Welcome back Shannon. I hope the cash register rang every time you opened you green Pelican case.
Van Alstine... stressed to me that the key is individual regulated power supplies on every tube.
To perhaps add a bit of perspective, FVA's website says of his "Ultimate 70" Dynaco St-70 rebuild...
"...the Ultimate 70 incorporates five regulated power supplies, including an isolated regulated bias supply."The five "regulated" power supplies, one for bias supply and one for each 6GH8 section, are merely Zener shunts. I have no doubt this is the case in FVA's celebrated Ultravalve amp as well - from pics on the AVA website, the PCB looks virtually identical to my Ultimate 70 PCB.
If such easy to implement regulators can make significant improvements, I'll be trying them in a few projects, including my future Budgie SE.
Speaking of my future Budgie SE, I will be using it primarily, likely exclusively as a headphone amp. Would I benefit from 5k-16ohm o/p transformers?
Regards,
Auricle