"Trevor Wilson" wrote in message
...

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Trevor Wilson" wrote in message
...

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Trevor Wilson" wrote in
message ...

"max graff" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi guys,

I am planning on building my own valve amp and need a starting
point
viz. books, forums etc. Any tips would be of good help.

**Just listen to a bunch of amps in your price range. Buy or build
the one you like. Just for yuks, see if you can organise a blind
test of the amps. That orta sort out the dodgy ones. For valve
amps, unless you build it PRECISELY the way you hear it (same
valves, same output transformers, etc) you will be wasting your
time.


More totally stupid *advice* from Trevor...

**Not at all. We do things a little differently in this part of the
world. We don't marry a woman without tasting the cooking or
checking out the bedroom performance. We don't buy a car without
test driving it first and and we don't buy hi fi equipment without
first listening to it. At least, that's how sane people do it.


Hmm, so all those 'Dumb Sheila' jokes were *true* then?

(What do ugly people do? :-)

**They bonk ugly people. Unless they're rich. Rich ugly people can
bonk pretty much whomever they want. Look at Mick Jagger.


It is impossible to be rich *and* ugly - ask anyone...







For a kick-off, how TF do you suggest he goes about organising the
test - ask 'Valve Amps R Us' if he can play with half their stock
for a few hours then, having picked one (real easy), ask them for a
circuit diagram and a parts list for it...??

**If you can't hear it, don't buy it. Very simple.


What you suggest is barely *doable*, if not outright impossible!

**Utter bull****. Call up your dealer and organise a listen. That's
what dealers are for.


OK, Clevor Trevor, you got all the answers (from a corrugated iron shack
in Alice Springs?) suggest a dealer the OP could call, other than Walrus
who I've already mentioned. (Hint: he'll phone a dozen hifi dealers
before he gets one who's ever *seen* a valve amp....)



Contrary to what you're obviously used to, valve amps aren't sold on
every street corner in the UK; I can only think of one outfit that
would have a rake of them and that's Walrus. Most of the models they
stock wouldn't be very suitable for 'cloning' and I suspect they'd
tell you to take a hike if you asked to prat about doing blind tests
on their premises - and, before you ask, the likelihood of them them
letting take a bunch of them home for testing (and return) is not
high, I suspect...

**Then go to another dealer.


You haven't nominated the first one yet...




Then, if by some chance you did manage to hear a suitable candidate
for cloning, it would *not* sound like a 'carbon copy' of it unless
the identical componernts (and, I suspect, wiring layout) was used
throughout and, even if it was, it would sound nothing like the
pattern amp if it was of any vintage. You know that yourself - see
your own comments about transformer differences in your reply to
Iain.

**Correct.


What the OP needs to do is listen to those who are experienced with
real *buildable* circuits and follow the advice he likes the sound of
best - he's got to start somewhere and damn near every 'normal' PP
amp on the planet owes summat to the early Mullard designs (AFAIK) so
why struggle against it??

**Why trust what people say?


Why ****ing ask, if you aren't going to trust the respondent(s)?


Some people are seriously deluded. How is Max
to know if the people he is speaking to know anything at all?


That's for him to judge - he's a regular here (almost, he knows the way
it goes...


MUCH better
for him to listen to a product, BEFORE plonking down the cash.


Yes, of course but what you're not quite picking up on is that it's a
tad difficult to get to hear a 'range' of valve amps. I've held my door
open for a number of years and several people have been here to listen
to various amps - right now I could field 4 different ones....

An aside: Earlier today Chinese Willy came to collect the Trio tuner
he'd bought from me on eBay. (Came originally from HK but had really
ever heard a valve amp wouldya believe??!!) I asked 'What do you do?' -
he says 'Design computer motherboards'!!

Anyway, he was blown over by the Bez and had to have the link to the
site emailed home. (I don't have the appropriate Character Set on this
machine and I don't want it!) He cleared up one mystery for me - a while
back, it was quite obvious the Bez site was using the word 'cows' to
mean transformers so I asked him how did it translate like that - he
told me it was a general purpose word to mean a 'work animal'. I asked
'like a *mule*'? and got a fair bit of eager Chinese smiley/nodding! :-

Check the 'Special Offers Components' page for the word 'cattle' he

http://translate.google.com/translat...%3Den%26sa%3DG

:-)




(Different with SETs of course, but I'd recommend a SET as a start
amp for a number of reasons!)

**SETs are for idiots.


See above. (Designed any motherboards lately, turnip?)