Beginner tube DIY projects

[Hummingwire]

Following the advice of Potato Cakes in his "Before you begin your DIY journey" thread (https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=68195.msg911474#msg911474) I am starting a new thread for my question, which is the following:

After a few solid state low voltage projects, I am looking to ramp things up and embark on a tube journey. My goal is to build an LA2A from scratch, but I don't have the skills and experience yet. So first I'd like to do something more simple. Does anyone have a good recommendation?

The criteria:
- preferably a full kit (but not necessarily)
- preferably a compressor (but not necessarily)
- preferably a 500 series (you guessed it, not necessarily)
- preferably great bang for buck when finished

Kudos!

 

[weiss]

I‘d start with a simple pultec style eq for example g pultec. There also exist several some 500 modules to begin with.
I don’t know any simple tube compressor project at the moment.

 

[pucho812]

Simple tube compressors would be the la2a. It's simple as it is well documented and  parts for it are readily available.  You can even get enough parts from various vendors for a kit. Chassis here, tube sockets there, and so on.

 

[dmp]

A tube project in 500 series is difficult since it needs a DC-DC converter to realize the high voltages. And the overall power spec per unit is a challenge with the heater tube requirements.

There have been a few successful ones (like a G9 in 500) but not many

There are several good PCBs with BOMs for tube compressors:

DLA-2A:
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=32677.0

Sta Level or Federal Varimu:
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=53011.0

PTP authentic LA-2A
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=63423.0

I wouldn't call any of these simple though. Advanced projects that will take skill to build correctly.

 

[pucho812]

A tube project in 500 series is difficult since it needs a DC-DC converter to realize the high voltages. And the overall power spec per unit is a challenge with the heater tube requirements.

There have been a few successful ones (like a G9 in 500) but not many

There are several good PCBs with BOMs for tube compressors:

DLA-2A:
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=32677.0

Sta Level or Federal Varimu:
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=53011.0

PTP authentic LA-2A
https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=63423.0

I wouldn't call any of these simple though. Advanced projects that will take skill to build correctly.

the g9 was 51X not 500. It uses the -24V rail to run the heaters in series on the tubes and does a dc-dc conversion of the +24V to get you a B+ for the tubes.