Here's a simple to build hybrid tube headphone amplifier built around 12AU7 / ECC82 vacuum tube. I have always been intrigued by tube amplifiers, but most DIY kits are very expensive and use very high voltage. So I decided to build an amplifier that would be inexpensive and had the least amount of parts necessary to drive a pair of 32 ohm Grado headphones.
Having built several YAHA amps based on the fa-schmidt design, and a Szekeres Mosfet follower I wondered how the two would sound together. So I built the schematic into TINA-TI, a free spice based program to test circuits before the build, and the results were remarkable. Nearly 20dB of gain across 20Hz-100kHz from a 13VDC power supply.
As you see in the schematic and parts list, there are less than 30 discrete components and most DIY'ers will have them as spares from other builds. I chose the 12AU7 / ECC82 vacuum tube because it can be driven with low voltage and the filament voltage is 12.6 volts, so there is no need to regulate the voltage any further. I used 1/4W resistors in the first stage and 2W in the second. The 2W resistors may be overkill but I did not want to change them later. The 20ohm resistor must be a minimum of 5W and do not use wire wound, as the inductive characteristics will distort the response curve.
Build Accurate LC Meter and start making your own coils and inductors. This LC Meter allows to measure incredibly small inductances making it perfect tool for making all types of RF coils. LC Meter can measure inductances starting from 10nH - 1000nH, 1uH - 1000uH, 1mH - 100mH and capacitances from 0.1pF up to 900nF. The circuit includes an auto ranging and reset function to make sure the readings are as accurate as possible ... [more]
