JAT501 Amplifier Project

This document is a circuit description of the JAT501 amplifier. I will attempt to describe individual
building blocks of this circuit. These descriptions will be basic I have no intention of writing a book.
Please refer to the schematic diagram of the JAT501 amplifier as I use the component numbers
throughout this text.

My goal is to develop an amplifier that can deliver around 50 watts of power into an 8 Ohm load and
around 90 watts into a 4 Ohm load with headroom to handle reactive speaker loads. The amplifier is to
have low distortion and good measured performance in crucial areas.

At this point, I'd like to say that I wasn't going to design for the super low distortion figures that would
require a complex design. I question the audibility of distortion below 1% in music, yet this amplifier
has measured down to around 0.005% at 1KHz and under 0.01% intermodulation with 18 and 19 Khz
test tones even with a 4 Ohm load and this was near the limits of my test gear! Designing an amplifier
that can go down to 0.00001% THD at 1Khz adds complexity which can create new problems in the
circuit which would have to be corrected for with still more components. This makes little sense to me.
The JAT501 ended up requiring 13 transistors which is not simple but certainly not as ambitious as the
designs requiring twice as many parts. I think the JAT501 hits the sweet spot of reasonable design that
delivers the “goods”.

I went through the design process on my YouTube channel, “JohnAudioTech”, so I won't get into the
details here. I'll say that there were mistakes made and lessons learned. After correcting the mistakes
and tweaking the design, I am very pleased with the results.

Circuit Description

The amplifier is an evolved derivative of the topology first developed by H. C. Lin back in the 1950's.
It is a three stage design with high open loop gain and low distortion. Global negative feedback is
applied to set the gain and reduce any residual nonlinearities to very small amounts.

The input network consists of C1 to prevent DC current from a signal source, or bias currents from the
input stage itself from causing DC offset voltages at the output. R3 allows a small amount of current to
pass through the BE junction of Q2, allowing it to conduct. R2 and C2 form a low pass filter to keep
RF out of the amplifier. This filter should be arranged close to the base of Q2 on the PCB. C2 can be a
larger value if needed; up to 1000pf can be used.

The first stage of this amplifier is the input stage. This consists of Q2 and Q3 arranged as a differential
pair, sometimes referred to as a long tailed pair (LTP). Q4 and Q5 form a current mirror circuit (often
called a current mirror load in this use) which reflects the current on the right side over to the left. This
makes the voltage swing at the collector of Q2 much larger (higher gain) and the balanced currents the
current mirror reduces distortion of the stage. R5 thru R8 are emitter degeneration resistors. This
improves the linearity in the stage at the cost of some gain.

Q1 and its associated parts forms a constant current source (CCS) for the input stage. This improves the
performance of the input stage in a few ways. The LED is used as a voltage reference for the CCS. It
must be the 2.1 volt lime green type for the correct current to be set for the input stage. R9 and R10
provide bias current to the LED and base of Q1. R11 send bias current to another CCS in the VAS
stage. When power is applied to the amplifier circuit, C3 is discharged and no bias is sent to either CCS
keeping them off. With no current provided to the input stage or the VAS stage, the amplifier will not
function until the voltage across C3 increases enough to allow both CCSs to function. This small delay
prevents a power up click or thump noise from being produced.

The next stage of the amplifier is the voltage amplification stage (VAS). It consists of a CCS, a Vbe
multiplier circuit and a class A amplifier. The CCS used in this design consists of Q6 and Q7. It is
important that this CCS stays in regulation when there is only a small voltage across it. This will occur
when there is a large signal (near clipping) and this signal is near its positive peak. The CCS must stay
in regulation in order to be able to deliver enough current to the base of Q10 so the output current will
remain high to deliver current to the speaker. The design of this CCS retains regulation at just under 1
volt.

Q9 forms a class A amplifier. It takes the signal from the input stage and amplifies it for the VAS stage.
As more signal current enters its base, it turns on more and pulls the voltage toward the negative rail
and that pulls more current from the base of Q11 which causes the bottom half of the output stage to
conduct more, thus pulling the load toward the negative rail as well. When the signal on the base of Q9
is less, the CCS in the upper part of the VAS pulls the voltage towards the positive rail.

The capacitor C6 limits the bandwidth of the amplifier. This is important because without it, the high
frequency response of the amplifier would extend into the megahertz range. The small amount of
parasitic capacitance in the transistors and other parts of the circuit cause a phase shift. When global
negative feedback is applied, some of the output signal is fed back to the input to set the gain and
remove noise and distortion. At high frequencies, the phase shift is enough to cause the negative
feedback to act as positive feedback and the amplifier will oscillate. Limiting the gain so that is falls
below unity at high frequencies will prevent the input from “seeing” such a large phase shifted signal
and the amplifier will be stable. It is often referred to as phase compensation. Connecting the capacitor
between the collector and base of Q9 is called miller compensation and for many reasons is an effective
way to compensate the amplifier. This is perhaps not the best technical way of describing phase
compensation. This is where reading an amplifier design book would be beneficial to understanding the
various ways of compensating an amplifier and why some ways are better than others.

