K-502 Wire size

[riverrat373]

I am in the process of building a K-502 amp and am doing some mods to the kit. I am mounting the circuit board inside a cabinet and the transformers and
tubes will be outside on top. I ordered chassis mount tube sockets fro Antique
Electronic Supply for this mod. What size wire should I use to go from the circuit board to the tube sockets? I see on DiyAudioProjects.com that the amp Scott Bartlett built he used silver wire to connect his sockets. I have not made any electronic mods to the amp circuits. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade?

Thanks,
riverrat373 Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_05

[TomMcNally]

Moving the tubes off the circuit board doesn't sound like a good idea.
Extending the lead lengths could invite hum and crosstalk, unless you
are only talking about 1" leads directly under the sockets and extending
straight up. It would certainly make it hard to work on the board.

Type of wire doesn't matter. Anyone who thinks they can hear the
difference has delusions. Gauge is important on the filament leads.

[EWBrown]

If you mount all of the "tall" components on the bottom of the board, and the smaller resistors and tube sockets and bridge rectifier on top of the board, then it will fit very nicely under teh chassis, with 1/2 inch or somewhat less spacing. The bridge and tube sockets MUST be top mounted, else the connections get reversed and just plain screwed up :o

This is a better approach than extending the tube sockets above teh board. THe current line of K502s have the ceramic tube sockets, the earlier ones from a few years ago had the lousy cheap plastic sockets, which were an invitation to early circuit failure...

If you want more PSU capacitance, an extra cap can be mounted under the chassis and wired directly across the 220 uF / 250V cap. I've added a 470 uF / 400V cap scrounged from a dead computer power supply.

I also added a CL-90 (same as in the ST-35 parts list) inrush current limiter in the AC primary side, this helps to elimate the initial power-on "slam" and makes life a lot easier for the tubes, as they don't get that initial "flash" upon powering on the amp.

/ed B in NH