Valve audio amplifier technical specification

Technical specifications and detailed information on the valve audio amplifier, including its development history.

Circuitry and performance

Characteristics of valves

The characteristics of valves as gain devices have direct implications for their use as audio amplifiers, notably that power amplifiers need output transformers (OPTs) to translate a high-output-impedance high-voltage low-current signal into a lower-voltage high-current signal needed to drive modern low-impedance loudspeakers (cf. transistors and FETs which are relatively low voltage devices but able to carry large currents directly).

Another consequence is that since the output of one stage is often at ~100 V offset from the input of the next stage, direct coupling is normally not possible and stages need to be coupled using a capacitor or transformer. Capacitors have little effect on the performance of amplifiers. Interstage transformer coupling is a source of distortion and phase shift, and was avoided from the 1940s for high-quality applications; transformers also add cost, bulk, and weight.

Basic circuits

The following circuits are simplified conceptual circuits only, real world circuits also require a smoothed or regulated power supply, heater for the filaments (the details depending on if the selected valve types are directly or indirectly heated), and the cathode resistors are often bypassed, etc.

The common cathode gain stage

The basic gain stage for a valve amplifier is the auto-biased common cathode stage, in which an anode resistor, the valve, and a cathode resistor form a potential divider across the supply rails. The resistance of the valve varies as a function of the voltage on the grid, relative to the voltage on the cathode.

In the auto-bias configuration, the "operating point" is obtained by setting DC potential of the input grid at zero volts relative to ground via a high-value "grid leak" resistor.