Tube Audio Amp question

[[email protected]]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

 

[TimPerry]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

try using 833 tubes. they are about 500 W each and the plates glow orange in
normal operation.

 

[Meat Plow]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output tubes
in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using schematics
from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers made for guitar
amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running the highest power
supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended up with an extremely
loud stereo, and was putting out enough power that I once blew the glass
out of a window. The sound was clear as a bell too. I used some of the
best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to design
some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better than
semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it possible to
run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd assume the circuit
would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other words, run 2, 3, or
more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull parallel part of it). Is
this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four 6L6s,
running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go for 280
watts or maybe 560 watts....... Yeah, I already know getting an output
transformer will be tough. Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows out
of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a total of
32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems groovy.
(After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I should be able
to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW color organ,
strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of course the
original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection system, while
listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12" vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

You'd want to switch tubes to maybe a higher power pentode like a 6146.
There was someone experimenting with a 6 tube 1500 watt amp but I don't
remember what tubes he used just that the filiment current was around 10
amps.

 

[[email protected]]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

Just run all your pairs in parallel. You can get them to current share
well enough with some uncoupled cathode resistance.

There are higher power tubes of course. 6L6=KT66, which iirc have a
bigger brother in KT88. Then there are serious power tubes.

Its quite possible to make your own. In fact if you're prepared to use
a bell jar and pump, its quite easy. Those valves could be funky as
well as groovy. Not many amps have to pump down to operate. Using bulb
filaments for emitters will make it very visual.


NT

 

[boardjunkie]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

Why so much power? Sounds like overkill to me. Build 50w monoblocks and
use a set of effecient horn type speakers (Klipsch or the like).
That'll be plenty loud. If you want to run a bazillion pairs of output
tubes in parallel....good luck finding an output transformer to match
the total plate impedance.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Why so much power? Sounds like overkill to me. Build 50w monoblocks and
use a set of effecient horn type speakers (Klipsch or the like).
That'll be plenty loud. If you want to run a bazillion pairs of output
tubes in parallel....good luck finding an output transformer to match
the total plate impedance.

You hand wind one using the motor lams from an old 1 HP motor, and bus bar
copper hand insulated with cloth tape.

 

[Allodoxaphobia]

You hand wind one using the motor lams from an old 1 HP motor, and bus bar
copper hand insulated with cloth tape.

...during the peak of a lunar eclipse.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together?

Sure.


--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Required crap appended to avoid restrictions imposed by brain +
+ damaged idiots.
+
+ Server Response: '441 Posting Failed (Rejected by POST filter)', +
+ Port: 119, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 441,
+
+ Error Number: 0x800CCCA9
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[boardjunkie]

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!

I guess I missed this part reading too fast. If that's all you want to
do...use dynamite. It'll be cheaper, more efficient, and a real
*blast*.

Your post smacks of troll, but in the event you're serious, there's
always these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/CARVER-SILVER-7...ryZ67786QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Schematic:
http://www.ampslab.com/SCHEMATICS/CarverSilver7A.gif

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Your post smacks of troll, but in the event you're serious, there's
always these:

Schematic:
http://www.ampslab.com/SCHEMATICS/CarverSilver7A.gif

Looks like the motor controller for a streetcar!

 

[Baron]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

Trix used to make a cinema amplifier in the 50's. A pair of 813's with
nearly a Kv on the plate. If I recall they produced about 600 watts
into 100 volt line. The output trany was a toroid about 9 or 10 inches
in diameter, potted in a cast alloy case.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Back in the 60's I built a pair of amplifiers using four 6L6 output
tubes in push pull parallel mode. These were actually designed using
schematics from guitar amplifiers, and I used the output transformers
made for guitar amps. I ran these tubes to their limits by running
the highest power supply voltage as these tubes could handle. I ended
up with an extremely loud stereo, and was putting out enough power
that I once blew the glass out of a window. The sound was clear as a
bell too. I used some of the best and largest speakers I could get.

