Topic: My Tube Journey

[tony]

my third 6LU8 amp in 4 years, this time this is going to be a no holds barred,
400v plate, fixed bias and a mulard 5-20ish design....previous designs had tube
longevity as design goal...this build will punish the beam tetrodes section somewhat
and prove what more it can do...



my second 832 pp amp in a year, as i do not do the same amp the same way,
this is going to be an LTP driven, using the 6D10 triple triode with 12at7 type plates..



this one is a 5 watt pp amp using the 6DX8 triode pentode tubes in a class A and aikido fromt end..



these amps are awaiting parts back ordered and will be finished in about 3 months time...

[remington]

wow dami bago!!! ganda nung 832

[tony]

this one packs more punch....
829 push pull power amp, uses EF80 input pentode and E182CC LTP splitter.....
G2 is regulated and will be fine tuned at around 200 volts....
inspired by the Audioromy FU29, this amp uses bigger irons...

[geriboy]

sir tony, bakit po nagkakaroon ng mga puti-puti sa mga transformers na gawa ninyo?

ang dami ninyo nagagawa na mga tube pre-amps at amps ah

[tony]

sir tony, bakit po nagkakaroon ng mga puti-puti sa mga transformers na gawa ninyo?

ang dami ninyo nagagawa na mga tube pre-amps at amps ah

carbon fiber stickers yon, simulates hammertone finish....
my tube journey tells me i should make all kinds of amps,
so that i will know which ones i like,
turns out i like them all....
besides it is always better that you get to taste it firsthand
than merely reading about it....

in my future builds, i am doing a wood grain type lamination finish to the chassis,
since many like to add wood to the chassis, i thought why not make the chassis
look like wood? i talked to the owners of the powder coating shop and told me
that they can do it, but will cost 3 times more than the regular powder coats..
i am curious to find out how it turns out..

[tony]

5894 SET and my new 4KN8 CCDA line amp, makes Norah Jone's sings sweetly....

[gutierrez]

I'm not sure if I can post my inquiry here, but I'd just like to know if any of you experience a ticking sound in your tube amp after usage for several hours (about 3 -4 hours).  I just noticed it today when I turned it off, I thought it came from somewhere else but when I observed it was from the tube amp (Cayin LA34).  It was intermittent. maybe about every minute or so.

Can someone confirm if that's just normal?

[meat_eater]

I'm not sure if I can post my inquiry here, but I'd just like to know if any of you experience a ticking sound in your tube amp after usage for several hours (about 3 -4 hours).  I just noticed it today when I turned it off, I thought it came from somewhere else but when I observed it was from the tube amp (Cayin LA34).  It was intermittent. maybe about every minute or so.

Can someone confirm if that's just normal?

It could just be the glass expanding-contracting.

[gutierrez]

It could just be the glass expanding-contracting.

Just an update, there is no clicking sound when it's unplugged from the power outlet

[meat_eater]

Just an update, there is no clicking sound when it's unplugged from the power outlet

Then it's not the glass. The glass emits a "ticking" noise when heating and cooling.

[tony]

I'm not sure if I can post my inquiry here, but I'd just like to know if any of you experience a ticking sound in your tube amp after usage for several hours (about 3 -4 hours).  I just noticed it today when I turned it off, I thought it came from somewhere else but when I observed it was from the tube amp (Cayin LA34).  It was intermittent. maybe about every minute or so.

Can someone confirm if that's just normal?

no, it is not normal.....
is the ticking sound coming from your speakers or from the amp itself?
i would suggest that you go back to the seller with your problem,
after sales service should take care of that issue...

the way the EL34 tubes and the 6L6 family of tubes are constructed
is that pin 3 which is the plate pin is closest to pin 2,  a heater pin,
so the ticking sound could very well be high voltage leaking from pin 3 to pin ,
this is a weakness with these tubes, and this is something that can be fixed fortunately..

[gutierrez]

no, it is not normal.....
is the ticking sound coming from your speakers or from the amp itself?
i would suggest that you go back to the seller with your problem,
after sales service should take care of that issue...

Sir, it's coming from the amp.  The ticking sound is only there when the amp is plugged and turned OFF, but it doesn't happen when it's turned ON.  The sound is similar to a clicking relay, sometimes very faint and sometimes very audible.

[tony]

Sir, it's coming from the amp.  The ticking sound is only there when the amp is plugged and turned OFF, but it doesn't happen when it's turned ON.  The sound is similar to a clicking relay, sometimes very faint and sometimes very audible.

suggest you contact the seller with this issue, they should be able to fix it...

if you ask me, the first question you should  ask any seller of tube gears is after sales service,
tubes are never bullet-proof, requires more maintenance, more than SS amps...

