Electron Tube Class
From HacDC Wiki
About
Some people have made the mistake of expressing interest in electron tubes. They're about to learn more than they bargained for.
Schedule
A lecture session has been scheduled in the space for Thursday July 28 at 7:30pm.
Silly Bus
- Thermionic emission: From the lightbulb to the pentode.
- Fundamental circuits
- Phase splitting circuits
- Advanced circuits
- Tube failure modes
- Hands-on experience building a battery-powered single tube filamentary pentode pre-amp.
- Power supplies and tweaking.
- What is the real secret to great sound?
Laboratory Supplies
Go to [tubedata.info] and obtain what you think is the most informative datasheet for the following tubes and print out a copy. -- you need a physical copy.
filamentary diode 5U4* Optional: GZ34 / 5AR4
canonical triode 2A3 Optional: 845
to explore gain versus output 6SN7* 6SL7* or 12AX7 / ECC83
Pentodes 6BQ5 / EL84 Optional: KT88, EF86
3S4 <<< absolutely required, this is the tube we're using.
Suggested Reading
Radiotron Designer's Handbook 4th ed. [www.pmillett.com] Might have one lying around.
Tube Circuits for Audio Amplifiers (1-882580-03-6) features some very elegant and practical designs.
An Approach To Audio Frequency Amplifier Design. (1-882580-05-2) Has some good discussions about output transformers and ultralinear design. Then it starts out with some nice practical amps but, before long at all, starts talking about 1,100 watt monsters with 2.5KV power supplies.
Building Valve Amplifiers (0-7506-5695-6) is probably too practical to be enjoyable but I have to deem it essential. His other book is fantastic, one of the most well worn tomes in my personal library, but get this one first.