January 2016
I found a fantastic tube amp for my stereo system at a garage sale, but later discovered that the power transformer is shot. Can I use an inexpensive switching power supply to provide the high voltage, without distorting the output? I’d rather not spend $100+ on an old fashioned boat anchor transformer if I can avoid it.
What are the pros and cons? Any advice would be appreciated.
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You didn’t give specs, but, if you size a power supply, leave plenty of head room, tube amps are power hungry, transformer supplies have a soft drop off, and switching supplies simply drop out when pressed beyond their limit. Also I’ll bet that the transformer has two or three voltage outputs, that is a lot to spec and integrate, and expensive.