[kayee]

sir tony medyo naayos ko na yung issue sa grounding ng volume and hum, may konting hum na lang not like before na malakas...... ......

[tony]

sir tony medyo naayos ko na yung issue sa grounding ng volume and hum, may konting hum na lang not like before na malakas...... ......

good to know, sabi ko sayo, kaya mo yan....

[tony]

sent this kits to Cebu, a young tube convert wants to start in his own tube journey..

he is building an el84 class a pp amp...

[rochie]

Sir tony,
    mga magkano aabutin ng kit na yan?

[tony]

Sir tony,
    mga magkano aabutin ng kit na yan?

mura lang.......around 10k....pero wala akong finished traffos ngayon...

[tony]

Sir tony,
    mga magkano aabutin ng kit na yan?

mura lang.......
around 10k does  not include tubes, tubes you can buy on your own...
....pero wala akong finished traffos ngayon...

the design is a good way for newbies to start on tubes...
like always, i inject my own ideas to the amp....

[rochie]

mura lang.......around 10k....pero wala akong finished traffos ngayon...

uy pwede na pag-ipunan sir.

[tony]

yung 6GK6 nagamit ko na sa amp na ito na dinala sa US...
true pentode din ito kagaya ng el84....mas mataas pa ng kaunti ang plate dissipation...
meron sa Pacific electronics, 400 pesos each, meron akong isang pares..

you can also use the 6LU8 to build this amp, you only need 4 tubes,
the 21LU8 is avaioable at deeco raon...it is a 12 pin compactron,
the 13LR8 is a nine pin novar and is electrical identical...

[CoolTOYZPH]

Master Tony, on DIY set-ups like this, what is the Tube brand to be used for the trafos to hit the sweet spot?

no....................
so happened that for the two units of 2A3 amps i did for Larry,
both of them had the Shuguangs biased exactly alike, something i never imagined
possible until i tried it.....i hit the tube's sweet spot without really trying...
i designed the psu with that goal in mind and i nailed it...

now what i am saying is, i can not say the same for other brand tubes,
since the same tube type from different manufacturers are made differently
using different materials and manufacturing tolerances, and so biases differently..

so i can only comment on the Shuguangs since i have used them...
btw, triodes are very easy to figure out....

of course no one can stop you if you want to roll tubes... http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php/topic,200076.msg2264636/topicseen.html#quickreply

[tony]

Master Tony, on DIY set-ups like this, what is the Tube brand to be used for the trafos to hit the sweet spot?

sweet spots are more aptly applied to direct heated, single ended amps...like the 2A3. 300b. etc...
push-pull amps cancels most of the second harmonics, that is why they sound differently...
sweet spot in this case to me means very low higher order odd harmonics above the  3rd...
the 6bq5 is a very fine true pentode tube, in my experience, the philips el84 sounds best to my ears.....
but the JJ el84 sounds very good too...

i remember an AMX el84 pp amp sold here for 1500, easily the best buy of the decade,
the lucky owner spent another 1500 for repairs and went home with a winner...
for a mere 3000 pesos, many times better than the Sakura AV200...
easily the best sounding AMX amp i heard in a long time...
btw, topology was based on the dynaco st-35, i saw one on sale
for 70k a few years back...

[CoolTOYZPH]

Please clarify if the statement below means that:
a) Tube rolling has more effects on Push Pull Amps
b) Tube Rolling has less effect vs Direct Heated tubes.

Thank you for the continuing education to newbies.

sweet spots are more aptly applied to direct heated, single ended amps...like the 2A3. 300b. etc...
push-pull amps cancels most of the second harmonics, that is why they sound differently...
sweet spot in this case to me means very low higher order odd harmonics above the  3rd...
the 6bq5 is a very fine true pentode tube, in my experience, the philips el84 sounds best to my ears.....
but the JJ el84 sounds very good too...

i remember an AMX el84 pp amp sold here for 1500, easily the best buy of the decade,
the lucky owner spent another 1500 for repairs and went home with a winner...
for a mere 3000 pesos, many times better than the Sakura AV200...
easily the best sounding AMX amp i heard in a long time...
btw, topology was based on the dynaco st-35, i saw one on sale
for 70k a few years back...

[tony]

Please clarify if the statement below means that:
a) Tube rolling has more effects on Push Pull Amps
b) Tube Rolling has less effect vs Direct Heated tubes.

