Bottlehead Forum

Bottlehead Kits => Crack => Topic started by: xcortes on June 29, 2013, 02:31:25 PM

Title: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: xcortes on June 29, 2013, 02:31:25 PM
Looking at the WE 421A datasheet it seems that a plate follower preamp could be built with a plate resistance of less than 400 ohms at somewhere around 40 to 60 mA. The crack ps delivers up to 140mA at 170 v so instead of the 12au7 an active shunt regulator could be used for both channels, maybe even one per channel. It looks like there's enough room for active shunt reg and c4s loading.
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: xcortes on June 29, 2013, 05:46:59 PM
80v rp, 60mA and -8v bias look perfect to allow extra voltage and current for regulation and c4s. I could dump around 15mA through each section of the 12au7
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: keto on June 29, 2013, 06:14:38 PM
At that voltage, could you get away with a choke-input PSU filter?
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: Paul Joppa on June 30, 2013, 04:34:49 AM
Yes, we did that. Used a pair of 7233s. Bass was great, but the highs still had an edge which was removed by using the 300B.
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: xcortes on June 30, 2013, 06:44:36 AM
I have an unused crack and a WE 421A.  So I'll give it a shot with the soeedball boards.

Paul, did you skip or maintain the 12au7?  I'm planning on skipping it.
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: Paul Birkeland on June 30, 2013, 07:13:16 AM
The 9 pin socket was maintained to provide the shunt regulator for the preamp tubes.  I think a 5687 was used, but there are other choices.

With the plate follower, you won't need equal regulator current. 

If you want to try whacky things with the Crack chassis and parts, you can always e-mail me ;)
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: Doc B. on June 30, 2013, 07:17:07 AM
Yeah we got a whole bunch of PB's frankencracks around here.
Title: Re: Poor man's BeePre
Post by: xcortes on June 30, 2013, 07:37:51 AM
Thanks guys. I'm so impressed with the Beepre and having the crack lying around it's a no brainer.

PB: you will get mail!