audio 47

An All- Triode Amplifier

Built at relatively low
cost, this audio system
gives excellent results

By NORMAN BLAKE

Photo of the baffle, above,

with grill cloth removed to
show the arrangement of
the three speakers. At
right is a rear view of the
amplifier. As a matter of
personal preference, the
author did not include
variable tone controls.
DESIGNED for FM as well as the
variable reluctance phonograph
pickups, the cost of this high -
quality reproducing system is
low compared to the quality of repro-
duction. Triode tubes are used in the
amplifier becaúse of their low distor-
tion and their stability. They also
simplify the design of the amplifier
without sacrificing performance. The
reproducing system has three separate
loudspeakers to cover the entire audio
range.
The tube line-up consists of a 6SC7
as a two -stage preamplifier, a 6N7
phase inverter, followed by pushpull
6C5's driving a pair of 6A3's as a pow-
er output stage. The circuit is shown
in Fig. 1. The straightforward ampli-
fier presents no particular problems in
construction. Its response, not includ-
ing the preamplifier, is flat within 3 db
from 50 to 15,000 cycles without com-
on the amplifier input. This network
accentuates the bass about 10 db below
400 cycles and produces a gradual rise
in the high frequencies starting around
1,500 cycles. This compensates for the
low- frequency characteristics of record-
ings.
The higher frequencies are attenu-
ated somewhat unless the volume con-
trol is full on, due to shunting effect of
stray capacitance to ground and the
Miller effect. A 100 -µµf capacitor on the
volume control compensates for these
effects. Since the attenuation is a func-
tion of the setting of this control, the
100 -µµf capacitor automatically cor-
050.4d
moo 6N7
o0K
rects the condition as the volume con-
trol is varied.
The over -all gain of the amplifier is
fairly high and the usual precautions
should be observed as with any high -
gain wide -range amplifier, such as
shielding, decoupling, and power sup-
ply filtering. Resistors and capacitors
in high- impedance circuits must be
carefully located to avoid hum pickup
and undesirable feedback. Some objec-
tionable 60-cycle hum in the preampli-
fier, caused by a.c. currents in the
chassis ground, was eliminated by not
using the chassis as a conducting
ground for the input to the preampli-
fier. One side of the phonograph pickup
lead was grounded directly to the
socket of the preamplifier tube.
Good reproduction of the entire audio
range is best accomplished with more
than one loudspeaker. This requires
some means of coupling the speakers
to an amplifier to allow each speaker
to reproduce only that portion of the
audio spectrum in which it operates
$A3(2)
500, OUT

pensation.
The audio output measured at 1,000
cycles is 10 watts before noticeable am-
plitude distortion is observed on an
oscilloscope. This is about the maxi- +350
mum undistorted output that can be 05
K
expected from a pair of 6A3's with
resistance -coupled drivers and self -bias.
Distortion is more noticeable below 10M

100 cycles but this is normal for

medium -grade output transformers.
The preamplifier is conventional as HIVAC

used with the G-E pickup. Further low -

and high- frequency accentuation is
necessary with this circuit and is ac-
complished with a bridged -T network
OCTOBER, 950
E. Sy
Fig. 1- Circuit of the amplifier. Both high and low frequencies are boosted by
the bridged T network in the input. No variable tone controls are provided.

