Free tube audio learning

[Deke609]

The non-profit Internet Archive has e-published the 1955 series, "Basic Electronics" by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger and Neville Inc (570 pp).

It is free to download: https://archive.org/details/BasicElectronicsVolumes151955/page/n1

It looks pretty comprehensive.  I've only read a bit of it, but so far I find the concepts and components very well-explained.

[Edit: if the link doesn't open, copy-paste it to your browser - it should work then]

 

[Deke609]

The Wauwatosa Tube Factory website, http://wtfamps.com/welcome/, has a great series of posts on tube amp design and components. Topics covered include different methods of biasing tubes (and what bias is and why it's necessary), series versus parafeed use of output transformers, the use of constant current sources (CCS), and a bunch of other helpful stuff.

The basic math equations are covered, but the focus is on explaining what things do and why they're used/needed, and the different ways of meeting the operational requirements for getting amplified sound from output tubes -- all in everyday language. I've found it very helpful.

Just a heads up: the website author's sense of humor might strike some as a bit off-kilter.

cheers,

Derek

 

[Tom-s]

Two books that helped me trough my first DIY amps after Bottlehead kits (and still do)
Morgan jones Valve amp: http://milas.spb.ru/~kmg/files/literature/Morgan_Jones_Valve_Amplifiers_Third_Edition.pdf

Morgan Jones, Building valve amp: (has very practical advise)
http://knob.planet.ee/kirjandus/books/Morgan_Jones_Building_Valve_Amplifiers.pdf

@Mods' please edit my post if i can't share these kind of links on here.

 

[caffeinator]

Another great free resource are the NEETS series, published by the US Navy, covering electronics from the physics and theory to applications. I found this extremely helpful in gaining a basic understanding of how tubes operate. I originally acquired some of these in hardcopy many years ago (well, softbound), and they are still in my library today.

See the linked site for the entire (I think) series, which are pdf's, free for download. Modules 1 through 6 take one from the fundamental physics to the explanation of vacuum tubes and power supplies. With that grounding (no pun intended), one can move selectively onward through the series, or, of course, do them all.

https://www.fcctests.com/neets/Neets.htm