Can someone help a dummy with no DIY skills or Knowledge decode a message......?

I tend to prefer push pull setups because they're so quiet.  They also tend to have more punch.  Triode/Tetrode/Pentode are merely counters for how many toads must be sacrificed before your amp is fully debugged.  The switch will actually set how many toad livers are being used as RC filters at any given time.  You are not a DIY idiot, for you are not actually doing anything yourself.  Just your typical idiot.  Forgive the wall of text, Firefox 4 is a pile of trash and won't let me use line breaks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll give it a try even though Tube Amps are not my expertise...

 

Single Ended: Means one device amplifies 360 degrees of the signal.

 

Push-Pull: Means two devices amplify the signal. One device amplifies

180 degrees of the signal and the other device amplifies the other 180

degrees.

 

Triode, Tetrode, Pentode: The number of elements inside the tube. Triode has

three elements, Anode, Grid and Cathode. Tetrode and Pentode just have

more grids.

 

Thats as much as I can help with...

^ This pretty much.

The difference between single-ended and push-pull is that push-pull (generally speaking) will give you more power. The tradeoff is that you have to use a phase splitter to split, roughly speaking, the top half of the signal from the bottom half of the signal. One tube amplifies the top half and the other amplifies the bottom half. No phase splitters are perfect, though, so you should get a more linear signal from just using one tube to handle the entire signal.

Switching from triode to tetrode mode will increase the gain and give you much more power. However, high gain isn't as linear and probably won't be as transparent.

What else... oh, the autobiasing will adjust the bias as the tubes age. Tubes become less effective over time, so the bias voltage has to change to accomodate this. Some amps have to be manually biased (not as bad as it sounds) and others bias themselves.

I've seen a couple of headphone amps use 6V6 tubes, but they're not common. You usually find the 6V6 in speaker and guitar amps.

Thanks for the link! I like Jim's point-to-point work, it looks good.

I"m not really sure what to add that will help.

 

In my experience the biggest difference is not so much whether the amp is push-pull (PP) or SET, but whether global feedback is employed. Global feedback makes a HUGE difference, even to a PP amp. Because of various limitations of SET amps global feedback is seldom employed.

 

There are some REALLY big advantages to PP operation on paper, and in practical applications as compared to SET amps. OTOH, SET amps do have a particular sound. If you really like the SET sound PP may not be for you

 

Im not really sure if that helps. The best thing to do is listen to both if you have the opportunity. They are different. 

 

I think very broadly it is easier to get sound that is considered "unoffensive" from a PP amp. 

Unconditional lovers of SET should clearly identify what they like... there are dozens of SET designs that all sound different. Heck, the way SET guys wax poetic about finding the perfect cap 2 builders could build the same schematic and have different amps!

 

 

 

The spacing between the tubes on the guys site you linked too looks small. 1.5* the diameter of the tube is generally recommended, although it seems people like to push that to 1Diameter between tubes... His tubes look much tighter than that - perhaps 1/'2diameter. Putting the tubes too close together limits cooling - the tubes run hot and dont last as long. bummer.

 

 

 

The bit after the quote probably wont help the OP except to say that I disagree with it.

 

 

You are describing push-pull "pure" class-B operation. In class- A operation all tubes in a push-pull amp conduct all the time. 

Push pull amps can operate either way and there is a third way called class-AB.

In class-AB Push pull, the various devices will go into class-B operation when driven very hard, but generally run class-A because class-B operation sucks. The argument is that when you need maximum power do you need maximum quality (or even iffy quality)? The answer is generally no, so a slight bit of garbage pawned off on consumers who only want more power and more power than that is totally acceptable.

 

The saving grace of class-AB is that people seldom drive their amps into that region. Yepp, nobody really uses 60W on their mids & tweeters, so their precious class-AB PP tube amp never shows its true colors (the color of turd 4-6 hours after eating burritos with bad meat) so nobody complains. OTOH they *HAD* to have the 60W class-AB (thats only class-A up to 30W) VS the 45W Class-A that is class-A until it clips HARD.... thats consumers for you...

 

You guys totally skipped out on output impedance of a pentode or tetrode amp. Which sucks without feedback.

 

For a headphone amp, or a sane home speaker amp where not much power is required (~20W or less) much better to run triodes or triode strapped pentodes and avoid the necessity of global feedback to make up for poor output impedance and linearity. IMO. 

@Nikongod

He didn't ask about conduction classes and I didn't feel the need to confuse him further at the time...

I know that he didnt ask about that, but you started it and I said I disagreed with what you posted. I even said for him to ignore my bit on that.