube audio page, which i dedicate to the reader who seeks an indepth understanding of amplifier design who wants to learn the factors that contribute to audio quality who doesnt buy the myths of the highend marketplace, where old designs enhanced with premium components and dressed up in impressive packages command astronomical prices. Optimize simulated circuit using new transformers, construct and test amplifier to create a more portable and affordable vacuum tube amplifier. Understanding vacuum tube amplifier schematics basics. Welcome to my tube amp simulation software page paragraph about tube amp design simulation. Valve amplifiers can be used for applications such as guitar amplifiers, satellite transponders such as. Push pull class a 2a3 stereo amp valve push pull class a amp using type 5687 dual triodes.
Vacuum tube circuits electronics tutorial and schematics. Jul, 2018 there are 90 pages of circuit design containing enough information to design high quality vacuum tube amplifier circuits. Tube amplifier power supply unit designer software psu designer ii is designed to help you with the design of simple linear unregulated mains power supplies, as often found in tube amplifiers. Additional audio projects using vacuum tubes, including downloadable files and supporting documents links to interesting web sites other resources relating to vacuum tube audio applications equipment restoration projects from the vacuum tube era. If you are down with bode plots and circuit diagrams, though, it could serve as a nice introduction to building a class ab amplifier. Tube amps are fairly simple circuits, so unless youre doing something like a digital modeler, i think your time would be better spend learning how to design various stages of an amp versus learning how to use a software program. This is possible because these products have special hardware that. There is a computer program that comes with this page to help you. Output stage the major factor involving the design of this single ended output stage is matching an available output tube to an available output transformer ot, which can provide the proper impedance matching. Beside that, el34, el84, and 12ax7 vacuum tubes are used in many practical examples, to design the various parts of the circuits and to.
Need vacuumtube circuit components general electronics. Also host the excellent magdemo transformer design software, and a host of useful newsletters on spice modelling. If you want to build a tube amplifier and you dont want to just copy someone elses circuit it might be a good idea to learn how to design it. This is not a simulator, but a schematic capture and routing tool which i. One was simulating the el34 amplifier shown below while another was. By trying out several different sets of operating conditions in the computer i could eliminate hundreds of possibilities without playing with electricity. This is the second video associated with the modeling of vacuum tube output transformers with the spice family of simulation programs.
Most tube guitar amplifiers rely on vacuum tube triodes for preamplification, and driving certain sections such as a spring reverb, tone controls, or tremolo. Links mokgk amateur radio pages duncans metalwork pages. Keep those filaments lit, design your own vacuum tube audio. The slides are pretty heavy on engineering design terms, but give a good feel for what it takes to construct and tune an audio amplifier using vacuum tube technology. The book begins with the fundamentals of electronics and vacuum tubes. For additional information about designing tube amplifiers, refer to the theory section. Listed under the technical reference vacuum tube category that is about vacuum tube resources.
Modern vfd vacuum tube demonstrated itself as a tube which can provide tube sound with low supply voltages. When building tube amplifiers with high voltage gain, or balanced differential amplifier or phase splitters, it is advantageous to use a ccs in either the anode or cathode circuit, depending on your requirements. Engineers thumb compressor circuit design, electronic. Diy audio projects forum vacuum tube amp simulation. Each tube has an anode dissipation of 500 watts, 20watt grid dissipation and plate voltage up to 4000 volt. It is all tube design or combined, tube preamplifier with solid state power amplifier. Welcome to my vacuum tube audio page, which i dedicate to the reader who seeks an. I desperately want to see vacuum tube components added to the list of available circuit components.
Oct 20, 2009 gio writes in to tell us about his latest vacuum tubebased audio amplifier design, the 5751 srpp el84 6bq5 pushpull tube amp. It is possible to emulate tube distor sound using software. Modpex interface technologies engineering software. The above link is just one place you can download it. Diy audio books and manuals speakers, vacuum tubes, electronics. For more detailed information about the book see the table of contents and the preface. Theres a page on how to use it with the vacuum tube models here.
