Reply To: Northern Electric Co.

[Eric Strasen]

Jean,
Upon further listening, The Baby Champ does, indeed, sound better at very high volume levels with the Zener diode; however, for whatever reason the audio is quite distorted at LOW levels.
A lot of imponderables here. Does the bypass cap have something to do with this? Do I need to use a volume control of a differing impedance?
This time I’ll probably do the simple thing and just put a resistor back on the cathode and chuck the diode.
Now, I just need to find a project that uses 100+ Zeners…
As far as the 82 ohm voltage dropping resistor goes: the new 10 watt wirewound is virtually the same physical size as the old 2 watt carbon, so the amount of heat dissipated does feel the same to the touch.
Eric