Classic Valve compliment implemented with

Simple High Performance

Vacuum Tube Circuits

What is a Vacuum Tube and how dose it work

Thermionic Emission is reached where some of the free electrons become so agitated
that they actually escape from the conductor. They "boil" from the conductor’s surface.
The process is similar to steam leaving the surface of boiling water. Heating a conductor
to a temperature sufficiently high causing the conductor to give off electrons is called
Thermionic emission.

Thomas Edison discovered the principle of Thermionic emission as he looked for ways
to keep soot from clouding his incandescent light bulb. Edison placed a metal plate inside
his bulb along with the normal filament. He left a gap, a space, between the filament and
the plate. He then placed a battery in series between the plate and the filament, with the
positive side toward the plate and the negative side toward the filament. When Edison
connected the filament battery and allowed the filament to heat until it glowed, he
discovered that the ammeter in the filament-plate circuit had deflected and remained
deflected after this diode from Edison De Forest was getting attention Using his new
tube that he called a triode because it had Three elements he was able to control relatively
large changes of current with very small voltages. However! It was not amplification.
The Process of amplification is of taking a small signal and increasing its amplitude. In
De Forest’s circuit, the small input signal was 3 volts dc. What De Forest got for an
output? Was a variation in plate current of 7.5 mill amperes Instead of amplification, De
Forest had obtained what is called conversion

DeForest had in his tube placed the grid very close to the cathode. Therefore, it had a
greater effect on current flow from the cathode than did the plate, which was placed at a
much greater distance from the cathode. For this reason, De Forest was able to double the
current flow through the tube with only +3 volts applied to the grid. DeForest had
certainly hit on something. Now the problem was to find out what would happen when a
negative potential was applied to the grid. When De Forest applied -3 volts to the grid, he
found that plate current decreased to half of what it was when the grid had no voltage
applied. The reason for this is found in the principle of the Ying and the yang the
negatively charged grid simply repelled some of the electrons back toward the cathode. In
this manner, the attractive effect of the plate was decreased, and less current flowed to the
plate. This wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. As it stood, the circuit did not appear to
be very useful. Well my friends wrong were the skeptics and naysayer and deforests
Triode marched the information technology forward because we could in addition to
simple Rectification and the absolute verity of circuits that have been formed around that
triode thing De Forest experimented with receiving long-distance radio signals and in
1907 patented an electronic device named the audion. Until this time, the radion was
considered little more than "wireless telegraphy," since it sent Morse code instead of
conveying actual sound. De Forest's new three electrode triode vacuum tube boosted
radio waves as they were received and made possible which allowed the human voice,
music, or any broadcast signal to be heard loud and clear.
What is this a Tube Amp from A solid state guy
Phil is primarily involved in solid state amplifier design so the last thing one would
expect is a Tube amp out of Uncle Phil. The circuit topology is just what one would
expect out of Phil however, Unconventional and or obscure. Packaging is highly efferent
so as all components fit upon one PCB including the Output and power transformers. The
design goal of the Tube head is the same as for the PPA, a superb quality Amplifier that
is intended for the Do it your self Audiophiles that desire a tube amp that has sonically is
as close to Solid state as valves can get.

The Legendary sounding 6BQ5/EL84 Output tubes are operated in push pull but unlike
conventional Push pull a phase inverter is not used as the output stage uses a unique
method of driving the push pull output transformer. This method Was first popularized by
Melvin Leibowitz, Electronics World, June 1961 in the 6 Watt Compact Hi-Fi Amplifier
http://www.triodeel.com/compact.html

The Leibowitz circuit results in only one DC blocking Capacitor in the entire signal path
and for this an Audiophile Film type of sufficient capacity to afford extended Bass
response is specified in Phil’s Design. The elimination of the typical phase inverter stage
removes an entire active circuit from the signal path yet still retails all the qualities of the
more conventional Tube design. Our technique naturally uses the output tubes to do what
normally requires an additional stage. This topology is now known as the self split
configuration. This design has natural inherent balance and thus flow with Phil’s natural
design concepts of operating the device under conditions most natural to the devices
employed in the circuit. The Self split output stage topology operates the output tubes
naturally out of phase and thus dispensing with one entire tube from the signal path while
gaining improvements in symmetry as opposed to a poorly implemented phase inverter
stage.

The Leibowitz circuit also popularized a now legendary small output Tube the highly
praised EL84 or 6BQ5 for Americans. This tube has been extensively used in highly
sought after Fender Guitar amplifiers in addition to Classic Audiophile Amplifiers of the
Tube the Classic Marantz Model 5 is but one of many Audiophile applications of the
EL84/6BQ5 Output tube. In the Tube head circuit the operating voltages are low enough
to safely operate the SV83. This is a tube originally designed for video amplification and
is highly linear. It has the same 12 watt plate dissipation rating as the EL84 and higher
transconductance (Gain) The normal problem with this tube in other amplifiers is a
screen grid rating limit of 200 volts. Since the total B+ voltage powering the tube circuits
is far less than 200 volts we can use this tube to full advantage and get closer to the speed
and detail of solid state than with typical EL84 and 6BQ5 Type Tubes. Or the more
conventional audiophile and Musical interment types from NOS sources and the JJEL84
is rising up the ranks as the definitive EL84 Tube. This with large value power supply
capacitors and individual bypassing and filtration for each section and you have a tube
amplifier of extremely good technical performance. Add more of Hills madness and you
have a true work of valve artistic design and Musicality, featuring the punch and
dynamics of pentode operation or the more detailed and refined Triode mode. The Output
tubes screen grids are heavily bypassed and filtered with RC techniques employing large
reservoir capacitors to aid stability and provide a blacker background
Schematic diagram Amplifier section