PROJECTS AUDIO

Tube Sound
Wim de Jager

It is 100 years ago this year that the triode was invented by Lee de Forest.
It is remarkable that triode output stages still occupy an important place in high-end
audio amplifiers. Triode amplifiers are often very expensive. The design presented here
is based on a combination of optimal quality and reasonable construction cost.

Specifications
Test measurements carried out with a load of 8
Output power (1 kHz, 2%): 9.5 W into 4 and 8
Input sensitivity (9 W, 1 kHz): 200 mV (without negative feedback) 600 mV (with negative feedback)
Output impedance (1 kHz): 2.3 (without negative feedback) 0.8 (with negative feedback)
Bandwidth (1 W): 20 Hz to 27 kHz (without negative feedback) < 20 Hz to 64 kHz (with negative feedback)
THD + noise (1 W, 1 kHz): 0.15% (with negative feedback) 0.3% (without negative feedback)
Hum/noise: 72 dB (without negative feedback) 82 dB (with negative feedback)

The subject of Tubes versus Transis- current source in the anode path). With triodes, the loudspeaker damping
tors has already been frequently dis- With pentodes (see Figure 1b), the and transformer resonance damping
cussed in literature. Instead of repeat- screen grid voltage in particular deter- are much more favourable because of a
ing it all, we are offering a reference in- mines the anode current. As a result, lower .
stead. A comprehensive comparison is the influence of the anode voltage on The disadvantages of triode output stag-
presented in the article Vacuum Tubes the anode current is smaller, which re- es are:
and Transistors Compared (refer http:// sults in a higher output impedance and 1. The consequence of a lower means
milbert.com/TVTFC.bdc). In addition to therefore a higher . that the driving stage has to be able to
triodes, pentodes are also used for au- The disadvantages of pentode output supply a signal with relatively large
dio amplifiers. The choice between these stages are: amplitude.
two is made on the basis of a number of 1. Loudspeaker damping is practically 2. Because of the lower output imped-
considerations. zero and negative feedback is required ance the influence of power supply rip-
to reduce the output impedance of the ple is larger with triodes than it is with
amplifier to an acceptable value. pentodes. This means that the power
Triode or pentode? 2. The damping of transformer reso- supply smoothing filter has to meet
With triodes, the influence of the anode nances is so small that in the absence of higher requirements.
voltage on the anode current (negative a load (open-circuit output) very strong
feedback) is quite large (see Figure 1a). oscillations can be generated with volt-
The result of this is a lower output im- ages that can become so high arc-over
Single-ended or push-pull?
pedance and a smaller amplification fac- occurs in the valve sockets or output The distortions of a triode and a pen-
tor (this is the maximum achievable transformer. tode are compared in Figure 2. This
voltage amplification when there is a DC shows that with triodes d2 is dominant

38 elektor electronics - 6/2007

Class-A triode
push-pull amplifier

and d3 with pentodes. Even-numbered push-pull amplifier has a lower open- The second advantage of a push-pull
harmonics are largely cancelled in push- loop distortion than a pentode push- amplifier is that with correct DC bias-
pull circuits, odd-numbered harmonics pull amplifier, mostly due to the third ing there is no DC bias in the core of the
are not. The result of this is that a triode harmonic (d3). output transformer. The core can there-

+10 Vg = 0V -10 -30 -40 -50 -60

-20 Svetlana 6AS7 8
V g1 = 0V
250 Filament = 6.3 Volts
I a (mA) V g2 = 140V
Typical Characteristics
-70 (for each triode) V g3 = 0V
- 0.5V
Triode 200 Pentode 6
-80
PLATE CURRENT, mA (Ip)

a a - 1V

-90
150
g3 - 1.5V
-100 4
g1 g2
-110
g1
-120 - 2V
100
k -130
k
-140 - 1.5V
f f f f 2
-150
50 - 3V
- 3.5V
- 4V
0 - 4.5V
0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 400 500 V (V) 600
a
PLATE VOLTAGE (Vp) 070067 - 11

Figure 1. The characteristics of a triode and a pentode.