In the center of the VAS stage there is Q8 and associated components. This is known as the Vbe
multiplier and has two functions in this circuit. First, it maintains a small voltage between the bases of
the output driver transistors, Q10 and Q11. Having a small amount of current forward biasing the base
emitter junctions of the output drivers and output transistors turns them on which means a small
collector current will flow. Having the output biased on slightly will reduce crossover distortion.
Without bias, the output stage is off at low signal levels (around 1.2 volts on either side of the 0 level).
This would sound awful, so the output stage is biased on so the signal can seamlessly transfer from
positive to negative and vise versa at the output.

Due to the way the output transistors “hand over” the signal current from one side to the other, there
can be a small amount of residual distortion. There has been found to be an optimum bias current
setting for the emitter follower type of output stage as used in this amplifier. Setting the bias to between
50 and 90 milliamperes will keep distortion very low at low output power (critical listening levels). To
set the bias, power up the amplifier and measure the voltage across the emitters of the output
transistors, Q12 and Q13. Adjust VR1 until the voltage is 28 millivolts. This will set the bias at 64ma
(.028v / .44 Ohm = 63.6ma). .44 Ohm is the value of the two .22 ohm resistors, R22 and R23, in series.

The second function of Q8 is thermal stability. One issue with most types of transistors is that their gain
increases as they become warm. Without thermal tracking of the output stage, the bias current that we
just set will creep up as the transistors heat up. This means still more heat and increased current. This
positive feedback loop will continue until the transistors draw so much current and get so hot, they will
destroy themselves in what is know as thermal runaway. If the output transistors and drivers are
attached to the heat sink along with the Vbe multiplier transistor, a thermal runaway disaster can be
averted. As the output transistors warm up, the Vbe multiplier also warms. When it does, its gain
increases and it conducts more current which reduces the voltage between the bases of the output
drivers, keeping the output bias current in check.

One last thing I'll say about Q8: It is NOT a phase inverter! The output devices are complementary and
no phase inversion take place across the bases of Q10 and Q11. I often hear people call this transistor a
phase inverter. This is not like a vacuum tube amplifier where the output devices are of the same
polarity. No one has invented complimentary tubes yet :-)

The output stage is where the heavy lifting gets done. It consists of the drivers, Q10 and Q11 and
outputs Q12 and Q13. The drivers and outputs are configured in an emitter follower (EF) arrangement,
sometimes called a darlington configuration. Emitter follower circuits have no voltage gain, so all the
voltage gain occurs in the input and VAS stages. What the EF output stage has is a massive amount of
current gain. It can take the 7 or so millamperes of current in the VAS stage and increases it to several
amperes of current needed by the speaker at high volume levels. R19 and R21 add pure resistance to
parasitic reactive components in the output stage which helps stop oscillation. For that reason, they are
called base stopper resistors, similar to the grid stopper resistors used in vacuum tube amplifiers. They
may not be necessary on a well laid out circuit board, however with high performance fast output
transistors, I'd recommend there inclusion. I kept their value low so they have minimal impact on
performance.

R20 is called a “speed up” resistor. When current rapidly decreases in the drivers, there is nowhere for
charge to dissipate from the base of the output transistors. Connecting a resistor between the bases of
the outputs is an effective way of drawing off this charge at the cost of some gain. Which side of the
base stopper resistors they connect to are of little consequence because they are a couple orders of
magnitude lower in resistance. C5 also helps in this regard but should be kept to a small value.

R22 and R23 are 5 watt .22 Ohm emitter resistors. They are called emitter degeneration resistors which
help with thermal stability (stable bias) and to linearize the output stage (of course at the cost of bit of
gain). They are the optimum value for the lowest crossover distortion at the proper bias current.

Finally comes the output network. This consists of R24 and C11, a Boucherot cell and R25 and L1, a
Theil network. The Bouchrot cell improves high frequency stability especially under light loads. It is
sometimes found used in loudspeakers to counter the rising impedance of the voice coil as the
frequency increases. Note that the one used in the amplifier is more for stability.

The Thiel network consists of an air wound inductor (do not wind on ferrite) to a value of no more
than 1 microhenry. Acceptable values for this amplifier are .5 to 1uh. It is in parallel with a 10 Ohm
resistor. The Theil network shields the amplifier from having to drive pure capacitive loads which can
cause instability. An example of this is long speaker cable runs where the parallel conductors can have
a significant capacitance across them. Because an inductor and the parasitic capacitance will have
resonance, the resistor lowers the Q (peak resonance) of the circuit.