Thank you for the continuing education to newbies.

no.....one can not generalize in general....
there is no single formula for everything for every one...
it all boils down to choice of operating points by the designer..
designers chooses the best quiescent conditions to do the job with the tubes at hand...

myself tries hast to get good operating conditions, parameters to get the sound right to my ears...
but tubes being a mechanical thing  with electrical characteristics,
and with specs based on statistics, variations from to tube is a natural thing with them..

having said these, i can only speak for the tube amps i have had experience with,
as i do not even know how your tube amps were biased, what the operating points were..

but not  to worry, end users need not concern themselves with what i mentioned,
my posts here are for the techies wanting to build amps with their own hands...

end users need only to concern themselves with what brand of tubes are  most
pleasing to their ears, after all that is all what really mattered...

my posts are useful if you are designing and building your own amps,
to the casual user of tube amps and tubes, they should not even bother...

end users need only to concern themselves with just one question,
did i like what i hear? yes or no...

[tony]

i started learning tube electronics since age 14,
i am now 62 and it is clear to me, i still have a lot to learn....
but my tube journey goes on, up to when? only God knows....

[tony]

tube rolling for me takes on a different meaning....
since i design tube amps from the ground up.....
i never form any fixed beliefs, i measure with my instruments and listen,
so that if i did not like what i heard, at least i know some reasons why and
make the necessary adjustments to get it to sound like i want it...
if you replaced a tube in your amp and liked it, you will then
conclude that this tube is better than the other tube,
and that is all you will ever know....you will never know
what what was happening inside the circuit to make it so....

this hobby is all about enjoyment, and our brains decide how..
so that if you convince yourself that china tubes are junk,
chances are you will never enjoy any amp using Chinese tubes..
i have known some who gets orgasmic at the sight of sexy bottle tubes,
so that they go bananas at the sight of those tubes...
some even go to extra efforts to incorporate wood in their amps
all because that is their idea of what a tube amp should look like...

many of the things that a lot of folks like have nothing to do with the sound,
but they do it anyway, why? because that is the way they have convinced their
minds, that is how they will enjoy....who am i to say they are wrong?

in my tube journey i have no fixed beliefs, i take things as they come...
i like to try different things differently.....
and there are only two kinds of tubes for me, a working tube and a dead/defective tube...

[tony]

another Broskie CCDA line amp this time using the 12SN7 and a type 80 ST rectifier...

[cyberdraven]

Sir tony, sorry for this dumb questions but i need to understand these fundamentals as i dig deeper in tubes.

I had an integrated amp which uses 6bq5 output and 12ax7 tubes.  My understanding of integrates is that it has a preamp and amp section.  Why is it so that the 12ax7 is regarded as phase inverters?  Is PI similar to preamp?

Some suggested to add a preamp to improve gain in the system.  If i add a preamp, is there a guide what to choose?  The integrates uses 12ax7, so if i use a dedicated preamp that uses 12ax7 din balewala din because im using the same preamp and will yield same gain?

Lastly, i read in your post in tube rolling that you could switch a 12ax7 to 12at7.  The difference is that 12ax7 will have higher gain.  I dont know if this is just me or on my tube selection pero i swear i find the EH 12at7 sounded cleaner and louder than my matsu and siemens 12ax7.

PS:  please be gentle..., im still virgin.  Hehehe

[tony]

first, with today's program sources, any tube amp can be driven directly by the source...
these are called integrated amps....and there are not much real differences between
them and a tube power amp that i can tell... no one can stop you from using a preamp...
i prefer to use them for the simple reason that i have lots of those...

about the phase inverters, half of the tube, one section of the 12ax7 tube is used as the input
or voltage amplifier or a preamp, then the other section  is used as "concertina" phase inverter.

yes, you can try to sub the 12at7 in place of the 12ax7 tubes, do not mind that they have different gains,
a 12ax7 tube while having a mu of 100 can have voltage gains of about 50 or less in an actual circuit, iow,
gains of 100 is never achieved...use whatever you find to your liking..

Sir tony, sorry for this dumb questions but i need to understand these fundamentals as i dig deeper in tubes.

I had an integrated amp which uses 6bq5 output and 12ax7 tubes.  My understanding of integrates is that it has a preamp and amp section.  Why is it so that the 12ax7 is regarded as phase inverters?  Is PI similar to preamp?

Some suggested to add a preamp to improve gain in the system.  If i add a preamp, is there a guide what to choose?  The integrates uses 12ax7, so if i use a dedicated preamp that uses 12ax7 din balewala din because im using the same preamp and will yield same gain?

Lastly, i read in your post in tube rolling that you could switch a 12ax7 to 12at7.  The difference is that 12ax7 will have higher gain.  I dont know if this is just me or on my tube selection pero i swear i find the EH  12at7 sounded cleaner and louder than my matsu and siemens 12ax7.

PS:  please be gentle..., im still virgin.  Hehehe