6/2007 - elektor electronics 39

PROJECTS AUDIO

The amplifier published in this article

Triode Penthode delivers an output power of 29 watts
at a THD (total harmonic distortion)
d
8
d
8 of 2% (open-loop). This is a reasonable
[%] [%] d
amount of power considering the loga-
6 6
d3 rithmic characteristics of our ears, and
d d2
4 4
also because of the soft-clipping behav-
d2 iour (excessive signal peaks do not lead
2
d3
2 to aggressive distortion). If desired,
high-efficiency loudspeakers could also
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 be used.
PA [W] PA [W] 070067 - 12 The valve handbook from Philips [3]
states that a pentode push-pull output
stage with 2 EL34 has an efficiency of
Figure 2. Distortion with a triode and a pentode.
53%. This does, however, not take into
account the dissipation of the screen
fore be smaller, and as a result the trans- grid. This should be included for a fair
former is cheaper to make. Also, the ef- comparison between triode and pentode
fect of the power supply ripple is mostly output stages. Including the screen grid
+UA +UA cancelled in the output stage. dissipation the efficiency is 42%. The ef-
A disadvantage of a push-pull amplifier ficiency of the triode push-pull amplifier
a b
is the requirement of a phase shifter to presented here amount to 35%, so that is
drive the output stage with two signals still competitive.
that have equal amplitude and opposite
RG
phase.
Distortion
RG RK
The audibility of distortion is strongly
UG
CK
Output power and efficiency dependent on the spectrum. Crossover
It is incorrect to think that sound ap- distortion in transistor amplifiers is very
070067 - 13 pears twice as loud to the ear when annoying because it has a very broad
the power rating of the amplifier is two spectrum. In addition, this distortion
times larger. The sensitivity of our ears increases at lower output powers. With
Figure 3. a: Fixed value of grid voltage. b: With the aid of
is logarithmic and has a range of 0 dB valve amplifiers, the concerns are with
a cathode resistor a simple automatic negative grid voltage
(threshold of audibility) to 120 dB (pain lower-order harmonics and according to
adjustment can be made.
threshold). Doubling the output power Douglas Self [4] the threshold of audi-
of an amplifier gives a power gain of bility in this case is around 1%. There is
3 dB. therefore very little motivation to design
valve amplifiers with lower distortion.

DC bias setting
a b c A fixed negative grid voltage (Figure 3a)
R4 R11

V3.A
has the disadvantage that the DC bias
setting is dependent on device toler-
ances and ageing of the valve. It is often
necessary to make manual corrections
TR2
V1.A V2.A for the DC bias setting to obtain the de-
sired result. With an automatic nega-
R17
C6 tive grid voltage (Figure 3b) the grid-
IK cathode voltage is determined by the
RK
voltage drop across cathode resistor Rk,
C7
R18 which is caused by the cathode current.
In this method of negative feedback,
Rk determines the DC bias setting in a
significant way and the effects of valve
V1.B V2.B parameters are strongly reduced. If AC
negative feedback is not desired then Rk
R5 R12
typically needs to be decoupled with an
electrolytic capacitor.
V3.B

Simplified schematic
070067 - 14
In Figure 4, the simplified schematic for
the amplifier, the RC coupling compo-
Figure 4. Principle schematic for the triode push-pull amplifier. nents between the different stages have

40 elektor electronics - 6/2007

been omitted for simplicitys sake. stages because the wave shapes of the an opamp, which means that the usual
The low of the triodes used makes a output signals of the phase shifter are methods for negative feedback around
3-stage approach necessary. For the DC not equal at very large signal swings, opamps can be used here as well. The
bias setting of the output stage, an auto- which would result in more distortion in implementation of the current source
matic negative grid adjustment was cho- the output stage than is necessary. The Ik can be a resistor, the ohmic value of
sen, separate for each triode. As a result, second stage in this amplifier employs a which must be much greater than the
the DC offset is much smaller compared push-pull amplifier with a common cath- 1/S of the valves (where S is the mutual
to a common cathode resistor and this ode resistor. This resistor is not decou- conductance). This requires a negative
is advantageous with respect to the po- pled because the AC cathode currents power supply voltage of 50 VDC.
tential DC bias in the output transform- are in opposite phase and therefore do An important advantage of this design is
er. Decoupling of the cathode resistors not cause a voltage drop across Rk. The the complete push-pull structure so that
is necessary to prevent the preamplifier first stage is a differential amplifier, used the distortion and sensitivity to hum and
from having to deliver an even larger as a phase shifter. From all the circuits interference are minimal.
drive voltage. that are suitable for this purpose, this is
The output stage of a push-pull amplifi- the only type where both input termi-
er is often driven by a phase shifter. This nals remain freely available. By doing
The complete amplifier
is not recommended with triode output so, the design becomes similar to that of Figure 5 shows the complete schematic

