Book or website etc explaining the workings of a valve amplifier for the layperson ?

Does anyone know of a good book or site or such that explains the workings and challenges of a valve or tube amplifier in detail?
I have found piecemeal info out there aimed at the novice, sometimes conflicting though, and some véry involved 600 page+ works intended for the
more evolved engineer..

Roy D wrote:Does anyone know of a good book or site or such that explains the workings and challenges of a valve or tube amplifier in detail?

There are many - how good they are is a matter of your patience and experience. The contents are best described as "dense". Here is a website that can help with general titles:

http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm

http://turneraudio.com.au/ Is a link to one individual's website (Patrick Turner) who has "done it all" from winding his own very serious transformers to bending his own sheet metal. And, while a through-and-through curmudgeon who will never use one word where ten will do, he will actually engage with any interested party and walk them through whatever stage of the process they may be in. He is in Australia - which does explain some things.

Good luck with this!

Hi Peter W
Yes found that site and have been ploughing through it for a couple of days now sampling the different books on that site.. so many!
Find much of the matter dense yes requiring some involvement of a level oftentimes not achievable with the 4yo around.. but I keep at it.

hmm  I will have a look about on the turner site  (and lol at the desciption ^^ )   Thank you!

Might give this site a whirl:

http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/

Not overly technical while not being for the newbie exactly.  Even though it states for guitar amp design, most of the circuits would be just fine for hifi.

Tony

Thanks Tony ^^

Turns out one of the people on Youtube I had been viewing some informative videos by, 'Uncle Doug' has made a few very informative videos called
How Tube Amplifiers Work, Part 1: The Power Supply
How Tube Amplifiers Work, Part 2: The Pre-Amp and Power Amp
and several detailing the different vacume tubes =] It really tied things together for me

This website has multi part article describing basics of several tube based circuits including pre amps and power amps:
http://education.lenardaudio.com/en/14_valve_amps.html

The index for article sections is at very bottom of the page linked.
FWW- He favors push pull type designs and tends to bad mouth SET amps

vtshopdog wrote: >Snippage< He favors push pull type designs and tends to bad mouth SET amps

If ever there were certain indications of competence, this would be one of them!

Also below site. This site cross links with site in my earlier post.

http://sound.whsites.net/valves/index.html

Peter W, regarding SET amps:
Ha ha, he has a paragraph in the article basically asserting that overpriced SET amps are a product of coked out Wall Street types furnishing their penthouses with impressive objects.

^^ Very much enjoying that site vtshopdog !

I learned so much from the Tube Amp Bootcamp series on youtube  Worth your time for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEKculzyu7N_X9BS5vs1DwZyV5FIKdtOK

Also some decent reading here:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/how-does-a-tube-amp-work.443915/

Guitar amp related but there is a lot of information about tube amplification in general here...

http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/white-papers

vtshopdog wrote: >SNIPPAGE< he has a paragraph in the article basically asserting that overpriced SET amps are a product of coked out Wall Street types furnishing their penthouses with impressive objects.

Don't get me started...

Peter W. wrote:

vtshopdog wrote: >SNIPPAGE<  he has a paragraph in the article basically asserting that overpriced SET amps are a product of coked out Wall Street types furnishing their penthouses with impressive objects.

Don't get me started...

Peter, would that be in regards to SET amps, Wall Street types, impressively furnished penthouses or all above??

Peter, would that be in regards to SET amps, Wall Street types, impressively furnished penthouses or all above??[/quote]

Once past the latter two of the three, most of anything I would have to offer would be 'moderated', and properly so.

An excellent example of the aformentioned humaniform  ( pretty decent movie adaptation of the Brett Easton Ellis novel )

..and a little cameo for the Kef 105/3

https://www.vhaudio.com/furutech-ncf-booster.html

https://www.vhaudio.com/acpowerconditioning.html#ep


https://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wattgate-381-TR-AG-Grey-Silver-Plated-Audio-Grade-AC-Receptacle-Outlet/108488435?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1573&adid=22222222227062427043&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=169628799026&wl4=pla-275568869640&wl5=9007378&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=113137531&wl11=online&wl12=108488435&wl13=&veh=sem

https://www.dedicatedaudio.com/collections/accessories/products/cardas-golden-myrtle-blocks-large-6

https://www.dedicatedaudio.com/collections/accessories/products/shunyata-dark-field-df-ss-cable-elevator-set-of-3


Fair warning - THIS is what would get me started - and ultimately 'moderated' out of this NG were I to vent fully.

Offered in good humor. Just the thought of cable catenary devices is howlingly funny! And the cats would absolutely love them!

Got to respect the entrepeneur. Couple of months ago I went to pick up something off ebay and they guy was the importer of the magnetic calcium filters here which sold like hotcakes back in the 80's n early 90's..
The furutech ncf booster - I _think_ what they are referring to when they say it stops the cables vibrating is the noise generated when cables are stressed and moved - an effect noticable when you have a rockstar tethered to an amp with a microphone cable jumping up n down - I forget the term for it. But they take something like that and, sprinkle something extra on it and just run with it.

The calcium filter guy sure did have a nice house though.

Valve Amplifiers by Morgan Jones is my go to.