Various finishes available, other finish under request. Electrostaticheadphone amplifiers and power supply kits. Buy just the pcb or add the items that you need to finish your project. Detailed, complete with plenty of math and drawings. Vacuum tubes are constructed of a glass or metal container that is vacuum sealed. The software is now available for free from the spectrum software site. You cant really design a good tube amp in software. This doityourself guide includes eleven vacuum tube power and control amplifier projects. The last few pages of the book have related information including the use of sound pressure levels to determine amplifier power requirements. The motivation for developing livespice is to help prototype guitar effects and amplifiers, without requiring constructing a physical circuit or waiting for an offline simulation to run to try it out. It can be replaced by 6j1, 6j4, ge5654, 6ak5, 61neb. A traditional luxman design that brings new enjoyment to cd listening new. This is an internet resource for those interested in guitar amplifiers, vacuum tubes, and design tools such as spice modelling.
This link is listed in our web site directory since friday feb 9 2007, and till today vacuum tube software has been followed for a total of 98 times. The 100w transistor power amplifier schematic design presented here is very simple to build and wont be difficult even to an amateur. Ever wanted to build a highly dangerous, inefficient, yet awesomely retro piece of electronics. If you have not been trained to work with high voltage then have an amp technician service your amp. This background is leveraged to casually analyze gain stages that are typically found in vacuum tube audio equipment. Fyi, there are spice vacuum tube models available on the web for free, but personally i. Also contains some vacuum tube models which drop straight on, and an example of a vacuum tube power amp. Low to medium power valve amplifiers for frequencies below the microwaves were largely replaced by solid state amplifiers in the 1960s and 1970s. Solid state, vacuum tube types 5ar4, 5r4ggygyagyb, 5u4ggagb, 5v3a, 5v4gga, 5y3ggagt, 5z3, 6au4gt, 6ax4gtgtagtb, 6ca4.
A valve amplifier or tube amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that uses vacuum tubes to increase the amplitude or power of a signal. In some classic guitar amplifiers, one can find as many as five dual triode vacuum tubes in use. Vacuum tubes are old electronic components that act like transistors, controlling a lot of current. At first this design was just the platform to build something bigger on. Cascode, cathode follower, common cathode, differential amplifier. This vacuum tube is still the industry standard pre amplifier valve. Vacuum tubevalve experimenter printed circuit boards. Single ended class a 6v6 6j5 valve vacuum tube amplifier circuit. Oldradio this is the site to be visited first of all when. Also contains some vacuum tube models which drop straight on, and an. Search on pspice student to find additional links and resources, including libraries of literally hundreds of thousands of components. Crummier tube amplifiers will have more of the distortions that make tube amplifiers sound like tube amplifiers. Tube cad is intended as a guide to understand and design tube audio. Curve captor is a free distributed under gpl vacuum tube modeling software that brings the advantages of modern computer simulation tools to design of vacuum tube electronics.
Examples of devices that are modeled are transistors, diodes, operational amplifiers, power mosfets, igbts, digital drivers, etc. Electronic schematics, smart home automation, vacuum tube, electronics projects, aircraft, diagram, lab, engineering. A class b rf linear amplifier will generate still more intermodulation distortion, but is acceptable in certain applications. An old electronic device used before transistors were invented. Companies like fender, vox, marshall and blackstar produce amplifiers with tubes. Keywords audio, low frequency, thd, noise, vacuum tube, circuit design, pcb design. A tube amplifier chassis contains lethal high voltage even when unpluggedsometimes over 700 volts ac and 500 volts dc. Since 1999 welcome to almost 500 posts and to over 50 articles on amplifiers, tubebased preamps, crossovers, headphone amplifiers, singleended amplifiers, pushpull amplifiers, circlotron circuit design, hybrid amplifiers, cascode circuits, white cathode followers, groundedcathode amplifiers, tube series regulators and shunt regulators, the aikido amplifier, tranformer coupling. Expresspcb offers free software for pcb design and low cost board.
This knowledge is then used to design an electron tube amplifier in the software tool ltspice. However, most highend amplifiers which are used in the gigs or recording studios uses tubes. Singleended classa tube amplifier design and construction. The survey is meant to give the reader a fair idea of how each part of how a standars electron tube amplifier works.
