Part III: My staggering list of questions
Focus, once all consuming, lifts and in its place is a sense of wonder and freedom. It is momentary as the body adjusts quickly to its new reality. The mind, still lazer sharp from concentrating and yet boundless with nothing to concentrate on. Like a baseball player swinging two weighted bats before stepping to the plate. At that moment anything seems possible.
Learning is an interesting thing. Physiologically, our brains literally change shape when we learn something new. Synapses are created and neural networks enlarge. Taxi drivers in London have enlarged hippocampuses because of the route and location information they are required to learn. People who speak more than one language sport larger inferior parietal cortices. I am sure that people who lose hours in the world of instagram and right swiping apps see similar increases. In many ways our brains make room for new information; they literally grow to hold new data.
Jump down a level; from the miracle of our brain's physiology to the immediacies of learning, and it’s no less involved. In the modern world of unfettered access to information, the answers are plenty, it’s the questions that are scarce. How do you ask about something you know next to nothing about? This is dichotomy is compounded further by niche lexicons. There is an inherent and particular use language associated with every group/hobby/forum/interest out there. Take a trip around this forum and pretend you know nothing about amps or electronics. For example, this was pulled from the F5 builders thread:
This post does away with any sort of narrative and is instead a hard and fast look at questions that confront the first time builder. By first time builder I mean someone like me who after years of listening to equipment built by other people, decided to build something for himself.
I am by no means the first person to do this. Thomas Thwaites, a rather interesting man in England, was inspired by a single quote, in an admittedly funny book, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, to build a toaster entirely from scratch. The results are startling and inspiring. It was much harder than anticipated to replicate a $10 toaster than he imagined. Interestingly, while the toaster only worked momentarily before literally burning out, it did get sold to a modern art collector for about ten thousand pounds.
He is now investigating what it might be like to be a goat.
For me, these questions are really a win. They are a place to start; direction and bearing. It’s taken a fair amount of time to get the questions down. These are questions for me to answer. While I love the idea of the community assistance, these questions represent the due diligence and learning curve required to move through this project. If nothing else, they serve as a baseline from which to tackle more questions. Similarly, this is not intended to serve as an exhaustive list - its just a starting point.
As I’ve mentioned before, starting from the beginning is really all about starting from the beginning.
What is electricity?
Where does electricity come from?
How is it transported?
How do we control electricity?
Is electricity dangerous?
How do I protect myself?
Why is it troubling to plug in a hair dryer while in the shower?
What is a circuit?
How do circuits work?
What is a short circuit?
What elements are needed to make a circuit?
How do you make one?
What is a transistor?
How do transistors work?
What is a resistor?
How do resistors work?
What is a capacitor?
How do capacitors work?
What is a PCB?
What is a Breadboard?
What is a ground and how does it work?
What does it mean to ‘stuff’ a board?
What is the best way to ‘stuff’ a board?
What is static electricity?
How can it affect electronics?
How do I minimize the effects of static?
What is a diode?
How do diodes work?
What is a switch?
How do switches work?
What is an electrode?
How does an electrode work?
What is a power supply?
How does a power supply work?
What is a bipolar power supply?
What is a switching power supply?
How do amplifiers use electricity?
What components make up an amp?
What is the front end?
What are P and N?
What do heat sinks do?
Why are heat sinks important?
How big do they need to be?
What are rails?
What do rails do?
What the F are Fetts?
How do amplifiers make music come out of speakers?
How do speakers work?
Should I be concerned about fake/knock off parts?
How can I tell if I have counterfeit components?
What makes some amplifiers better than others?
Why are there so many strange rating attached to amplifiers?
What are the line graphs of amplifier performance called?
What do the line graphs of amplifier performance measure?
What do the line graphs of amplifier performance mean?
What do beneficial outcomes look like on an amplifier performance graph?
What is gain?
What is distortion?
Is distortion good or bad?
What is an amplifier made of?
What is Class A, A+B, D?
What is the difference between tube and solid state?
How do tubes work?
Why do we use tube based amps?
How are they different?
How do they use electricity?
How much power do I need?
What are Ohms?
What is Ohms law?
Why is it important?
What are watts?
Why doesn't James Watt get a law?
Are more watts better?
Who is Nelson Pass?
What is the first watt methodology?
What is an efficient vs. inefficient speaker?
What is the difference between the 4ohm and 8ohm speaker rating?