ECC 83 ECC 82 6AS7

f f 1g 1a
f 5 1a f 5 1a 4 5
4 6 4 6

2k 3 7 1g 2k 3 7 1g 2k 3 6 1k

2 8 2 8
2g f f 1k 2g f f 1k 2 7
f
2a
1 9 1 9
1 8
2a fM S1 2a fM 2g f

Feedback
+220V +270V

R4 R11
2
22k
100k

C4 R15 V3.A
R3 1W 1W 1
C1 1k
1
8k2

33n
3
150p C2 V2.A
2
1 grey
33n
TR2 8
3
V1.A
2 blue

R2 R7 R13 R17
3 C6
390

1k2
470k

470k

Amplimo

R6 R9 R10 100 350V 4

6W red yellow
33k 470 4k7
R1 R8 R14 R18 red yellow
C7
1k2
470k

470k
470k

8
3A524
100 350V
6W
P1 7
50V 0
6 black
V1.B
C3
50k 6 white
7
6
33n V2.B
C5 R16
8 4
1k
R5 R12
33n V3.B
22k
100k

5
1W 1W
+220V R19 R20 +290V
33k 150
C8 1W C9 5W
V1 = ECC83
10 +270V V2 = ECC82 100
350V V3 = 6AS7 350V
070067 - 15

Figure 5. The complete schematic of the amplifier (one channel shown). Note the switchable negative feedback.

6/2007 - elektor electronics 41

PROJECTS AUDIO

operates as discussed below.

Suppose that, because of the drive sig-
D1 D2
nal, the anode current of V3a increases
F2 +290V significantly, Ua of V3a will then reduce
4x
TR1 1N4007 significantly. The influence of V3a on
400mA T
R21
the output transformer is now domi-
230V D3 D4 C10 C11
nant and this causes an increase in Ua of

150k
100 100 V3b. Since the Ua of triodes has a large
S1 350V 350V 1W
F1
effect on anode current, V3b does not
800mA T stop conducting despite the increase of
D5 R22 50V Ug (more negative), which results in a
100
1N4007
class-A operation of the output stage.
230V
40V
C12 C13 The quiescent current of about 10 mA
470 470
has very little effect on the efficiency. Be-
63V 63V cause of this class-A behaviour crosso-
ver distortion is precluded and the cur-
6V3
rent consumption from the power sup-
R23
ply is almost independent of the output
100

6V3
Amplimo V1 V2 V3 drive.
5N1609 4 4
9 9
7
The preamplifier (V2) has to be able
8
R24 5 5 to deliver two drive voltages of up to
100

70 VAC to the output stage and that plac-

es high demands on the dynamic range.
An ECC82 (12AU7) is very appropriate
070067 - 16
for this. To obtain the highest possible
drive voltage, R7, R8 and R9 are con-
nected to 50 V instead of ground. This
Figure 6. The power supply uses a special mains transformer which is available from Amplimo.
increases the power supply voltage to
V2 by 50 V to 320 V.
for the triode push-pull amplifier. The can be seen from the maximum allow- A hybrid DC bias setting was selected
power supply is shown separately in able value for the voltage between the here. R9 is a common cathode resistor
Figure 6. cathode and the filament (300 V). This (automatic negative grid adjustment).
The cost of the output valves and out- indicates high quality isolation. The re- The voltage across R9 is partially de-
put transformers often make the most maining properties of the 6AS7 are com- termined by the current through R10.
significant contribution towards the fi- parable to those of other power triodes. The consequence of this is that the DC
nal price tag of a valve power amplifier. The 3A524 output transformer (maxi- bias setting is a hybrid of automatic and
For this design we chose the 6AS7 valve mum 40 W) is generously sized for a 9- fixed-negative, which results in better
in combination with the 3A524 output watt amplifier. The primary impedance drive capabilities. Because V2 is a push-
transformer. The 6AS7 is a high quali- is 3545 . For optimal output drive the pull circuit of triodes as well, the distor-
ty valve for a relatively low amount of DC settings for the output valves are: tion is also small because of the cancella-
money (for details and pricing refer to tion of the even order harmonics.
www.amplimo.nl). The 6AS7 is a dual Ua = 270 V, Ia = 67 mA, Uk = 80 V and The DC bias setting combined with the
power triode (maximum dissipation Rk = 1k2. values of R11 and R12 ensures that suffi-
213 W) which was originally designed cient capacitive current can be delivered
to be the series-pass element in regu- Triode push-pull output stages have, by to the output stage at higher frequen-
lated high-voltage power supplies. This their very nature, a class-A characteristic cies. The input capacitance of V3a and

