2. amps-preamps
  3. 140029-80294

Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.

I closed the cable and fuse thread because the trolls were making a mess of things. I hope they dont find me here.

I design Tube and Solid State power amps and preamps for Music Reference. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, have trained my ears keenly to hear frequency response differences, distortion and pretty good at guessing SPL. Ive spent 40 years doing that as a tech, store owner, and designer.
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Perhaps someone would like to ask a question about how one designs a successfull amplifier? What determines damping factor and what damping factor does besides damping the woofer. There is an entirely different, I feel better way to look at damping and call it Regulation , which is 1/damping.

I like to tell true stories of my experience with others in this industry.

I have started a school which you can visit at http://berkeleyhifischool.com/ There you can see some of my presentations.

On YouTube go to the Music Reference channel to see how to design and build your own tube linestage. The series has over 200,000 views. You have to hit the video tab to see all.

I am not here to advertise for MR. Soon I will be making and posting more videos on YouTube. I don’t make any money off the videos, I just want to share knowledge and I hope others will share knowledge. Asking a good question is actually a display of your knowledge because you know enough to formulate a decent question.

Starting in January I plan to make these videos and post them on the HiFi school site and hosted on a new YouTube channel belonging to the school.


128x128ramtubes
ramtubes's avatar
ramtubes OP
460 posts
 
@roberjerman   I have found more data on the 6N30 tube. Same pin-out as 6DJ8 and 6CG7. Plate dissipation 7 watts max. Plate voltage max at 250. Looks like the 6CG7/6FQ7 will work!

The Russians copied many of our tubes as did the Chinese. What you want to do next is compare Mu, Gm and Rp of the tubes at similar operating points. Let me know what you find out. Great question.
 
Low noise 6CG7s can be a little difficult to fine but I have found some.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
Love the idea of a switchbox to test various power cords and fuses!
ramtubes's avatar
ramtubes OP
460 posts
 
@atmasphere   Roger, you might want to do some reading at the links I posted in my prior post. Most of this post (except perhaps the comments about subjective listening) is incorrect. As I pointed out earlier, the load is not for the cartridge's benefit- its about the preamp.


Please explain. Im all ears.

There's plenty of old school audio electronics that used the 6SN7. As you know, its geometry is similar to that of the 6CG7/12BH7 and 12AU7 (the latter being the same as the 12BH7 but with the entire structure sawed in half)

My dad built the WM-2 in 1956 so I am very aware of 6SN7, as was Heathikit who used them everywhere they could. Are you aware that most of their early products were built largely from WWII surplus of which there was tons. They would buy tons of surpus and then figure out what to do with it. 6SN7 were in great abundance. I think a 6SL7 might have made a better choice and I snuck one in a Williamson, changed a few resistors, and really liked it . Much more linear tube (low distortion). Why, because it was made for audio, not B&W television.

There are some great books on the history of Heath written my people who were there.  

This other stuff about sawing tubes in half make no sense. Ive taked to tube designers and they dont talk that way... at all.

As to it being lower in microphonics, the tone is of course different as the structure is different. But I would not say they are less microphonic than a modern 6922.  But this is just my experience of testing over twenty thousand 6922s
krelldreams
128 posts
 
@ramtubes. I’d like to personally thank you for taking the time to sift through all these messages and provide your input on many of them. There’s a lot of valuable information here. I’d like to thank @atmasphere as well! Differing viewpoints gives us all a variety of things to consider. One should never stop seeking knowledge. 
prof
3,474 posts
 
@ramtubes

First, the concept of your building the type of switch box I mentioned is very intriguing.  I'm not sure the idea still fits well with my system, which has become more complex (I'm introducing subwoofers, crossover etc).But I will certainly cogitate on the idea.

Also, love your idea for building switch boxes to text cables etc!  If the timing were right financially for me, I'd likely take you up on that (just out of my own interest.  I'm far from sold on the worth of high end cables, but I do have access to a bunch and it would be fun to test under more ergonomic circumstances, fast switching, etc).
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