Home in 2020 audio amplifier, vacuum tube, audio design. Also host the excellent magdemo transformer design software, and. Vintage amplifiers can take effects to the next level. I have always been keen on valve or tube audio amplifiers, both for hifi and musical instruments. These experimenter pcbs come with an area for a solidstate ccs to serve the tubes in the signal path. This book presents vacuum tube amplifier theory using modern, webbased design tools and computer visualizations to eliminate the usual litany of mathematical formulas. Glassware audio an excellent site promoting the vacuum tube based amplifiers. The main category is vacuum tube resources that is about vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve, valve resources. Duncans amp pages are brought to you by duncan amplification. The 3500z is a relatively inexpensive tube and has been around for a long time.
This is a freeware spice simulator downloadable from linear technology, the ic company. Assembly manual schematic parts list tubes and applications design simulations. They are a big part of the sound and the hardest circuit element to model. Programs experimental data datasheets libraries remember. If you are down with bode plots and circuit diagrams, though, it could serve as a nice introduction to building a class ab amplifier circuit. Apr 10, 2010 the slides are pretty heavy on engineering design terms, but give a good feel for what it takes to construct and tune an audio amplifier using vacuum tube technology. The tube cad journals first companion program, tcj filter design lets you design a filter or crossover passive, opamp or tube without having to check out thick textbooks from the library and without having to breakout the scientific calculator. The summary is intended to prepare the reader for basic design and analysis of amplifier stages. However, there are problems with nutube 6p1 which makes it useless in audio systems with high fidelity. This programs goal is to provide a quick and easy display not only of the frequency response, but. I did this simulation in order to have a known starting point for developing some of my newest vacuum tube and hybrid circuitry. What this book does is takes all of that general tube amplifier theory and drills it down to the specifics that apply to guitar preamplifier stages.
Nov 22, 2015 this the first video of many on design and build of an audio tube amp. Here you can find some basics of vacuum tube scheming theory, and a considerable list of old and very interesting books describing how to develop the hiend amplifiers. Ltspiceswitchercad iii a nice easy to use simulator which is gaining rapid acceptance. The downloads are at the glasswareyahoo store and the. This guide discusses all relevant aspects for an integrated pushpull vacuum tube amplifier design, including the power supply unit. About vacuum tube software the resource is currently listed in in 5 categories.
Gather hardware components and characterize transformers for emulation in modeling software 4. The output of this small amplifier in which a 6v6gt output pentode is connected as triode is about 4. For those of you who still have old computers running windows xp 32bit or any other windows 32bit os, i have setup the download availability of my old old standards. Symmetry offers a complete modeling solution with tools, model libraries, and services. He divulged that his nickname in junior high was john the electron. I didnt think that i would have any use for an amplifier that only put out 2 watts.
I recently built a vacuum tube amp that puts out 250 watts per channel. The constructive dimensions and design parameters of magnetic cores manufactured in ussr. Beside that, el34, el84, and 12ax7 vacuum tubes are used in many practical examples, to design the various parts of the circuits and to compute the values of the needed components. Feb 21, 2020 modular approach with phono preamp riaa mm audiophile vacuum tube integrated modular amplifier. This is not a simulator, but a schematic capture and routing tool which i understand can integrate with spice. Vacuum tube calculators basic theory using 21stcentury technology to design vacuum tube preamps, power amps, and power supplies system design a professional methodology for crafting a complete guitar amplifier. Featured in the book is a fourchapter tutorial on sound quality which is solid guidance on achieving the best sound with tubes. If youve been itching to try your hand at building such a thing, this looks like it could be a good place to start. A vacuum tube amplifier design that performs vinyl playback as you desire phono amplifiers. I currently design and build vacuum tube guitarbass amplifiers at home for both fun and profit.
For tube models search on pspice vacuum tube models. Tube bias calculator rob robinettes car and tube amp. Since 1999 welcome to almost 500 posts and to over 50 articles on amplifiers, tube based preamps, crossovers, headphone amplifiers, singleended amplifiers, pushpull amplifiers, circlotron circuit design, hybrid amplifiers, cascode circuits, white cathode followers, groundedcathode amplifiers, tube series regulators and shunt regulators, the aikido amplifier, tranformer coupling. Optional you can choose a phono riaa preamplifier for moving magnet cartridge mm.
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