Valve Amplifiers

Overall, this is an excellent introduction to the subject material. The author covers some basic electronics topics and gives a very down to earth discussion of various amplifier stages and the pertinent characteristics of their operation. For the do-it-yourself amp builder this is a great introduction. The text is full of practical advice and pointers to help the reader achieve a successful design.However, this is a practical text aimed at the hobbyist or electronic tinkerer. Do not go looking for in depth theory or detailed mathematical analysis here, you won't find it. The electronic hobbyist will find a wealth of practical information but a trained electrical engineer risks being put off by the lack of in depth analysis and numerous broad assumptions made while discussing design. Some chapters are much better then others. It is much more informative to address them separately.The first chapter is a basic introduction to electronic principles for both passive and simple active devices. This is probably a good refresher for the hobbyist or tinkerer, but anyone trained in electronics or electrical engineering can safely skip the first chapter. Chapter two gives a very good discussion of the basic building blocks of tube circuits. This is arguably the best chapter in the book. The content of this chapter alone is worth the price of the text. Chapter three is a discussion of distortion in tube amplifiers. This chapter contains lots of practical information, but little detailed theory. This is good information for the hobbyist but the engineer will find the lack of rigorous analysis frustrating. Chapter four covers components. The chapter covers some basic information on various types of the different passive components and a very interesting discussion of tube construction. If you're new to vacuum tube technology the latter half of this chapter is a must read. Chapter five is a discussion of power supplies. The best advice I can give on this chapter is don't read it. The author clearly has made many measurements and done much experimenting. However, the conclusions he draws tend to be very misleading. The problem with this chapter is that the hobbyist will be mislead into bad design decisions and the trained electrical engineer will be frustrated with the conclusions drawn. I have been shocked by the incredible number of truly abhorrent power supply designs floating around the internet. Chapter five of this book explains where some of the ideas for these supplies have come. There are much better texts discussing power supply design for tube circuits. For a good practical guide to power supply design, try Chapter 14 of "Theory and Applications of Electron Tubes", by Herbert Reich. Chapter six is a discussion of amplifier power stages. The text covers the basics of single ended and push pull operation and then goes on to discuss several different designs. This chapter contains lots of good practical information. Be warned however, the author is clearly of the "push-pull" camp and if you tend to favor the "single ended" designs, prepared to be insulted. The book finishes up with a chapter on preamplifiers and line stages. Included here are some good discussion on RIAA equalization. If your interest goes beyond the power amp to the entire audio chain, this chapter is very informative.Even as a career electrical engineer I gained significant information and insight by reading this book. It refreshed my knowledge of tube circuits and if I had this book when I was building tube amps in High school in 1980, my success rate would have been significantly higher. Overall this is a excellent text despite the flaws mentioned above. Whether degreed Electrical Engineer or avid hobbyist working on building tube amplifiers, this text is a worthwhile addition to your technical library.

This book is supposed to be highly recommended. I am very disappointed. I don't expect this book get deep into theory as you can use RDH4 for that. But I do expect the book should compare different circuit topologies, analyze the strong and weak point, distortion characteristics under different operating conditions so people can make a better decision. But this book has very little of that. Problem is there are very few books on tubes as it's not popular. You might get just as much if not more info by searching on the web.

The second edition of this book was the first book on tube amps I ever read. I borrowed it from the local library. I can not say that I understood all the concepts then, but for some reason whenever I had returned the book to the library there was something I had to look up, so I bought the third edition.There are not very many good tube books out there, you can believe me because I have read everything from the 1956 RCA tube manual to most of the modern books on the subject.This book is not perfect. It has the tendency to hide a lot of information in the text instead of making a clear presentation from point A to point B. It assumes that you have read all the preceding chapters and have them fresh in your head because there are explanations on things in chapter 13 that is based on stuff in chapter 3 with no references what so ever.That said, I think this is probably the best place to start. It has lots of information that is relatively easy to grasp.If you are more interested in guitar amplifiers, then I would not recommend you to start with this book. It has all the basic information you need to design a guitar amplifier, so it is not bad reading, but I would recommend you to buy "The Ultimate Tone" series (probably start with volume 3)by Kevin O`Connor instead. Because it explains more of the guitar concepts, such as how to make distortion sound good.If you want to design tube amplifiers I recommend this book. Even though I have many tube books this is the one I always come back to when I want to look something up.

Book was not in very good shape, fair at best. More to follow on content latter.

Jones takes a very practical yet comprehensive approach to the design of valve amps and preamps. I've built quite a few over the years and was skeptical that I would get much out of this book, yet every chapter had some nuggets in it that either I didn't know or systematized previously unconnected things I did know. Hours and hours of fun. And really well-written. Excellent work, and I've recommended it to everyone I know with an interest in the subject.

I wanted a book that would help someone build a vacuum tube amplifier who understood basic electronics but who had no prior experience with vacuum tubes (or valves as the British call them). This book was the answer to my search. Morgan Jones does a great job with the book. There were some minor (editing?) errors but these were of no great consequence. From the education in the book, I was able to build a single ended monobloc amp for about $500 which sounds a good as some commercial tube amps costing $5000 (my unbiased opinion)

A comprehensive and detailed book about designing various tube amplifiers. Yet, the author's approach is based on measurements only, disregarding sound qualities which don't appear on conventional measurements. Recommended for anyone designing tube amplifiers, including DIY'ers, provided the reader don't take the author's recommendation on face value.

Good book, good service.

Jones has really cornered the market with this superb bible on valve audio - there really isn't a more comprehensive guide with the same refined expertise that he clearly possesses. The writing is clear and concise covering a wide range of useful topics.If like me you are a relative beginner in amplifier theory it will provide a low-pain introduction into the field (be warned there's few introductory notes on basic electronics - you'll need another textbook for that; however, the style encouages learning a minimum of theory for maximum effect), and I've been assured by various other sources that for advanced users it will still serve as an invaluble reference book.I'd also like to note that it would be an ideal first book for getting into musical instrument amplification.Top marks.

A very good book on general use of valve amps for HiFi.

This book was received in excellent condition. It covers most of what I need to know about my amplifier design, in a very readable form.

Written in a scientific manor but kept basic and composed in a "fun to read" writing style.(you rarely find an electronics book that amuses you and educates you, this is one of them) If you have an idea of electronics you will concider this book to be a fun guide to understand valve amplifiers and everything around them. Even if you do not have that much knowledge about circuits you will understand the themes presended due to the 60 page introdution to amplification priciples really starting from scratch.All in all an educative guide in which Morgan Jones leads you through the amazing world of amplification priciples keeping the reader interested due to the jucy (not dry) writing style.

Ideal para cualquier amateur de la electronica del sonido valvular. Libro muy didactico, describe de forma muy clara toda la teoria necesaria para llegar a conocer en profundidad los amplificadores a valvulas, y por extensión la electronica analogica aplicada al sonido. Fuentes de alimentación, etapas de preamplificacion, Amplificación de potencia, Preamplificacion de fono, y últitud de diseños distintos. Recomiendo la publicacion "Building Valve Amplifiares" del mismo autor, complemento ideal para construir tu mismo un amplificador a valvulas.