[JakeJ]

Hi All,

I am seeking books and educational materials on vacuum tube electronics. I have had some basic electronics education and am currently reading "Valve Amplifiers" by Morgan Jones but am finding it a very tough read. Also my math is a bit rusty but still have all my notes and text books so I can, hopefully, get back up to speed.

Please tell me your favorite books and other educational materials so I can learn how a tube works and understand the surrounding circuitry. IOW, I wanna learn how to build an amp and understand how it works.

Thanks,
Jake

Facilitator/JoshK - I hope this is the right circle to post this request in but if not please let me know which is appropriate (or if it may advantageous to post in more than one circle).

[scottnixon]

Van Valkenburg "Basic Electronics" Vol 1 and 2  Simple, easy and campy mid-50's books.  There are 6 volumes in the series, but only 1 & 2 are directly tube amp applicable.   You can find them from used book stores and sometimes the 'bay or half.com.

[BradJudy]

Pete Millett hosts a bunch of PDFs of books that are largely about tubes and their use in amplifiers and radios - http://www.pmillett.com/tecnical_books_online.htm

[JoshK]

Yes, get Radiotron Designer's Handbook, Fourth Edition (25mb) & Radio Amateur's Handbook (55mb) in particular from Pete Millet's site.  The first is the reference most of the old timers used to learn tube circuits. Its a classic.  You might also find that Morgan Jone's Building Valve Amplifiers is a bit more accessible, but it doesn't really explain the circuits so much as shows you how to build them without noise and other problems that plague newbies.

There are a number on online things that helped me out when I got started.  I will try to dig them up.   There is also a big thread on diyaudio about this very topic.  Lots of sources given there.  This is where I first went digging iirc.  (remember, I started learning about tubes just a few years back). 

[JoshK]

P.S. don't forget tubecad.com.  It isn't linear in nature, meaning he has some basics and newbie oriented articles but they are intertwined with more advanced topics.  You have to poke around a bit, but I have learned a great deal from Broskie. 

[jimbop]

Here are some links that I've had bookmarked:

http://www.audioxpress.com/resource/audioclass/index.htm

http://www.tpub.com/neets/

http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/tubediy/messages/34435.html

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38278

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38278

Jim D

[JakeJ]

Wow, thanks to all who have contributed. I knew posting the query here would be much smarter than slogging about on the web for weeks and even then not be sure the resources I found on my own were useful or not.

I spent as much time as I could last night at work reading boozehound.com's how to page and now understand how a valve conducts electricity. Also an eye-opener was DHT (directly heated triode), before I thought it meant I should power the filament with a DC supply, now I know it means that the filament IS the cathode and thus specific to certain tube types. Another connection I made through my readings was that HT and B+ are the same thing just different terms in British and US publications.

Again, thanks a bunch so far and of course more materials and references are welcome.   

Jake

[JoshK]

Yeah I use to think that HT was something short for heaters and couldn't figure out why anyone would heat their filaments with such high voltage.  Well, not exactly that far, but thought people were mistyping.   HT is short for high tension, for those who still don't know what it means. 

B+ comes from the fact that early radios were battery powered, so the positive voltage was taken from the + side of the battery stack. 

[slowereastside]

Here's another EE intro written specifically for tubes:

http://ken-gilbert.com/images/pdf/taste_of_tubes.pdf

[Berndt]

http://www.audioxpress.com/resource/audioclass/