Tube Books

[Nictrolis]

Hi all!

I've recently decided to start an amp design, and I'm looking for a few suggestions for good tube theory & tube-based amplifier design books. I'm an EE so I hopefully don't need the "Dummies" version, but I've always found it better to go with some good suggestions rather than picking something at random.

Thanks!!!

[defaced]

Welcome to the board.

There have been some threads in the past about good tube books, but this thread has links to PDFs that will get you going: http://music-electronics-forum.com/s...highlight=book

[Loogie]

RDH4

Sometimes you can find them on Ebay: 370062450158
Also available on-line: http://geek.scorpiorising.ca/RDH4.html

[Enzo]

There are lots of online resources, here is the entire RDH4 at another site

http://headfonz.rutgers.edu/RDH4/

Radio Designers Handbook, by the way.

Many places sell the RCA tube manual reprints, a good copy of the RC30 is well worth the $30 or whatever they are getting now. A book in the hand is far easier to skim through than a computer screen. There are good tutorial chapters. I use mine every single day. I used to buy a new one every couple years - I wore them out. The RC28 next to me is falling apart. RC30 was the last updated version before they gave up on tubes. The much older RC10 or is it RC19 is also available for less money, but it does not include many of the modern tubes we see every day.

And you know, even if you are a EE, don't skip the basics. The chapters aer not that long, and understanding such things as space charge and how tubes actually work will get you a much better understanding than a superficial "how circuits work" approach.

I learned a lot of my electronics from the Radio AMateur's Handbook from ARRL, but that was back in the 1950s. Any copy of that manual from the mid 1960s on earlier would have good tutorial chapters on tubes. The book came out anew every year, so it slowly updated itself, and by the 1970s, the focus had swung over towards solid state, and is not likely to switch back.

[Nictrolis]

Great! Thanks a lot for your help guys. Just ordered a copy of the RC-30, thanks to eBay, and I'll be digging into the RDH4 as soon as possible.

The majority of things I had found on the internet so far have been solely "how stuff works" type, so I have a good idea about what's going on already... just no mathematical concepts. Looks like this stuff should help me on that angle. Thanks!!

[Rob Mercure]

"Amplifiers" by H. Lewis York is somewhere online now but if you can find it in print much better. A quite slim volume - only about 3/8" by 10"X8" but the best, most succinct approach to tubes (some SS) and amplifiers I've ever seen - wish I'd had it in my teens when I learne this stuff from the RCA Tube Manual and the ARRL Manual - some of the best explanations of phase inverters, negative feedback, and tone controls. It'll give the you the succinct explanations that you can elaborate with from RDH4.

Rob