amp design books

[druz15]

So I've got a bit of birthday money coming in, as well as getting a set of BKP Black Dogs, I'm also looking at eventually building another amp down the line. I seem to recall someone on here talking about a very good series of books on tube amp design, I believe they were talking about these ones?
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Tube-Pr ... 728&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Power-S ... 728&sr=8-2

But wasn't sure. I know Cdog was reading something like these

[sizzlingbadger]

I have these, they are very good, I'm hoping he will release the power amp book shortly !

I would also recommend The Ultimate Tone by Kevin O'Conner http://www.londonpower.com/catalog/prod ... ducts_id=3

[AmpShop]

Yep, another vote here for Merlin's books.

[sizzlingbadger]

These are on my wishlist too...

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Kuehnel/e ... r_dp_pel_1

[druz15]

cheers guys, managed to get an amazon deal where I get those two plus this one
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Constructi ... 728&sr=8-3
for like $150NZ delivered

[tubeswell]

You won't regret it. Those books are a never-ending resource

[Ears]

If you are aiming for a library be sure to include the Kuehnel books, I like them because they are in a sense much more rigorous than Blencowe's excellent volumes, Kuehnel's books approach the fundamentals of analysis with an academic electrical engineering approach. Blencow is more 'organic', more of a technician's approach.
Kuehnel's website http://www.ampbooks.com/ is every bit as much of a goldmine as Merlin's, if only for the calculators.
Kuehnel's preamp book is the easiest of the three to get a handle on. The 5F6a book and the power amp book really expect reader's to have some elec engineering background.


Also keep an eye open for F Terman's "Electrical and Electronic Engineering" 4th Ed and L Smith's Radiotron Designers Handbook also 4th Ed, both from the 1930s-50s, they come up second hand reasonably frequently.
I reckon they're best resources for understanding how tubes really work.

I have 3 of O'Connors books. I warn you that some contain a few serious errors (and worse, he's not bothered to correct the errors by releasing errata or new editions) and the books are an expensive route to take.
He also supposes his readers have a working understanding of solid state electronics Mosfets etc.

[sizzlingbadger]

I finally decided to order Kuehnel's two books, they have been in my Amazon wishlist for about a year now.

BTW L Smith's Radiotron Designers Handbook is available as a PDF from many places including http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm

I have a copy of F Terman's "Electrical and Electronic Engineering" 4th Ed that I picked up in the UK for a few quid.

[druz15]

Cheers for that

[druz15]

two of them arrived today, still waiting on the Merlin preamp one, so have dived into the Robert Megantz one. So far it's great is just going through the basic knowledge and calculations you need to know and stuff, and looks like it actually has useful tips for construction as well as design. Already a lot of things that have left me scratching my head are starting to make sense. But sure wish I retained a bit more knowledge from maths/physics and calculus

[tubeswell]

t... sure wish I retained a bit more knowledge from maths/physics and calculus

You don't really need to know much about algebra for Ohm's Law, which covers 99% of everything you need to be able to figure out for tube amp electronics:

Volts = Amps x Ohms, or Ohms = Volts/Amps, or Amps = Volts/Ohms

and for power:

Watts = Volts x Amps

If you only know 2 things you can figure out the rest (knowing for example that an Amp = a Volt/an Ohm, so if you don't know what the amps are, but you know (say) the voltage and the resistance, then the power equation becomes: Watts = Volts x (Volts/Ohms), which can be re-written as: Watts = Volts x Volts/Ohms by simply taking away the brackets. And so on.

[druz15]

t... sure wish I retained a bit more knowledge from maths/physics and calculus

You don't really need to know much about algebra for Ohm's Law, which covers 99% of everything you need to be able to figure out for tube amp electronics:

Volts = Amps x Ohms, or Ohms = Volts/Amps, or Amps = Volts/Ohms

and for power:

Watts = Volts x Amps

If you only know 2 things you can figure out the rest (knowing for example that an Amp = a Volt/an Ohm, so if you don't know what the amps are, but you know (say) the voltage and the resistance, then the power equation becomes: Watts = Volts x (Volts/Ohms), which can be re-written as: Watts = Volts x Volts/Ohms by simply taking away the brackets. And so on.

Oh I know all that, I meant more in terms of the phase & attenuation calculations for highpass and lowpass filters etc and impendance calculation

[sizzlingbadger]

My two Kuehnel's books arrived the other day, a lot more maths than Merlin's as they go a little deeper. I think Merlins book would be better for the amateur amp builder to start with as they are a bit more practical, I hope he releases his power amp book soon.

[Cdog]

You might enjoy this Druz... a free tonestack calculator, very handy
http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/download.html

[druz15]

My two Kuehnel's books arrived the other day, a lot more maths than Merlin's as they go a little deeper. I think Merlins book would be better for the amateur amp builder to start with as they are a bit more practical, I hope he releases his power amp book soon.

Yeah think I might pick them up when I've got a bit of money and have read through the other ones a few times. Have to say for a small book (90ish pages) the Robert Megantz is fantastic.
Only halfway through the 2nd chapter but already I understand how tubes do their job and when I look at the input part of a schematic I more or less know what each part is there for and why it's the value it is.
Really digging this stuff, getting excited about actually applying it

You might enjoy this Druz... a free tonestack calculator, very handy
http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/download.html

yeah already got it, have it on the missus' laptop as I'm on a Mac. Used it to calculate tonestack settings for the Big Muff I built, but will come in very handy for designing frequency curves for amps and stuff