www.americanradiohistory.com
48I Audio
most effectively. Such a frequency-
dividing network consists of low- and
highpass filters connected to the ampli-
fier with the speakers acting as loads
on filter outputs. Filters used for this
purpose are relatively simple since
sharp frequency characteristics are not
necessary or desirable.
When using two speakers, one of the
most common and economical methods
is to mount the high- frequency unit
coaxially in front of the low- frequency
unit. The high-frequency speaker is
comparatively small and will not seri-
ously interfere with the operation of
the larger low- frequency speaker. In a
coaxial arrangement the crossover fre-
quency is generally well above 1,000
cycles.
Larger and more expensive dual sys-
tems use separate units with the woof-
er mounted in a suitable baffle and the
tweeter mounted externally on the baf-
fle cabinet. The higher audio frequen-
cies reproduced by the tweeter have
more directional characteristics and a
wide -angle cellular -type horn is used
to disperse the radiation.
LO FR (50-BOOn) )SOOn
500nIN t °COMMON
q.0e34H
HI FREQ(E00-4000N)50On
.53 .01
HI FREQ44O00i5,000N1500n
Fig. 2 -The frequency dividing network
for the speakers. The inductors can be
wound on cores from old transformers.
The more expensive systems favor a
comparatively low crossover frequency
(below 1,000 cycles) while less expen-
sive ones use a much higher crossover
frequency. The lower frequency is more
desirable when performance in the gov-
erning factor : the greatest amount of
acoustical energy developed by a full
symphony orchestra is below 600 cycles
and is readily handled by the larger
speaker. If the crossover frequency is
high (above 1,000 cycles), the 12- or
15 -inch speaker must reproduce sound
which is too high for its physical size
and will introduce frequency, ampli-
tude, and intermodulation distortion.
If the crossover is much below 1,000
cycles, the relatively small high -
frequency unit must withstand the
larger amplitude movement of the voice
coil caused by the lower frequencies.
While other factors are involved in
loudspeaker design, these are the most
important. Three speakers with the
audio spectrum divided among them will
correct at least some of these diffi-
culties.
The three units used in this system
are a 15 -inch PM dynamic to cover the
low-frequency range from 50 to 600
cycles. An 8-inch PM dynamic works
in the middle range from 600 to the
speaker's upper frequency limit. For
the upper audio range from 4,000 to
15,000 cycles a small horn-type (Uni-
versity), metal -diaphram tweeter is
used with a dispersing horn. These
three units are mounted in the front of
a complete enclosure of 9 cubic feet
lined with a sound -absorbing material.
The dividing network
An ideal three -way dividing network
for this arrangement would be a low -
pass, bandpass, and a highpass filter
fed by an amplifier with each speaker
driven from the output of its appropri-
ate filter. A much simpler and satisfac-
tory crossover network shown in Fig. 2
consists of a complementary low- and
highpass filter arranged as a two -way
dividing network with a crossover fre-
quency of 600 cycles according to con-
ventional filter design. This filter pro-
vides an attenuation of 10 db per octave
above the cutoff frequency of 600 cycles,
which is sufficient to prevent the low -
frequency speaker from absorbing pow-
er at the higher frequencies. The high-
pass section feeds the 8 -inch speaker
and, while this section of the network
does not attenuate above 600 cycles, the
high-frequency characteristics of the
speaker itself provide gradual sloping
of the frequencies above 3,000 or 4,000
cycles. Energy for the high- frequency
tweeter is also obtained from the high-
pass section of the dividing network
with a .01 -µf capacitor in series with
the primary of the speaker matching
transformer (500 to 8 ohms). The
crossover frequency of the two high -
frequency speakers is not clearly de-
fined and their ranges overlap.
Voice - coil -to- 500 -ohm transformers
are used on all three speakers because
the dividing network is designed for
500-ohm termination. The network can
be designed for voice -coil impedance
but the large values of capacitors re-
quired are impractical and 500 ohms is
a good compromise, transformers of
this impedance being readily available.
(Constructors who do not wish to
use the three additional output trans-
formers at the speakers will find
crossover network data for voice -coil
impedances on page 83 of RAnio-
ELECTRONICS for April, 1950. Connect
the midrange speaker to the terminals
marked tweeter in that data and con-
nect the high- frequency tweeter as
shown in this article through a capac-
itor whose value is 20% of Cl. Thus
for a 16-ohm tweeter this capacitor
would be 1.6 µf. Editor)
Winding the inductors
The inductances used in the dividing
network can be made by winding the
proper number of turns of wire on the
I section of an EI-type laminated iron
core such as used in small power or
audio transformers. Only the I section
of the cd're is used in this case since
the inductance is small. If a closed -
core type is used, considerably fewer
turns will be required for a given value
of inductance, but the Q of the result-
ing coil will be reduced because of
losses in the core material. If no iron
is used, a much larger number of turns
of wire are needed to get the same
value of inductance. The Q in this case
will be reduced because of losses (d.c.
resistance) in the copper.
The I section of core consists of lami-
www.americanradiohistory.com
nations 4 inches long, 11/1 inch wide,
and .014 inch thick, stacked to % inch.
The winding uses 2 inches of core space,
leaving 1 inch of core extending beyond
each end of the winding.
For an inductance of 0.133 henry,
use 1,200 turns of No. 26 enameled wire
random -wound over 2 inches of core
space. For an inductance of .0834 henry
wind 1,050 turns of No. 26 enameled
wire the same way. This gives an ap-
proximate value of inductance but will
be satisfactory because the value is not
critical.
For greater accuracy, the inductance
of these coils can be adjusted by spread-
ing the laminations which extend be-
yond the winding. This increases the
inductance considerably because it
tends to close the magnetic circuit
around the coil. Up to a point the Q
is improved somewhat. Some means of
measuring the inductance must be used
with this method. If an inductance
bridge is not available, a fairly accu-
rate method is to measure the maximum
voltage developed across the inductance
when it resonates with a known capaci-
tance.
For a coil of 0.133 henry wind about
900 turns on a core as previously ex-
plained and connect as shown in Fig. 3
with C equal to 0.19 p1. Set the gen-
erator to 1,000 cycles and spread the
core laminations on each end of the
coil until the voltmeter reads maximum.
This indicates resonance. It is impor-
tant that the output impedance of the
signal generator be approximately
equal to the resistance of the resonant
circuit which is 46 ohms, otherwise it
may be difficult to find resonance. With
0.5 volt from the signal generator,
there will be between 8 and 10 volts
across the coil at resonance.
SIG GEN IOOON
50-100..
yTVM
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE 0-IOyAC
Fig. 3- Simple hookup for measuring L.
The same procedure is used to adjust
the other coil to 0.0834 henry. Start
with about 700 turns and use 0.3 ftf
for C.
No variable tone controls are used
in this amplifier simply as a matter of
personal preference. The fixed accen-
tuation of bass and treble provided by
the compensating bridged T network is
both desirable and sufficient with the
fiat characteristics of the amplifier and
the speaker system. Many brands of
recordings were tried and, while the
different characteristics were notice-
able, they were not extreme and no
variable bass or treble controls were
thought necessary.
Materials for Amplifier
Resistors: 2-3,300, -9 -100, 2- 27,000,
I -47,000, 2-
1
51,000, 7- 100,000, 5- 220,000, 3- 470,000
ohm; 2 -2,2
megohm, I/,-watt resistors; -500 ohm, 10 watt, re-
1
sistor; 1- 500,000 -ohm potentiometer.
Capacitors: -50, -100 µµf mica; -.005, 2 -.01,
1 1 1
4-.05, 600 -volt paper; 2 -10, 2 -16, 2 -30 µf, 450 volt,
electrolytic.
Miseell : 375.0- 375 -volt, I50 -ma, power trans-
former with 6.3 -volt and 5 -volt filament windings;
henry, 150 -ma choke; 5,000 ohms to 500 ohms
10-
output transformer; tubes, sockets chassis, switches,
hookup wire, and assorted hardware.
RADIO -ELECTRONICS for