R21 = 150k 1W piv @ 1A

components list R22,R23,R24 = 100 D5 = 1N4007
P1 = 50k logarithmic law potentiometer
Resistors (all metal film 1%, 0.25W or Miscellaneous
0.6W unless otherwise specified) Capacitors Tr1 = mains transformer type 5N1609, pri-
R1 = 470k C1 = 150pF ceramic mary 230 V, secondary 230V/40V/6.3 V
R2 = 390 C2-C5 = 33nF 400V (www.amplimo.nl)
R3 = 8k2 C6,C7 = 47F 100V electrolytic Tr2 = output transformer type 3A524 (www.
R4,R5 = 100k 1W amplimo.nl)
C8 = 10F 350V electrolytic
R6 = 33k F1 = fuse, 600mA, slow
C9,C10,C11 = 100F 350V electrolytic
R7,R8 = 470k F2 = fuse, 300mA, slow
C12,C13 = 470F 63V electrolytic Aluminium corner profile, e.g. #
R9 = 470
R10 = 4k7 04.90.2208 (www.tessatronic.nl; www.
Valves display.nl)
R11,R12 = 22k 1W V1 = 12AX7 or ECC83 Self adhesive standoff, e.g., Conrad Electro-
R13,R14 = 470k V2 = 12AU7 or ECC82 nics # 532037-89
R15,R16 = 1k V3 = 6AS7 Self adhesive mounting for cable strap, e.g.,
R17,R18 = 1k2 6W (wire wound) (1) Conrad Electronics # 543234-89
R19 = 33k 1W Semiconductors:
R20 = 150 5W (wire wound) D1-D4 = 1N4007 or bridge rectifier 400V (1) matching desirable

42 elektor electronics - 6/2007

V3b amounts to about 40 pF.
For the phase shifter an ECC83 (12AX7)
is the most suitable, in particular be-
cause of its relatively high , the gain of
the first stage is as high as possible. The
influence of R6 on the offset (the non-
ideal current source functionality is of
concern here) is about 4%. Further im-
provement by increasing the negative
power supply voltage and a larger value
for R6 is not worthwhile.
The input signal for the amplifier is con-
nected to V1b and the negative feed-
back signal, via a switch and R3||C1
and R2, to V1a. Swapping the input
terminals results in positive feedback,
which causes the amplifier to oscillate
badly. It is therefore very important to
carefully check the numbering on the
valves and the colour codes of the out-
put transformer.
Because of the good open-loop charac-
teristics, a moderate negative feedback
Figure 7. The amplifier viewed from above.
factor of 3 (9.5 dB) was selected. The
negative feedback can be switched on
and off to be able to determine the dif- tively suppresses the ripple voltage (the example, the amplifier is switched off
ference in listening tests. When the neg- higher harmonics in particular), mains shortly after is has been switched on,
ative feedback is switched on, the input disturbances that are inductively coupled it is possible that the high voltage elec-
signal needs to be larger by a factor of 3 through the transformer and switching trolytic capacitors in the power supply
(600 mV instead of 200 mV for an output pulses from the rectifier diodes. Since the filter can take a very long time to dis-
power of 9 W). amplifier (including the output stages) charge completely. This is undesirable,
It is important to consider that with operates in class-A, the current consump- particularly from a safety perspective.
valve amplifiers, large negative feedback tion from the power supply is practically Connecting a bleeder resistor (R21) in
can cause RF instability in addition to constant and the use of series resistors is parallel with C10 and C11 discharges
AF instability. Because of the AF phase not a problem. the electrolytic capacitors to less than
shift resulting from the RC coupling be- In order to limit the hum from the fila- 50 VDC in about two minutes.
tween stages and the output transform- ment supply, the electrical centre of the
er, a very low frequency oscillation can filaments is connected to ground via R23
occur. In the past, this has sometimes and R24.
Realisation
been called motor-boating. Resistors Under certain circumstances, when, for The starting point for the construction
R15 and R16, the so-called grid stop-
pers reduce the risk of RF instability in
the output stage.