What is the difference between cheap and expensive cabling?
What is a pre amp?
How do pre amps work?
How do Pre amps change things?
How does soldering work?
What do I need to be able to solder?
Where can I get soldering gear?
Where can I learn to solder?
What should I solder first?
What is point to point soldering?
How do I treat a minor burn after using my finger to conclusively prove that a soldering iron is surprisingly hot?
Are there soldering best practices?
What other tools do I need?
Where do I get tools?
How do I ensure my safety when building something that will be drawing power from the wall?
Does wiring matter?
Why do I need heat sinks?
How do heat sinks work?
How big do they need to be?
What is a circuit diagram called?
What are the funny shapes on a circuit diagram?
What are the colloquial terms used to describe these elements?
Is there a glossary and if so, where is it?
How do I make a shopping list based on a schematic diagram.
How do I make sense of the numbers on the electric components.
Where should I source my components?
What is a multimeter?
How do I use one?
Whats Next?
What have I got myself into?
Where do I start?
Special thanks to the incredibly wise person who invented post-it notes. Without them my collection of notes would be an indecipherable, disorganized mess.
Next up in Part 4: Pruning, Grouping, Parts and Labour.
Part 1
Part 2
This will be the last post for a couple of months. I am off to get married and do some traveling. I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to picking it up with Part 4 in the fall.
Focus, once all consuming, lifts and in its place is a sense of wonder and freedom. It is momentary as the body adjusts quickly to its new reality. The mind, still lazer sharp from concentrating and yet boundless with nothing to concentrate on. Like a baseball player swinging two weighted bats before stepping to the plate. At that moment anything seems possible.
Learning is an interesting thing. Physiologically, our brains literally change shape when we learn something new. Synapses are created and neural networks enlarge. Taxi drivers in London have enlarged hippocampuses because of the route and location information they are required to learn. People who speak more than one language sport larger inferior parietal cortices. I am sure that people who lose hours in the world of instagram and right swiping apps see similar increases. In many ways our brains make room for new information; they literally grow to hold new data.
Jump down a level; from the miracle of our brain's physiology to the immediacies of learning, and it’s no less involved. In the modern world of unfettered access to information, the answers are plenty, it’s the questions that are scarce. How do you ask about something you know next to nothing about? This is dichotomy is compounded further by niche lexicons. There is an inherent and particular use language associated with every group/hobby/forum/interest out there. Take a trip around this forum and pretend you know nothing about amps or electronics. For example, this was pulled from the F5 builders thread:
From an outside perspective, one could only guess at the meaning. It is literally written in a different language using English. The implied knowledge required to parse this single sentence represents, on its own, a steep learning curve.
This post does away with any sort of narrative and is instead a hard and fast look at questions that confront the first time builder. By first time builder I mean someone like me who after years of listening to equipment built by other people, decided to build something for himself.
I am by no means the first person to do this. Thomas Thwaites, a rather interesting man in England, was inspired by a single quote, in an admittedly funny book, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, to build a toaster entirely from scratch. The results are startling and inspiring. It was much harder than anticipated to replicate a $10 toaster than he imagined. Interestingly, while the toaster only worked momentarily before literally burning out, it did get sold to a modern art collector for about ten thousand pounds.
He is now investigating what it might be like to be a goat.
For me, these questions are really a win. They are a place to start; direction and bearing. It’s taken a fair amount of time to get the questions down. These are questions for me to answer. While I love the idea of the community assistance, these questions represent the due diligence and learning curve required to move through this project. If nothing else, they serve as a baseline from which to tackle more questions. Similarly, this is not intended to serve as an exhaustive list - its just a starting point.
As I’ve mentioned before, starting from the beginning is really all about starting from the beginning.
What is electricity?
Where does electricity come from?
How is it transported?
How do we control electricity?
Is electricity dangerous?
How do I protect myself?
Why is it troubling to plug in a hair dryer while in the shower?
What is a circuit?
How do circuits work?
What is a short circuit?
What elements are needed to make a circuit?
How do you make one?
What is a transistor?
How do transistors work?
What is a resistor?
How do resistors work?
What is a capacitor?
How do capacitors work?
What is a PCB?
What is a Breadboard?
What is a ground and how does it work?
What does it mean to ‘stuff’ a board?
What is the best way to ‘stuff’ a board?
What is static electricity?
How can it affect electronics?
How do I minimize the effects of static?
What is a diode?
