Single Ended power amplifier with type '45 triode (6)

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6

03-11-2003

The "culprits"?
Cees Pel, a fellow tube-aholic, advised me to use Allen Bradley in stead of Kiwame in the power supply to lower the B+ needed for the 4606. He told me that he found out that Allen Bradley and BlackGate NH in super E-cap are a "perfect match" in power supplies. Cees sent me some 100KiloOhm 1Watt Allen Bradleys and by matching I combined four of them into 22K, the value of the Kiwame. I have to say that I was astonished by the difference... I had been waiting for the Super E-cap and all other components to break in, knew that Super E-cap takes a really long time and thought that "it needed some more time". When the Kiwame was replaced by Allen Bradley all these break in effects were gone...(?) Instability in pinpoint and uncontrolled bass disappeared instantly... When the Allen Bradleys were replaced by a VTM wirewound resistor some ease and naturalness disappeared but pinpoint and control remained. Again substituted by Kiwame the pinpoint and control disappeared... Things look serious now.. Some consultation to TriodeDick learned that he experienced the same when using Kiwame... I talked about this with the distributor and he said to have no knowledge about this..
I used Kiwame on cathodes as well, so I ordered some Mills wirewound (known good) to replace them and learn if Kiwame function as doubtful as in B+. For the 4606 I ordered Mills 5 Watt and 12 Watt for the '45 at the Parts Connection. Only 3 days later the envelope arrived and I quickly replaced the Kiwames... Although not as big a difference as in the B+, again I noticed a distinct improvement. Mills is good, I knew that, but also clearly better than Kiwame... Sorry to say so..

And now?
Extending the breaking in period... When replacing the cathode resistors, the cathode by-pass capacitors are soldered upon thus needing some time to settle again. From time to time "Magique" performs remarkably good. Some more time and than a review will follow also in using different powertubes... (see page 1). See you..!?

Back...

_______________