The power supply

The power supply section can be seen in
Figure 6. The power supply transform-
er, with the part number 5N1609, has
been specifically designed by Amplimo
Netherlands for this project, and is avail-
able from them (www.amplimo.nl). The
electrostatic shield has to be connected
to the chassis and its task is to divert
mains borne disturbances to earth that
could otherwise be capacitively coupled
through the transformer to the power
supply.
Triodes make high demands on the pow-
er supply ripple filter. The design of these
filters is based on a so-called -network,
such as C10||C11, R20 and C9. The series
resistor has a comparable effect to that of
the forward resistance of a valve rectifier.
This forms a low-pass filter which effec- Figure 8. This is how the components are mounted on the bottom side.

6/2007 - elektor electronics 43

PROJECTS AUDIO

of the enclosure (Figures 7 and 8) is an

aluminium corner profile (for exam-
ple type 04.90.2208, available from Tes-
satronics, Display and others). The pro-
file is normally supplied in a length of
1 m and can be used for four corner pro-
files of 25 cm each. The front and rear
panels are made from 3-mm thick hard
aluminium sheet and are attached to
the ends of the corner profiles with M5
bolts. The side panels (1.5 mm thick alu-
minium sheet) fit in the slots of the cor-
ner profiles. These side panels support
the chassis plate (2 mm thick alumini-
um plate with 4 cornered edges) with
M5 nuts and bolts. Between the chassis
and the front and rear panels is a gap
of 15 mm to ensure sufficient cooling.
The top and bottom plates (perforated
steel plate, 1 mm thick, with cornered
front and rear edges) is attached with
M3 bolts and square nuts that fit in the
corner profile.
The connecting and the mounting
of the components is done using the
Figure 9. Clipping behaviour at 11 W/1 kHz (5 V/div.).
hard-wired method. This takes a little
bit more time compared to assembling a
printed circuit board, but that shpild not (070067-I)
be an objection considering the simplic- value of 2%. This value also corresponds Literature
ity of the circuit. An added benefit is that to the limit before clipping occurs. [1] Lecture Notes on Electronics, Technical
the results are better, among other things Figure 9 shows the soft-clipping behav- University Delft, 1957.
because twisted wiring for the filaments iour at an output power of 11 W (5 V/ [2] Audio Frequency Amplifier Design, E. Ro-
has a lower risk of hum and is better div.). Figure 10 shows the open-loop denhuis, 1959 (reprinted by Audio Ama-
suited to handle large currents. The as- square-wave response at 2 kHz and teur Press, 1994)
sembly (see Figure 8) uses discs cut from 5 V/div.
[3] Electron Tube Handbook, Volume 1, Phi-
circuit board for the star-point ground, It is of interest to note that this amplifier, lips, 1964.
strips of circuit board for ground and because of the characteristics of the tri-
cable supports. The discs, strips and ca- ode output stage, is open-loop stable. [4] Audio Power Design Handbook, Douglas
Self, page 9.
ble supports are attached to the chassis
with self-adhesive stand-offs. There are
two options regarding the coupling ca-
pacitors C2 to C5: cheaper polyester foil
from, for example, ERO or high-quality
paper-in-oil from Jensen.
It is recommended to use 1 W/1% metal
film resistors for anode resistors R4, R5,
R11 and R12. That is because the larger
dimensions of these resistors are better
suited for dealing with high voltages.
Since this amplifier is implemented as a
complete amplifier, the front panel has
a power switch, input selector switch
and a volume control. On the back of
the enclosure you can add, in addition
to the usual inputs and outputs, the
switch for turning the negative feedback
on and off, so that it becomes very easy
to experiment with this.

Test results
With valve amplifiers it is customary
to give the maximum output power at
THD = 5%. Because this amplifier can
also be used open-loop we assumed a Figure 10. Square-wave response without feedback (2 kHz, 5 V/div.).

44 elektor electronics - 6/2007