In my last post I threw in a comment at the end pointing out that lowering plate load resistance will play a part in how the cathode bypass capacitor behaves. Someone asked, so I thought an example of how this affects things might be in order.
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Cathode Bypass and Frequency Range
There seems to be a little confusion concerning the true effects of cathode bypass on low frequency amplifier performance. The truth is, gain benefits from cathode bypass are limited. And not by capacitor size, but by the basic design of the amplifier stage.
Continue readingA Tale of Two Tubes – New vs. Old
Back in November, in my post concerning Tubes and Tube Testers, I talked about how I was not really a fan of generic tube testers. In that post I sited a statement from the RCA “Receiving Tube Manual”, RC-30, about testing tubes.
The tube tester cannot be looked upon as a final authority in determining whether or not a tube is satisfactory. An actual operating test in the application will give the best possible indication of a tube’s worth.
So I thought that as a simple demonstration I would collect some data from a couple of tubes; one new and one rather ‘used’. The results are really kind of surprising.
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