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Our universe became a little disordered last year when we introduced the single chassis LD dual mono. Due to escalating costs the 8 year old LD monoblock was not sustainable as a product on two counts: 1. cost of materials and manufacturing had almost tripled since the original Billie was offered for $700 (including all the upgrades we progressively built into the kit) and 2. shipping overseas by Fedex had doubled from <$200USD originally to >$400USD by 2009 (also due to the extra weight of all the upgrades and enhancements).
read more »On the right:
All the AC stuff - IEC connector, transformers, power switch
power transformer matrix:
-1 large one for B+ and 2 small ones for filament supply
- terminal strips allow easy switching and adding/subtracting voltages for many circuits, KT88/2A3 PP, 300b or what-have-you SE
On the left:
All the DC stuff - FCUPS (film cap universal power supply), ABS (active bias supply), input filter caps
- FCUPS: all film caps power supply in a package comparable in size to toxic electrolytics.
- electronic choke on board with equivalent 500h allows use as virtual battery supply.
- ABS modules. These lock the bias of each tube so anode current is in perfect balance so no DC goes across the OPT core.
power supply: we know that fast recovery and energy storage are prime ingredients for a good sounding power supply; unfortunately the two qualities seem to be mutually exclusive. Add tons of capacitance and you get energy storage BUT very slow recovery and sluggish sound. If we go with small film caps we get very fast recovery but with just a few successive transients and we quickly run out of steam . Depending on priorities different paths are taken. In Asia it is very common to see power supplies with 10 micro farad film capacitors in the pi filter with their characteristic sound. in the West is common to see huge electrolytics or banks of oil caps, 200+ micro farad per leg.
read more »When it's there your ears know it, but words don't seem to be able to describe it-- its the soul of music. We've have playing a build up of the Simple 300B as described in this post.
Some more on the circuit:
This is not "typical 300B" operation and needs a 5K load. Power is around 7w at <3% THD.
The V/I ratio is more like 45 than 300B (250v/40ma scaled up to 350v/60a) and, dare I say it, sounds more like a 45 but with much more heft.
Actually it is a WE Data suggested operating point. WE notes 7w @ 4K load with around 3.3% 2nd HD. With a 3K load you get 8w at 5% THD.
Crank the current up to 80ma into 2.5K and you'll get more traditional 300b sound and 10w Class A1 or more if you drive the grid positive.