Well, these days I am old, retired now, and have had the urge to
design some tube amplifiers again. To me, they always sounded better
than semiconductor amps.

The 6L6 tubes were always my favorite tube. They were easy to get,
powerful and had a nice sound. But here's my question. Is it
possible to run EIGHT, or TWELVE, SIXTEEN of them together? I'd
assume the circuit would be to push pull parallel / Series. In other
words, run 2, 3, or more tubes in series TIMES FOUR (the push pull
parallel part of it). Is this possible?

I once figured that I was getting 140 watts RMS out of those four
6L6s, running everything at it's maximum. This time I'd like to go
for 280 watts or maybe 560 watts.......
Yeah, I already know getting an output transformer will be tough.
Probably need something custom made.

I might be old, but I still want to see if I can blow ALL the windows
out of the house, just to do it !!!!
I guess those of us who became adults during the 60's will never quite
give up the dreams. Somehow, a 1200 watt RMS system powered by a
total of 32 6L6 tubes and a wall of 18" woofers and horns just seems
groovy. (After I add another 200 Amp Breaker panel in the house), I
should be able to power these amps, along with a full spectrum, 10KW
color organ, strobes, blacklights, lava lamps, mirored balls, and of
course the original floating colored oil film kaleidoscope projection
system, while listening to the Woodstock soundtrack album on 12"
vinyl.

This could just be way farout, heavy, trippin, and totally groovy.

Mark

Use a pair of 4CX1500 (or larger) tubes. ;-)


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[boardjunkie]

Use a pair of 4CX1500 (or larger) tubes. ;-)


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Heh....yea. Transmitting tubes. I was gonna say a pair of 250TH.

 

[Michael Black]

Use a pair of 4CX1500 (or larger) tubes. ;-)

Not that any of this is a repair issue, but if you're going to
use those, you might as well go for watercooled tubes. Get
rid of that fan noise, and why not be out of the ordinary.

Michael

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Not that any of this is a repair issue, but if you're going to
use those, you might as well go for watercooled tubes. Get
rid of that fan noise, and why not be out of the ordinary.

Real men use 200 amp SCRs.



--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Required crap appended to avoid restrictions imposed by brain +
+ damaged idiots.
+
+ Server Response: '441 Posting Failed (Rejected by POST filter)', +
+ Port: 119, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 441,
+
+ Error Number: 0x800CCCA9
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[David Nebenzahl]

Homer J Simpson spake thus:

Real men use 200 amp SCRs.

Water-cooled?


--
Just as McDonald's is where you go when you're hungry but don't really
care about the quality of your food, Wikipedia is where you go when
you're curious but don't really care about the quality of your knowledge.

- Matthew White's WikiWatch (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Water-cooled?

Mercury!


--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Required crap appended to avoid restrictions imposed by brain +
+ damaged idiots.
+
+ Server Response: '441 Posting Failed (Rejected by POST filter)', +
+ Port: 119, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 441,
+
+ Error Number: 0x800CCCA9
+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Blake]

You'd want to switch tubes to maybe a higher power pentode like a 6146.
There was someone experimenting with a 6 tube 1500 watt amp but I don't
remember what tubes he used just that the filiment current was around 10
amps.

A higher power tube does seem to make more sense than combining 36 smaller
ones. But unless I'm mistaken, the 6146 is rated for 25 watt plate
dissipation, the same as the 6L6.

 

[TimPerry]

Use a pair of 4CX1500 (or larger) tubes. ;-)

3CX2500F3 even?... problem is the forced air cooling is so noisy.

 

[Meat Plow]

A higher power tube does seem to make more sense than combining 36 smaller
ones. But unless I'm mistaken, the 6146 is rated for 25 watt plate
dissipation, the same as the 6L6.

Must have read the tube data wrong or the data I was reading was a typo.

Some else suggested using an 813. I can't recall the site but someone
built a 1kw audio amp using them. This guy was a bit on eccentric side if
I recall correctly.