So as I said in my post The Next Amp, I kind of settled on the triode strapped KT88 based on the power supply. Now I’m not so sure.
I had settled on that decision, but then I began working the power supply. And I can’t seem to get the numbers to come out the way I think they should. It’s not really that surprising given that traditional design approaches use slightly different transformer specifications than what is generally published by design houses. But I finally decided that, before I decide on the amp, I’m going to simply prototype the power supply using the XPWR011 under load and see what the voltages look like for a couple of different rectifier tubes. What this means is that the triode strapped 807 stage that I prototyped way back in 2017 when talking about power stage distortion is back on the table.
The first thing I had to do was make sure I could adequately test the prototype. Unfortunately, my current hig power loads were insufficient to get to the 4.5kΩ level I needed for testing. So I got on eBay, found an appropriate rheostat, and built myself another high power variable load.
Now that I have another high power load, I can daisy chain my load boxes to give me the load I want. This means I can get moving on the power supply prototype and see how the actual unit will perform.
Merry Christmas everyone!
As always, questions and comments are welcome.