23 August 2010

ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) Tube SRPP Preamp


Our friend Bruce has shared another one of his vacuum tube projects with the DIY community.  His latest project is the ForeWatt Tube Preamplifier which is an ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) tube preamplifier.  The tube preamp uses a SRPP topology with ECC802S tube that can be substituted with 12AU7 and ECC82 tubes.  The gain of the preamp can be set 7 (~17dB) or 11 (~21 dB).  The lower gain setting is realized when the cathode bypass capacitor is omitted.  Naturally a switch can be used to change gain if desired.  Shown in the photo below is the Type I preamplifier build which uses a manual rotary switch for input selection and a manual Alps Blue Velvet potentiometer to attenuate the input signal.  The fabulous wooden enclosure was built by fellow hobbyist Jeff.

DIY ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) Vacuum Tube SRPP Preamplifier

The power supply is solid state and the DC is used to heat the tubes.  In the Type II version of the preamplifier shown in the photo below a remote control module is used for signal selection and signal attenuation.  With the remote control module the preamplifier can also be used as a passive (no gain) preamplifier.

DIY ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) Vacuum Tube SRPP Preamplifier

Bruce reports that with the ForeWatt preamplifier there is very clean with plenty of detail, a wide soundstage and that typical warm lush tube sound.  The measure performance of the preamp is very good.

For full details about the ForeWatt Preamp, see the DIY ECC802S (12AU7 / ECC82) Tube SRPP Preamplifier project page.

More Tube Preamplifier Projects:

3 comments:

  1. Very lovely work. I prefer showing off the tubes.

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  2. it has a nice retro feel!

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  3. Can modify to use rec 6ax5gt ? how to do it ?
    my any suggestion modify...........!

    ReplyDelete