Posted by akhilesh [ 204.97.214.168 ] on May 22, 2004 at 10:58:05:
In Reply to: Re: Awesome discussion! posted by Wayne Parham on May 22, 2004 at 10:34:26:
Again, great posts from you gurus!
This explains: a) why the power caps in the ASUSA amp i just bought (and which is sounding really good now btw, maybe the cheap sovtek el84 output tubes i got with it were new & needed to break in!) has small caps in parallel with the larger electrolytic caps. I thnk the person who built it really did try to get the most from this little amp, and it sounds good!
Also, i built the cheap ($139) kit from antique sound a while back, and it uses a REALLY cheap full wave rectifier (all diodes in one small block, costs $3 or so at antiue sound) along with two really cheap power caps, and it's dead silent!
My impression is that silence is not the only benefit of a good power supply: a clean DC will also lead to better sound? Or is dirt in the power supply ALWAYS translated as hum?
Finally, from a pragmatic standpoint, what i have learnt is: Use a tube or a full wave FRED rectifier, along with a CLC filter, with fast caps in parallel with the electrolytic caps, or use blackgate/cerafine. Coorect me if i am mistaken!
This knowledge itself is very useful for us newbie amp hobbyists.
thanx
-akhilesh