My Cathode follower with active load.

[bob orbell]

Hi all, about 5 months ago I lashed together, CF with active load and a White CF, after a lot of listening I chose the former and built it on a nice experimenters board supplied by another member, well, it worked, but, I had a rustling sound from the speakers when turning the volume knob, it is a Alps motorised, and a thump when pressing the mute function on the remote, when using the remote to turn the volume up or down, a tick tick tick noise came from the speakers. I dismantled many times and tested everything, all seams correct, and it sounds good, it was when I tested the voltage to the upper valve with my meter and the system was on that I noticed the thump had gone and the rustling sound had gone as I turned the knob, removing the meter, the problems returned, so, I tried adding some capacitance, 220nF 400v, but no improvement, out of frustration I cut the 0 volt wire off, and now silence on one channel, so a second cap has been added to the other channel, and all is well, but how is this doing it, there is only one connection to to capacitors, see photo, it beats me. BOB

[bob orbell]

Sorry, can't get the picture on yet.

[bob orbell]

Just lost my temper with this and trashed it, so, I have ordered a John Bronski Akido buffer. BOB

[colin.hepburn]

Originally Posted by bob orbell

Just lost my temper with this and trashed it, so, I have ordered a John Bronski Akido buffer. BOB

Yes it’s a very different feeling you get when it doesn’t work
Can you post image of trashed version Bob as that would be of different interest a failed projects thread just joking hope the Akido buffer go;s well Colin

[bob orbell]

Hi Colin, and all, I will try again to get a picture of the project on here, the problem with it was not always present, it would go for weeks without a problem, but then the next time I switched on, I was greeted with a buzz that did not go away, tick tick tick as the volume was powered round and a grating sound as I manually turned the volume, too many times I checked everything including the power supply, connecting it up to the scope revealed what looked like a firework display, massive spikes and HF reading in many megacycles, so, its history, shame, because it did sound very good, anyway, looking forward to the Akidio. BOB

[pre65]

Did you use ferrite beads on any of the valve pins ?

[bob orbell]

Hi Philp, no.

[pre65]

Originally Posted by bob orbell

Hi Philp, no.

Always worthwhile on the grid pin.

[Greg.]

Bob, Phil might be right but you seem to have moved on and are looking forward to the Aikido. I'd stick with your intention. Sometimes, working backwards just brings added frustration.

Please keep us informed on how you get on with the Aikido. For me it presented wonderful sound but I never got rid of some intrusive hum. I know many others have not had that problem and I hope for you it is the same. In any case, because I moved on generally in amplification, I was lazy and never got around to sorting it out. Sorting it out is certainly acheiveable from my perspective. I just need to have a reason to look at it. No doubt that will happen all in due course.

[Richard]

Hi Bob, rustling on the volume control may be due to dc voltage being present on the input so you could isolate the wiper with a cap coupling which passes ac signal but blocks dc. Also, you don't say which valves but did you try swapping them out in case they were noisy?