... not quite, 'got', yet.
I am questioning the amplifier, but only because it isn't normally capable of providing the necessary requirements to make that tube produce as described. The one amplifier that I think would furnish the required voltage/current, and which is a commercially produced amplifier, would have to be operated with only half of it's normal tube compliment, which in effect, means the amplifier has been modified. Not drastically, but still not operated as it was designed to do, which also means that the tube wasn't being pushed beyond it's specification.
Of course, if you are willing to trade reliability for 'higher' performance, are only interested in 'bigger numbers' instead of usefulness, then 'pushing' a 3-500(Z or ZG) is certainly one way of doing it. But then you are also going to be working that tube out of it's usable/practical operating ranges for maybe a gain of roughly 20%, which won't even be noticeable except in loss of quality of signal. If that suits you, then have at it! I think I'd also start a 'nest egg' to help pay for that tube's replacement, and probably other things in that amplifier.
- 'Doc
(Ask me how I know about that and what it has to do with an AL-80A or AL-80B. I've have/had both of those amplifiers for quite some time. Did almost every 'trick' for more output from a single 3-500 tube I've ever heard of, and some of them actually do work. But most of them that 'stress' the amplifier/tube are just not worth the trouble and expense. You can 'push' anything, but is it really worth it? It's much better to 'loaf' along than run it at 'max'. Ain't getting as much as you wanted/expected? Get a bigger one! Which is the point of this thread, I think.)
