Hello from a Tube Wanna Be.. Yet Another Rectifier Question!

Hello. I've been a DIY guy for 40 years now, built my own amps, eq's (Love the Marchand Bassis for my HT), built a great set of L,C,R, speakers (not very efficient unfortunately, currently powered by an XPA 5 from Emotiva), subs powered by 2 killowatt sand amps, etc, yada yada. I want to get around to building a pair of M125's.
I have been lurking here for months, and reading quite a bit. Perhaps not enough, because here is my question: Why can't someone, somewhere, build a kickbutt rectifier? In other words, what is the physical limitation of making a tube that can pass say 500ma instead of the 270 or so that an expensive (and old!) GZ from the UK can? I have to think there is some physical limitation, or one would be available. I like the idea of having a 100% valve amp, but will likely have to go with the plug in solid state option as that seems to be the reliable setup. Could the 125 be set up with a pair of tubes, in parallel (obviously with a chassis mod), would the power transformer be able to handle two filaments?
Anyway thanks. I know rectifiers have been beat to death, and that will continue until morale, eh current, improves!

They do ... the GG1-0.5/5



Just not one that's plug and play in these amps. Bonus points if you come up with a conversion ...

sKiZo wrote:They do ... the GG1-0.5/5



Just not one that's plug and play in these amps. Bonus points if you come up with a conversion ...

500ma/5kV...yikes!

Nice! What is the voltage drop on that one? :-)

That has a certain mean look to it!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Russian-High-Voltage-Rectifier-Tube-GG1-0-5-5-1-NEW-LOT-1pcs-/132026200606

If the voltage drop was acceptable, other than having to run a wire for the output to a plug at the top, could it work? The pins look exceptionally tubby.


The price is almost free.

From here: http://www.russiantubes.com/prop.php?t=5&p=3 Current seems to be about 10 amps. :-(
Oh well. No free rides, eh?

Wait. Is that a mercury half wave?

Just have to build a separate power supply to drive one of them bad boys.

(Didn't say it'd be easy, eh)  

If you're really seriously concerned, the WS1 copper cap is rated to 1000ma. Never saw the need here myself - my GZ37 seems quite happy driving a quad of TungSol KT120's and 6SN7 driver at what some folk might consider insane levels.

PS ... I still have a WZ68 copper cap here for backup. That's rated to 450ma and also still has the slow start that's missing on the WS1.

To wet my appetite, I just ordered this little guy for an amp at work. Currently using a digital 3116 TPA that I have all of $14 into (and it sounds surprisingly decent). Anyone have any experience with china cheapie kits? https://www.ebay.com/itm/123063908099




Pretty sure I will be sorely dissapointed but it's for work and not my "real" listening enjoyment. For $200 to the door, not expecting nirvana anyway.
It's single ended and the speakers at the work crash pad are polk towers that seem efficient.

Well, it certainly looks nice. I hope that you receive some answers with opinions about this kind of equipment from China.

I'll post about it when I receive/ build it if you would like. New to this forum obviously, so I don't know if it would be bad form or not. It certainly is not anything near the standards of a kit from here (more toy like I think). I hope to build a pair of 125's in a few months...

Looks good to me. Nice, clean point-to-point layout.  I wonder if the build instructions are in understandable English.

A 5V3A tube can easily handle 350mA. That's plenty capacity to handle the four tubes biased at 50mA each plus the driver tubes. Heater current is the same as a 5U4GB which is 3 amps. Easy to get on Ebay for a decent price.