I am trying to finalise a design of a two stage P-P el84 amp. For a brief description, there's an input transformer with a center tapped secondary that performs the phase splitting that is then connected to the grids of the 12AT7 diff pair, whose plates are RC coupled to the grids of the output tubes. As I have it now, B+ is around 310V going to around 300V at the plates of the output tubes and dropping to about 270V (through the use of a dropping resistor) right before the drivers' plate load resistors.
So this is my question: Instead of using the dropping resistor to get to 270V, could I order a power transformer with a set of additional taps to get to this voltage point? Are there any other downsides besides the obvious complexity and additional cost to this scheme? I want to have separate power supplies for the two stages, but how much of the (potential) benefit will be negated by the sharing of the same transformer?
So this is my question: Instead of using the dropping resistor to get to 270V, could I order a power transformer with a set of additional taps to get to this voltage point? Are there any other downsides besides the obvious complexity and additional cost to this scheme? I want to have separate power supplies for the two stages, but how much of the (potential) benefit will be negated by the sharing of the same transformer?