Thanks for interest in my past and current design. Yes, this is BK
Butler, the designer of both the original circa 1995 Tube Driver (which
used lateral mosfet output devices) and the current Tube Driver BLUE
which does, in fact use Sanken Bi-Polar devices.
"I can only recall two Butler designs. One was the original Tubedriver
manuractured by Phaze Audio." Incorrect: There are actually three Tube
Driver versions, the original Tube Driver and the Tube Drive BLUE
versions being BK Butler designs and an in-between version that was a
PPI design. The original Tube Driver was originally built by hand at
Butler Audio's facility (as are the new Tube Driver BLUE amps) and later
licensed to Phaze Audio. "IMHO, it was an atrocious piece. Poorly laid
out PCB, bad power supply design." the power supply. It was designed
in collaboration with a good friend at Echo Star whose PS designs must
have better than a 1 per million failure rate. I personally know of
only one unit that ever had a bad power transformer, and that was due to
a vendor defect, not a design problem", poor heater design (it used the
RTO lead to heat the vacuum tubes)" UNTRUE!! The heater was powered via
a separate active switch. PROOF: If the heaters had been directly
connected to the RTO, no head unit would have ever worked with it since
the tube heaters drew about 500mA continuously, (two 6L6GC tubes with
6.3V, .9A heaters in series) "and it was a nightmare to
disassemble/reassemble for repair." Only if you don't know how to
disassemble/reassemble, I guess. I still service the original units from
time to time, and find them quite relaxing to work on... ;)
"Sounded only *OKAY*, well actually it sounded like pushing music
thru sand. The second is the Tubedriver Blue that you now have. I
haven't heard it but I would tend to believe that they might just sound
quite stunning, considering all the technology he "borrowed" from PPI's
Tube Driver designs."
Here's where you REALLY need to pay attention. Whether you personally
appreciate the original sound or not, thousands of owners all over the
world still rave over the original TubeDriver. This is the _ONLY_ car
amp STEREOPHILE ever reviewed (they liked it a lot BTW) & listen
carefully he I borrowed NOTHING electrically from the PPI designers
for the current Tube Driver BLUE design including the power supply! The
PPI re-design (which IS the second generation) had a completely
different usage of the tubes and suffered from several technical
problems including instablility at high power output with chronic DC
offset. It was a reasonably good first attempt at using tubes in an
audio amp, but the tube sound is almost completely killed by their
unfortunate use of high amounts of global negative feedback. Yes, I
have changed to Sanken bipolar output power devices in the TD BLUE
deisgn, but the reason is due to their extraordinary linearity,
consisent beta and current transfer characteristics. PPI was wise to
use them, but Sankens are widely recognized as great audio power
devices. My decision to use them was made only after exhustive tests
using virtually everything from Toshiba, Motorola, Sanyo, etc. Bottom
line: The TDBLUE design is as different from the old PPI attempt as
apples and oranges. The new Tube Driver BLUE technology was awarded a
new US Patent in 2002. This would have been impossible if I had copied
the PPI design. And yes, the new Tube Driver BLUE amplifiers sound is
STUNNING.
"I am also of the opinion that his new line of amplifiers, Tube Driver
Blue are very much infused with "borrowed" PPI technology. How do I know
this you ask? Ask Mr Butler why he decided to depart from using Lateral
MOSFET's in his audio output section and went with SANKEN
2SC3284/2SA1303 instead.
These are the same BJT output devices that were used on the PPI Tube
Driver amplifiers. Hmmm...., these are two wildly different output
topologies. Audio Engineers that design MOSFET amplifiers don't care for
BJT amplifiers and vice versa. Why did Mr Butler suddenly switch?"
I switched because I came up with a revolutionary new and novel way of
obtaining the 'all tube' sound without the need for any former
technology, including my own original design. Simple as that!
"I haven't seen inside a TDB, but I would be willing to bet that the
power supply topology is a fully PWM with a toroid xfmr just like the
PPI Tube Driver instead of a loosely regulated E core xfmr like on the
original Phaze Audio Tubedriver."
Wrong again. The design is circular toroidial and
semi-resonate/saturated with my own twist on regulation. NOTE: To date,
NO power supply failures BTW...
"Hell, I would love to get a look at the audio input/preamplifier
stages. I would bet anything that he "borrowed" this too from the PPI
amplifier line."
Nope, not even close. You sure know nothing about me or my background,
do you? :)
(snip)
"I even saw that he brags about "his"innovative
heatsink design of the TDB on his website. Appears suspiciously like the
way PPI did their design."
Yes, I liked the way that PPI put the heatsink fins inside and mounted
the cooling fan on the pcb inside, but they failed to add the
wrap-around outside fins which add another 35% free cooling plus the
fact that the entire heatsink structure is simplified and vastly
strengthened over any former idea.
"Are the new Tube Driver amplifiers a great amplifier? Probably, after
all he learned from the best!!"
Completely true! However this is due to an exceedingly amount of honest
hard work. "The best" here refers to the many professional musicians,
customers and music lovers I've colaborated with over my 25 years+ in
the music industry, and definietely _NOT_ PPI's former engineers!
"BTW I personally own 2 PPI TD2150's, 2 PPI TD1250's and two PPI TD275's
and I love them dearly, and I would be
hard pressed to part with any of them. They have their quirks, but I am
willing to live with them."
I then personally invite you to upgrade to the BLUE technology. It's the
new state of the art in vacuum tube design. The PPI designed units were
simply never developed to their full capability. Just before PPI changed
hands in late '98, I was asked by their CEO to come in and correct the
problems with the new line of PPI designed TDs. It's quite unfortunate I
never got the chance to re-design the "re-design". PPI could then have
benefited from the Tube Driver BLUE phenomenon. As it is, we at Butler
Audio are now fortunate to have that opportunity.
Feel free to write me personally at
Best wishes,
*BK Butler*
--
unregistered
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