{"id":9057,"date":"2020-12-15T14:37:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/?p=9057"},"modified":"2020-12-15T14:37:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:37:41","slug":"mono-amp-ef37a-driver-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/2020\/12\/15\/mono-amp-ef37a-driver-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mono Amp: EF37a driver (part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I last share some of the experiments. I&#8217;ve done a lot with different drivers topologies and pentodes lately, yet not much time to sit down and do a proper write-up.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->I have a project in hands which is a small Mono amplifier to drive a Celestion guitar speaker I have in my Marshall clone. I will use this to play my synthesiser gear. Low volume levels needed in my workshop so can do with a nice small Single-Ended Amp. \u00a0For now, I focused on playing with different <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/2020\/09\/01\/pentode-driver-with-feedback-part-i\/\">driver topologies<\/a> and settled with the pentode with local feedback as a result of my evolving experiments and the guidance provided by JC Morrison on this topic:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9058\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9058\" style=\"width: 840px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9058\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/2020\/12\/15\/mono-amp-ef37a-driver-part-i\/ef37a-driver\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?fit=1700%2C1526&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1700,1526\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;EF37a driver with a twist&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?fit=840%2C754&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-large wp-image-9058\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=840%2C754&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"840\" height=\"754\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=1024%2C919&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=300%2C269&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=768%2C689&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=1536%2C1379&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?resize=1200%2C1077&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EF37a-driver.jpg?w=1700&amp;ssl=1 1700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">EF37a driver with a twist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>JC Morrison has covered this circuit in detail so I suggest you read his blog post which are fantastic. \u00a0Therefore I will only add a few notes about the circuit. I want to get a good gain level which can be done without sacrificing too much the input impedance. About 30K\u03a9-ish would be ok without pushing R2 to be too big. I&#8217;m trying to keep cathode bias with diodes to maximise the transconductance of the valve and therefore the open loop gain. The screen voltage stability will be derived from the mu-output of the CCS. In practice will have R6 and R7 with a trimpot in between for fine adjustment.<\/p>\n<p>Why the EF37a? I have a few of them NOS Mullard and have yet a fascination of pre-WWII valves. It sounds and looks great as well!<\/p>\n<p>Here is the nice small modular approach. Both boards are mounted on top of each other. The PCBs have been tested before, so it&#8217;s a question of soldering on now:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9059\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/2020\/12\/15\/mono-amp-ef37a-driver-part-i\/img_1356\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?fit=640%2C443&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"640,443\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 11&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1607792810&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.25&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;125&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.016129032258065&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_1356\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?fit=640%2C443&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9059\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?resize=640%2C443&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_1356.jpg?resize=300%2C208&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I hope to report further progress during the Holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a while since I last share some of the experiments. I&#8217;ve done a lot with different drivers topologies and pentodes lately, yet not much time to sit down and do a proper write-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[1392,1009],"class_list":["post-9057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-valves","tag-ef37a","tag-pentode-driver"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2r2tK-2m5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9060,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9057\/revisions\/9060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bartola.co.uk\/valves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}