Lorin, of Electric Western, writes:
People get excited about tubes, and they do some nifty things with them (even beyond audio). I’m trying to make working with them a little more accessible.
So, I published a Power Supply design for tube experiments – with redundant safety and small size in mind, am providing a kit of said design, and published a free 6SJ7 preamp which you CAN BREADBOARD with the above supply.
It’s all here. I’d appreciate feedback.
Also, what is scary about making with vacuum tubes? Is it the 50 to 500V DC plate supplies? Is it the “don’t open the TV/microwave” fear? I’d like to know. My bread-boarded preamp sounded just as nice as some $300 products I’ve seen for iPods and such. Maybe I’m just an idiot for pursuing this instead of a $2000 iPod enhancer design…
8 thoughts on “Vacuum tube power supply kit from Electric Western”
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Tubes are analog and that is way cool.
Analog for sound is ideal, not digital. Digital for sound is about mass production and instant access.
I still have vinyl records, so I think your tube circuits are great!
Yeah old dchool!
Keep on makin stuff…
Dino
Thanks! this is great.
For me, it is the high plate voltages. I don’t know much about power supply design, so I’ve only played with starved-source (i.e. low voltage) designs so far.
Those 51-volt avalanche diodes are likely to be very noisy. Put capacitors across them (0.1 uF) and see how much of the noise goes away.
Tubes, where it all started from, and there are still applications where tubes do better than sand!
If we keep experimenting with tubes, the past is not forgotten!