Good "tube" circuit theory books?

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

user 37518

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2008
Messages
2,233
Location
-
Hey guys, i want to broaden my knowledge on the tube area, my main field has been solid state devices, but i would like to know more about tubes. Any good books you would recommend?
 
user 37518,

The meta on this site, first post in the Lab.
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=08785

Then RDH4:-

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

Be selective with chapters

Be glad, your at the start of a wonderful journey!
best
DaveP
 
RDH4 is definitely the bible as far as tube circuit design is concerned but it is aimed at a very broad range of users. For something more targeted at audio you can do a lot worse than Valve Amplifiers by Morgan Jones.

Cheers

Ian
 
I'd agree with that, it's an excellent book ( I have that on the shelf) but it is geared towards HiFi amps with more modern circuits, it still covers the basics in an easy to understand modern way though.
best
DaveP
 
Thanks guys, ill check them out, its a completely different world, forgotten by almost everyone outside the audio world, and eventhou i understand tube basics i know its a very different beast.
 
If you can get through it I would recommend RDH4 at least a head above all the recent ones.

RDH4 is rigorously factual and very expository.

In my experience, many of the modern ones are too editorial in nature, display a fair degree of quirky audiophile biases, and in some cases have outright factual errors.

Double check with RDH4, Valley and Wallman, or Reich when in doubt.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Designers-Handbook-Fourth-Langford-Smith/dp/0750636351/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344726101&sr=1-1&keywords=Radio+Designers+Handbook
RDH4 is still in print!  New copies are a very reasonable price compared to the silly $$$ asked for some vintage copies.

There's complete scans of the 4th Edition of the Radiotron Designer's Handbook online at  http://www.oldradioz.com/manuals/rdh4/ and other places but unless you are really skint, buy the new book.  It's something you'll be using for bedtime reading into the next millenium.
 
Hey thanks everyone, ill check them out, i would love to get a hardcopy, but i will settle with an e-book.
 
> RDH4 is still in print!

Not the same if it is not in red cloth.

There's also a CD sold commercially.

_I_ would argue to start with the Third edition. Much smaller, leaves out a lot of later frills which just distract the newcomer.

In either case, DaveP is suggesting to fast-skim the radio-specific chapters. There is a lot of stuff about LO drift on the shortwave bands which was vital to the 1930s-1940s radio designer but little use to radio users and highly arcane for audio. Even if you do hetrodyne audio (as for scambling), the issues are not the same.

The chapter on tube-testing, OTOH, is worth a long read just so you know what tubes should and should-not do. Grids weep electrons but only very few; some benchmarks different for small versus large tubes.
 
If you just want to understand how vacuum tubes/valves work without being confused by too much detail to start with, I find Terman's "Electronic and Radio Engineering" excellent.

David
 
> find the CD third edition book?

Not seen that on CD. Download the PDF from tubebooks.org and burn it to disk?
 
Just got a copy of Radio Designers Handbook, the New blue book which says "Classic Edition" which im guessing that its the reprint of the old edition, although it doesnt state if its a reprint of the 3rd, 4rd or a newer edition. I got it used at a good price from amazon, its in decent shape and seems to be printed in 1997.

It is a THICK book, wow! ive been browsing through it and it seems to have almost everything you need to know about audio and radio in general, it even has a big chunk of math sections that go from arithmetics to calculus, and how to use "the slide rule" which I find it to be very funny in this day and age.

BTW I found that I already had a copy of F.E. Terman's "Electronic & Radio Engineering" book laying in my bookshelf, I didnt even know I had it, but mine seems to be an earlier edition before it was renamed as "Electronic & Radio Engineering" thus mine only says "Radio Engineering".

Do you guys think it would be wise to begin by reading F.E Terman's book as an introductory text before getting into RDH, or should I jump straight ahead into RDH?
 
CJ said:
RCA tube catalog or GE tube catalog are also good reading,

available online i would imagine,

Any catalog in particular, there are so many of them, from several years, etc...
 
try these two, "Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass" and "Designing Power Supplies for Tube Amplifiers" both by Merlin Blencowe. Although they are geared more for the guitar and bass amp builder the info they contain applies just as well to other uses.

http://www.tubesandmore.com/products/B-950

http://www.tubesandmore.com/products/B-964
 

Latest posts

Back
Top