So I got Merlin's Books....

[pinkphiloyd]

I have his pre-amp book and it's fantastic. I'm gonna get his power amp book soon, and Kuehnel's power amp book. But I've also been looking at the "The Ultimate Tone" books. Anybody have anything to say about those?

http://www.londonpower.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=3

[John_P_WI]

I own all of the Ultimate tone books, bought the first one "TUT" in the mid '90's.

KOC's approach builds on previous books and enhancements. As he develops new ideas, the ideas are passed along in the newer books. Yes there is a great amount of referencing to previous publications.

About the cost? Yes, some of the later books are more expensive, BUT they also have most of his circuitry published in detail - Power Scaling et al. Remember, he makes a living selling amps, kits, books etc, if the books were sold at a minimal cost, that would literally be giving the business away. As I said, most of his circuits are published in the books.

For most, TUT1 and TUT3, and maybe TUT2 will be most popular. TUT3 and TUT5 have projects, TUT4 and 6 have power scaling and other technologies.

All of this being said, you must have an open mind to his thinking and be willing to think and learn. IF you believe that only this type of wire or resistor or cap can be used or "Fender / Marshall" did it this way so no other way will work, you may wish to look somewhere else.

One of the originals - you will be surprised how many of his ideas have been knocked off - especially his 4 stage Marshall from TUT.

Check out powerscaling.com KOC is a moderator over there.

[gearhead]

The Navy basic electronics book is not bad. I use it when i need to look up basic stuff. The edition i have was from the sixties.

Naval Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS) 1998 is the best get-you-up-to-speed text I've ever seen. 24 Modules total, with the first 2 basic stuff.

If you -really- want to understand how a triode works by itself and in a preamp circuit, NEETs Module 6 is the bees knees. I was completely fogged out until stumbling on NEETS a few years ago.

http://www.phy.davidson.edu/instrumentation/NEETS.htm

Electron Flow. Remember that.

[Structo]

I agree the NEETS course is neato!

[Kagliostro]

I have a pair of the book of Richard Kuehnel

a preamp book & a power amp book

very interesting but hard to read to me

also I've a pair of the Merlin Blencowe books
(he printed only two at the moment)

and I find it of great inspiration and more easy to be read
(I'm waiting for the release of the next book that I hope about power amplifiers)

you can read some very interesting articles from this authors here

http://www.ampbooks.com/home/authors/richard-kuehnel/

http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard/

About printed paper, YES, also I prefer the printed pages, but also I downloaded from Pete Millet site big books and printed it to read with comfort

Kagliostro

[rdjones]

The Navy basic electronics book is not bad. I use it when i need to look up basic stuff. The edition i have was from the sixties.

Naval Electricity and Electronics Training Series (NEETS) 1998 is the best get-you-up-to-speed text I've ever seen. 24 Modules total, with the first 2 basic stuff.

If you -really- want to understand how a triode works by itself and in a preamp circuit, NEETs Module 6 is the bees knees. I was completely fogged out until stumbling on NEETS a few years ago.

http://www.phy.davidson.edu/instrumentation/NEETS.htm

My EE prof in college was an ex-Navy instructor.
He liked to point out that his course was "by the book".

The Naval course is great place to learn troubleshooting.

Electron Flow. Remember that.

If you can learn the two theories and the difference between them,
it'll help get past the basics especially with tubes.

rd

[angelodp]

Merlins Books are an epiphany for me. It is slow going but as the pieces of the puzzle come clear it really is satisfying.

A

PS the guys here have been the great teachers as well

[Colossal]

Kuehnel and Blencowe are definite must-haves on the electronics bookshelf. Both take reading and re-reading and much study to absorb but the payoff is that you get enlightenment along the way as well as new skills and ideas to incorporate in your own building.

[diagrammatiks]

The Merlin books are probably the easiest and broadest of the books specifically for guitar amp building.

I'd say just start with the preamp book and look up all the none tube related stuff that gets confusing.

[Bob S]

My first serious attempt at digesting some of Merlin's pre-amp book took 4.5 hours. I only covered the first 50 pages ...
Lots to learn - or re-learn.

[rsi]

Another resource that is floating around somewhere in PDF form (sorry, i don't have a link) is the "Audio Classroom" series of articles from the 50s by Norman Crowhurst. These are hifi related but are really good, especially in conjunction with Merlin's books and the pentode press stuff.

My philosophy is if you read about the same stuff numerous times from different sources/perspectives it's bound to sink in some day.

I think the first article is on the triode gain stage, sort of like the first section of Merlin's preamp book. My guess is reading both those consecutively would help a lot.

Crowhurst also wrote a book in 1956 called "High Fidelity Circuit Design". He covers some stuff that i have not seen elsewhere such as using scopes for amp diagnosis/testing. This is also in PDF form somewhere on the web.

One last easy to understand source is the "Radio Craft Amplifier Builder's Guide" from 1947. It includes some projects at the end such as mono bloc power amps etc.

Hope these help.

[NickC]

High Fidelity Circuit Design by Norman H. Crowhurst & George Fletcher Cooper


http://www.pmillett.com/tubebooks/Books ... Design.pdf

[Herec]

I'm thinking about getting one of Kuehnel's books first, as right now I'm in between classes for EE and have time to do the extra math (its also good to brush up on from time to time... I guess haha). I've been doing the tutorials and other problems on the ampbooks webpage, and I like his teaching style.

Kuehnel states at one point in a problem I did that its common to start designing from the output to the input, so I was thinking about getting the Power Amp book first.

Would it be better to start with the Power Amp or Preamp book? Does Kuehnel assume you know certain things from the Preamp book in the Power Amp book?

[Weathered]

I'm thinking about getting one of Kuehnel's books first, as right now I'm in between classes for EE and have time to do the extra math (its also good to brush up on from time to time... I guess haha). I've been doing the tutorials and other problems on the ampbooks webpage, and I like his teaching style.

Kuehnel states at one point in a problem I did that its common to start designing from the output to the input, so I was thinking about getting the Power Amp book first.

Would it be better to start with the Power Amp or Preamp book? Does Kuehnel assume you know certain things from the Preamp book in the Power Amp book?

I've got them both (as well as the 5F6-A book, which is also fantastic), and I feel that he actually treats them as distinct books. So feel free to buy the power amp book without getting too buried.

I've found that there are parts in both Keuhnel and Merlin's books that dovetail quite nicely - I've absorbed more by going back and forth between the two than I would have with only one or the other.

[David Root]

+1, both guys' books are essential reading and both bear re-reading (especially Kuehnel's, which are more rigorous, like RDH4).

RDH4 is also a fantastic resource, but not for the absolute rookie. Some say RDH3 (3rd Edition) is just as good for audio. Radiotron Designer's Handbook, written for tube-involved engineers by same. 4th edition 1953.

The real gurus are those guys who could develop RDH4 again from the basic principles, and there are few, if any, of those guys around. Aiken and PHH come to mind.