The feedback network consists of R12, 13 and C4. The amplifier is designed to have a large amount of
open loop gain, bandwidth and low distortion so when feedback is applied the error correction the
amplifier has will have enough headroom to reduce noise and distortion to very low levels across the
audio spectrum. R12 and R13 form a voltage divider at the base of Q3 which sets the gain
(R12/R13+1). Lowering the gain (more feedback) will reduce the phase margin which means it will
oscillate if gain is set too low. You are probably safe to change the R12 to 10k to reduce gain, but I'd
recommend step response tests to be sure that the amp remains stable. Increasing the gain will increase
noise and distortion. This amplifier was designed to work with line level voltages on its input (using a
volume control). There shouldn't be a need to change the gain.

C4 is a point of concern to many designers because the feedback path has no error correction and
electrolytic capacitors have relatively high distortion as compared to the film types. The capacitor is
needed to set the DC gain to 1 since it prevents DC current from passing to ground in the voltage
divider network (it shows at full level on the base of Q3). Amplifying this offset voltage is undesirable,
so the capacitor is needed. It is a large value to keep the pole frequency very low. It is important to
understand that the distortion in the capacitor is only high when there is a large signal voltage across its
plates. This is never the case in the audio spectrum, since in its pass band, the signal voltage will
always be very low across the capacitors plates. Distortion is low enough with this amplifier, that I see
this as no concern.

This amplifier was designed to pass AC signals. Do not remove the input coupling capacitor C1 from
the circuit. If the device you connect to the amplifier has significant DC on its output, this can cause a
reverse DC on the plates of C4 which can damage it. C1 keeps DC out of the amplifier.

Why no short circuit or current limit circuit?

You will find the most DIY amplifier circuits lack protection circuits. The reasoning is simple. These
circuits will usually activate when you don't want them to. For example, playing a reactive 4 Ohm
ported speaker at high levels with the bass cranked up can often activate these current limit circuits.
When they activate, the make a loud screech or popping sound (usually on the kick drum beats). These
noises are caused by the circuit slamming the outputs to the opposite rail from the normal signal and
this generates strong harmonics that can burn out tweeters. “Tweeter eaters” as some dub them. They
are not possible to design to adequately protect the transistors and not activate under difficult loads
with out high complexity, so most leave them out. They are found in nearly all amplifiers produced for
the consumer market to reduce warranty claims. My official board will have connections available for
an outboard short circuit/turn-on delay board if one is desired but no current limit circuit will be
designed for this amplifier.

Both power supply rails MUST be protected with a fast acting fuse. These should be located on the
power supply board after the main filter capacitors. Each amplifier must have its own set of fuses. I'd
include a fuse in the output although some think it will be a detriment to the sound quality.

Power Supply

The power supply is important for this amplifier to meet its claims. Even with the proper rail voltages,
a supply that cannot deliver the current when the amplifier demands it will cause its voltage to sag and
output to diminish. For example, an amplifier that can deliver a maximum of 20v rms to a 4 Ohm load
before clipping will deliver 100 watts of power. If the rail voltages drop by just 1.5 volts, the maximum
clean output power drops by nearly 10 watts!
I recommend a transformer with a secondary of 50v with a center tap (20-0-25). and a volt-amp (VA)
rating of twice the maximum output power of the amplifier. So if the JAT501 can deliver, say 90 watts
into a 4 Ohm load, use a transformer with a VA rating of at least 180. If the music you listen to has only
short blasts of high volumes, you can get away with a smaller transformer. If you love bass, you might
consider an even larger transformer. After rectification and filtering, the DC voltage will be around +/-
36-37 volts at idle current. If you want more power from the amplifier, you may want to use a 28-0-28
volt transformer, however, I'd recommend not going much over 40 volt rails (or so) at idle current.

If you don't need as much power that can be delivered with +/-35 volt rails, you can power the
amplifier with lower voltage rails, down to +/-15v. This will reduce the size of the heat sinks required
and the size of the power supply. If you run the amplifier in class A mode, the lower voltage rails are
required due to the constant dissipation from the output transistors.

Filter capacitors mean a lot to dynamic power. Most music is not a continuous waveform at max levels,
but rather short beats of high levels. The voltage from the power supply will sag under load. Having
large filter capacitors will reduce the sag for these short durations of high levels of output. I'd
recommend 10 millifarad (10,000uf) per rail per amplifier. Some designers want more, up to 100mf of
capacitance. This, plus a large transformer, may require you to have a soft start circuit because of the
high inrush current at power up.

This concludes the circuit description of the JAT501 amplifier. I hope it in some way was educational
for someone wanting to understand how the amplifier functions. I know it is deficient in some of the
details, but I don't want this to get too long. I'd strongly encourage you to read a proper amplifier
design book if you want to get into the details. “Designing Audio Power Amplifiers” by Bob Cordell is
one such book I'd highly recommend.

Thanks for Reading!

JohnAudioTech