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Vacuum Tube Audio Amplifier

Vacuum tube audio technology has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. Yet, over one hundred years later, it is still regarded by many as the best way to achieve excellent sound. Modern-day solid-state amplifiers provide low distortion levels with a sharp cut-off that is true to the signal due to the odd-order harmonics added. Tube-based amplification produces even-order harmonics offering a smoother cut-off to the signal, resulting in a “warmer”, more pleasant sound. The purpose of this project was to create a multi-stage vacuum tube audio amplifier consisting of a high-voltage power supply, pre-amplification, and power amplification stages. This allowed the team to further understand amplifier design while learning protocols for testing high voltage safely. The pre-amplification stage conditions the weak audio signal, amplifying it to line level to reduce noise in subsequent stages. The power amplification stage further amplifies this signal to a voltage level that will drive an 8Ω speaker.

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