Elevating heater supply

debk · 3830

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Offline debk

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on: May 03, 2011, 05:18:02 AM
I have a SRPP circuit using 6n6p Russian tubes.  I am using 6.3VDC for the heater.  With a B+ of 300V it puts the upper triode heater to cathode voltage about 143V about 50% above the max 100V difference.

How would you suggest I elevate the DC heater supply?  If I do nothing how fast would I expect to damage the tubes.

Thanks

Debra

Debra K

Eros 2Phono amp
BeePre2, Psvane ACME 300b
Kaiju, Linlai Elite  300b
Monamour 2a3 amps various tubes
Sota Sapphire, Pete Riggle Woody Tonearm, Kiseki Purpleheart Cartridge
Rega P6 Ania Pro cartridge
Roon Nucleus
MHDT Labs Orchid DAC
Jager speakers


Offline Paul Joppa

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Reply #1 on: May 03, 2011, 05:51:57 AM
Elevate the heater supply to about +75v, with a voltage divider across the 300v supply. That brings both cathodes well within the usual +/-100v limits. A 220K and 68K resistor is close enough.

Bypass the 75v point to ground with a capacitor. I'd use an electrolytic of at least 10uF, bypassed with a ceramic of 0.01uF or greater. The large cap is to remove any common-mode hum from the filament winding, the small one is to take out radio frequency noise (the electrolytic has a relatively large parasitic inductance and looses effectiveness somewhere around 10kHz-100kHz).

To be extra-anal about it, center-tap the filament supply wit a pair of small resistors, 25 to 100 ohms each - or use the CT if the transformer winding has one.

Historical note - the first version of the Paramour had no bias on the 12AT7 heaters, which were in SRPP. I was counting on the leakage between cathode and heater to settle at an intermediate voltage. However, this contributed to a bit of a hum problem. Now I always ground the heater power, with a capacitor if it is biased and directly otherwise.

Paul Joppa


Offline debk

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Reply #2 on: May 03, 2011, 07:54:13 AM
Paul
Thanks for the info.
One other question somewhat off topic.
I assume using LED's to bias the lower triode is no problem, but is using a CCS instead of the resistor between the the upper and lower triodes of the SRPP of any advantage?

Thanks again

Debra

Debra K

Eros 2Phono amp
BeePre2, Psvane ACME 300b
Kaiju, Linlai Elite  300b
Monamour 2a3 amps various tubes
Sota Sapphire, Pete Riggle Woody Tonearm, Kiseki Purpleheart Cartridge
Rega P6 Ania Pro cartridge
Roon Nucleus
MHDT Labs Orchid DAC
Jager speakers