Valves Book
 

I'm interested in building a valve pre and/or phono amp, and I was
wondering if anyone has a book recommendation. I'd like to know about
safety, circuit design and component choice. I have no training in this,
although the basic concepts come quite easily.

I've seen 'Building Valve Amplifiers' by Morgan Jones, seems to fit the
bill.

Thanks and b/w

Rob

Valves Book
 

Rob wrote:
I'm interested in building a valve pre and/or phono amp, and I was
wondering if anyone has a book recommendation. I'd like to know about
safety, circuit design and component choice. I have no training in this,
although the basic concepts come quite easily.

I've seen 'Building Valve Amplifiers' by Morgan Jones, seems to fit the
bill.

Thanks and b/w

Rob

You answered the question in same the way I would have, MJ's book is
well worth a read (and then about 20 more times, getting more out each
time). I can't recommend it enough.

Other than that, I would get the "Tube Preamp Cookbook" by Allen Wright,
but I would start with Morgan Jones, the cookbook will make more sense
after the grounding in theory that MJ provides.

--
Nick

"Life has surface noise" - John Peel 1939-2004

Valves Book
 

Yep - Morgan Jones is the book. I also like Crowhurst "Understanding HiFi
Circuits", Audio Amateur Press, which is a model of clear writing. Excellent on
what he covers.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

Valves Book
 

In article , Nick Gorham
wrote:
Rob wrote:
I'm interested in building a valve pre and/or phono amp, and I was
wondering if anyone has a book recommendation. I'd like to know about
safety, circuit design and component choice. I have no training in
this, although the basic concepts come quite easily.

I've seen 'Building Valve Amplifiers' by Morgan Jones, seems to fit
the bill.


You answered the question in same the way I would have, MJ's book is
well worth a read (and then about 20 more times, getting more out each
time). I can't recommend it enough.

FWIW Despite personally not being particularly a fan of valve amps, I'd
also recommend MJ as well worth reading if you wish to learn about valve
amps and want to design/build your own. Probably your best bet as a first
port of call.

If you wish to go further, then you'll probably end up needing to read/have
a range of texts. The obvious epic here would Langford Smith. You can now
buy this from places like HFN on CDROM if you can't track down an original
copy. This covers the basic theory, etc, etc, is great detail, but lacks
more modern info as it was written many years ago. Has loads of info.

There are also some more general books. e.g. Linsley Hood's Valve and
Transistor Audio Amplifiers. This covers the basics of amps in general, and
looks at both valve and solid-state examples.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Valves Book
 

Andy Evans wrote:
Yep - Morgan Jones is the book. I also like Crowhurst "Understanding HiFi
Circuits", Audio Amateur Press, which is a model of clear writing. Excellent on
what he covers.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

Many thanks Nick and Andy - I've put it (Jones) on my sister's xmas list
:-). Now that I'm 'outed' they can start to save for all the other
paraphernalia - oscilloscope, meters, soldering iron. Beats socks!
(although I gather gloves are needed?!).

Rob

Valves Book
 

On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 15:14:48 +0000, Rob
wrote:

Andy Evans wrote:
Yep - Morgan Jones is the book. I also like Crowhurst "Understanding HiFi
Circuits", Audio Amateur Press, which is a model of clear writing. Excellent on
what he covers.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

Many thanks Nick and Andy - I've put it (Jones) on my sister's xmas list
:-). Now that I'm 'outed' they can start to save for all the other
paraphernalia - oscilloscope, meters, soldering iron. Beats socks!
(although I gather gloves are needed?!).

Rob

Just one thing to remember. When working on live valve circuits, keep
one hand in the pocket at all times. Crepe-soled shoes are a help,
too. (I know, that's two things). I found all that out the hard way in
my early days of design.

Just one more thing - don't hit the 500VDC supply with a spanner while
hanging onto the metal rack with the other hand. You travel a long
way, and you don't find the spanner again.

d
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

Valves Book
 

In article , Don Pearce
wrote:


Just one thing to remember. When working on live valve circuits, keep
one hand in the pocket at all times.

You beat me to that. :-)

I'd add: make sure the mains switch on the wall is within easy reach. There
will be times when you wish to switch off the unit in front of you with
minimal delay. :-)

Also, "do not poke components with a pencil".

Crepe-soled shoes are a help, too. (I know, that's two things). I found
all that out the hard way in my early days of design.

One of my ex-colleagues used to work on HV discharge lasers 'live' whilst
wearing rubber boots. Mind you, he was a bit crazy. Doubt the
health-and-safety people would let you do it now.

I have always been much more slow-and-cowardly. If kit has mains, or above
about 50Vdc I am inclined to keep shutting everything down when I want to
move probes about, etc. Slower. But you get time to think about what comes
next, and may live longer to do more thinking. :-) Also checks out that
the kit can be turned on and off a lot without problems.

I also tend to prefer bench supplies when developing or testing an amp, and
only connect to the working PSU when doing more protracted tests. Bench
supplies give more safety options, and can also be useful for checking
other effects, etc.

Hence my other advice tends to be "pause and think again, and try to work
out what devious ways the kit in front of your has just devised to try and
kill you." This is also what tea breaks are for.

Just one more thing - don't hit the 500VDC supply with a spanner while
hanging onto the metal rack with the other hand. You travel a long way,
and you don't find the spanner again.

My personal estimate is that about 2kV equals about one rotation of the
human body and you bowl over backwards (if lucky). This is roughly what I
did one day courtesy of someone else rewiring a klystron without telling
me.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Valves Book
 

Now that I'm 'outed' they can start to save for all the other paraphernalia -
oscilloscope, meters, soldering iron

I'll be happy to sell you some valve! I have far too many (some nice ones too).
I also have a spare Avo 4 but I haven't plugged it in yet, so no idea of
condition. Andy

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

Valves Book
 

don't hit the 500VDC supply with a spanner while hanging onto the metal rack
with the other hand.

Too right. start experimenting on 300v HT lines. Not that they can't do you in,
but you can survive.

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.

Valves Book
 

The obvious epic here would Langford Smith.

Epic's the word - to a beginner it's about as readable as Homer's Oddyssey (in
the original Greek...)

=== Andy Evans ===
Visit our Website:- http://www.artsandmedia.com
Audio, music and health pages and interesting links.