PCB Can Be Done Right!

Re: PCB Can Be Done Right!

can you edit the photo with a circle or an arrow or something to point out what you are referring to ... sounds interesting and important, but i dont understand it - dont know what i am looking for ... a contrasting pic of a crappy job (looping/going over?) would help to ... and what is the effect of doing it 'right' as opposed to doing it 'wrong'? is it a tone quality thing? a reliability thing? a serviceability thing? or just an aesthetic/presentation thing? something else?

From Merlin Blencowe's website www.valvewizard.co.uk (I highly recommend purchasing his book on preamps, its the best I've read on the subject of tube preamp design)

"The common pre-amp valves (ECC83 / 12AX7 etc.) when run from a 6.3V supply, should be wired from one side only [see right], not by looping one heater wire all round the valve socket, which would create a hum loop and cause excessive interference noise (though many amp makers DO make this mistake and get away with it). The wire twisting must be kept very tight right up to the socket, where it matters most. Their pin arrangement is also deliberate, so that the main heater pins (4 and 5) can be orientated towards the chassis wall, allowing heater wires to be run along the wall away from any other sensitive signal wiring."

Like this:
HeaterWiring2.jpg


And not like this:
metroamp1027aaa4th.jpg


Aside from the fact that the twisting is not tight enough/uniform enough, see how the black wire to pin 9 loops all the way around the tube? Defeats the purpose of twisting the wires, and you end up with 300mA of AC current per tube crossing the high impedance wire which connects to the grid of the tube. Can induce hum and noise and what have you.
 
Re: PCB Can Be Done Right!

nothing wrong with pcbs if they are good quality. Mesa boogies are all pcb....you may or may not be a fan of the various sounds the amps in the range make, but there is no denying the top quality craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Mesa boogie has been known to cut corners and have bad layouts because of their cost-cutting measures. They are a mass-produced high-end amp company. Nothing like THD or 65 Amps, or the other "garage-based" builders. Andy Marshall's THD amps have been said to have the best PCB designs on the planet. I know they sound untouchable!

But I see a lot of parallel wires... Sometimes that clean looking right angle layout isn't the best for noise reduction, but I'm sure this guy had that all figured out ahead of time.

Yes, looks are sometimes deceiving. I think it's safe to say that if it look too clean, it's probably no functioning as well as it could be if function was #1 in the mind of the builder. boogie asserts things in their marketing about how they believe in all of the mojo affecting religious ideals such as electromagnetic radiation, capacitance, and such of wires touching other wires, as well as high-frequencies traveling on the outside of the metal, but they don't act on those words.
 
Re: PCB Can Be Done Right!

nothing wrong with pcbs if they are good quality. Mesa boogies are all pcb....you may or may not be a fan of the various sounds the amps in the range make, but there is no denying the top quality craftsmanship and attention to detail.
BTW that amp in the pic is incredible....

This.
 
Re: PCB Can Be Done Right!

Mesa boogie has been known to cut corners and have bad layouts because of their cost-cutting measures. They are a mass-produced high-end amp company.
*SNIP*

I'd rather put bad layouts into the category of pure incompetence and hasty design than cost cutting and mass production. There's actually nothing wrong with surface mount devices and ribbon cables, though an experienced designer is needed to design the pcbs. PCB layouts are actually *very* hard to lay out properly and even the best need to make a few duds before the product is finished. Marshall has used the same PCB layout since the early 80's in their 800 series and they work well enough and sound awesome.
 
PCB Can Be Done Right!

PCB layout is an art backed up by science. There's a reason it's referred to as artwork. It's also one of the few things you can copyright (or one of those protection things). For instance I can build a 2550 clone using the same exact parts and be fine legally. But if I use the same layout, I'm in legal trouble.
 
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