Recent Custom-Build Stereo Amplifier (Home Use)

Above: a very minimal single-ended stereo amplifier with very low gain, designed to accept headphone-level input from an iPod or Laptop and drive a pair of loudspeakers.

The circuit design is extremely simple – Each 1/2 of a 6SN7 feeds the grid of a 6L6 through a .1uf capacitor.  There is a 3-stage power supply with a choke filter before the B+ hits the output transformer.   I have built a couple dozen of these, and the design works well – the sound is very clean and direct; the small 8w output transformers do roll off the very low end, but I have never found this to be an issue with the music that I listen to.   Easy to add a powered sub to the system if one was into rap or heavy orchestral music. BTW, I use this very same circuit, with the same components, for music listening at home; I have mine connected to the output of an Airport Express, powering a pair of Bose 201 speakers. For instances when customers have wanted to hook the unit up to a line-level (rather than headphone-level) output, I substitute a 6SL7 for the 6SN7.  This requires simply changing the cathode resistors on the input tube socket and gives 3x the voltage gain.

What interests me in this design is not the mundane circuit – it is the overall appearance/sculptural aspect of the unit.  I arrived at this particular form through consideration of the appearance of the vacuum tube; as much as possible, I have tried to make the overall complete unit an amplified echo of the tube itself.  The circuit is laid out extremely carefully and the components/wires color-coded (red for B+, orange for audio), green for grounds); it’s my perhaps naive hope that someone unfamiliar with audio circuits could look at/into this piece and maybe gain some understanding of the way that a tube audio amplifier works.