How do diodes work?
What is a switch?
How do switches work?
What is an electrode?
How does an electrode work?
What is a power supply?
How does a power supply work?
What is a bipolar power supply?
What is a switching power supply?
How do amplifiers use electricity?
What components make up an amp?
What is the front end?
What are P and N?
What do heat sinks do?
Why are heat sinks important?
How big do they need to be?
What are rails?
What do rails do?
What the F are Fetts?
How do amplifiers make music come out of speakers?
How do speakers work?
Should I be concerned about fake/knock off parts?
How can I tell if I have counterfeit components?
What makes some amplifiers better than others?
Why are there so many strange rating attached to amplifiers?
What are the line graphs of amplifier performance called?
What do the line graphs of amplifier performance measure?
What do the line graphs of amplifier performance mean?
What do beneficial outcomes look like on an amplifier performance graph?
What is gain?
What is distortion?
Is distortion good or bad?
What is an amplifier made of?
What is Class A, A+B, D?
What is the difference between tube and solid state?
How do tubes work?
Why do we use tube based amps?
How are they different?
How do they use electricity?
How much power do I need?
What are Ohms?
What is Ohms law?
Why is it important?
What are watts?
Why doesn't James Watt get a law?
Are more watts better?
Who is Nelson Pass?
What is the first watt methodology?
What is an efficient vs. inefficient speaker?
What is the difference between the 4ohm and 8ohm speaker rating?
What is the difference between cheap and expensive cabling?
What is a pre amp?
How do pre amps work?
How do Pre amps change things?
How does soldering work?
What do I need to be able to solder?
Where can I get soldering gear?
Where can I learn to solder?
What should I solder first?
What is point to point soldering?
How do I treat a minor burn after using my finger to conclusively prove that a soldering iron is surprisingly hot?
Are there soldering best practices?
What other tools do I need?
Where do I get tools?
How do I ensure my safety when building something that will be drawing power from the wall?
Does wiring matter?
Why do I need heat sinks?
How do heat sinks work?
How big do they need to be?
What is a circuit diagram called?
What are the funny shapes on a circuit diagram?
What are the colloquial terms used to describe these elements?
Is there a glossary and if so, where is it?
How do I make a shopping list based on a schematic diagram.
How do I make sense of the numbers on the electric components.
Where should I source my components?
What is a multimeter?
How do I use one?
Whats Next?
What have I got myself into?
Where do I start?
Special thanks to the incredibly wise person who invented post-it notes. Without them my collection of notes would be an indecipherable, disorganized mess.
Next up in Part 4: Pruning, Grouping, Parts and Labour.
Part 1
Part 2
This will be the last post for a couple of months. I am off to get married and do some traveling. I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to picking it up with Part 4 in the fall.
You might get a lot of these questions answered by reading a series of articles by Grey Rollin on the enjoythemusic.com web site. Sadly they no longer support the DIY site, but the articles are still there.
Just scroll through and look for Grey's articles. Fun reading and educational.
Archived DIY Audio Kits Reviews, Projects And Articles On Enjoy the Music.com
It goes without saying that you should live on passdiy.com and read all the articles there.
Just scroll through and look for Grey's articles. Fun reading and educational.
Archived DIY Audio Kits Reviews, Projects And Articles On Enjoy the Music.com
It goes without saying that you should live on passdiy.com and read all the articles there.
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So just came across this. A very interesting thread. I notice that it has been a couple of years though and wondering if you have moved on. I started my F5T a couple of years back and not finished yet. I have built other amps and preamps though instead. Wonderful writing on a subject that never receives this level of style. Won't you pick back up?
Thanks for the shout out. This has been top of mind for a long time now. So much has happened between now and then. I keep meaning to write it all down. I will see if I can get my act together and post a couple of follow ups.
Thanks again for reaching out! Sometimes all it takes is a gentle nudge...
Thanks again for reaching out! Sometimes all it takes is a gentle nudge...
I would have to concur. We (those who have been in electronics most all their life or have answered those questions you mentioned and moved way beyond that level) forget what it was like as an electronic toddler and assume far too much sometimes. Your writings are a great reminder (and well written) for those who have moved far beyond, and a really great helping hand for those who are just starting out and asking those questions now. Well done and although I personally have progressed far beyond that level I still appreciate your efforts, enjoy reading them and the walk down memory lane & I hope you continue as well. 
TJ
TJ