Hey
After having posted to the latest Pete Millett post I wondered (and Often have) what did the diy world do before the internet? I would have no way been able to advance to the point I have with amp building without the resource that is the internet.
So other than Glass Audio etc how was it done?
Nick
After having posted to the latest Pete Millett post I wondered (and Often have) what did the diy world do before the internet? I would have no way been able to advance to the point I have with amp building without the resource that is the internet.
So other than Glass Audio etc how was it done?
Nick
I learned audio, tubes, and electronics in general way before the internet was dreamed of. In fact computers took up a whole building........
There were several DIY general interest magazines that have dissapeared, Radio - Electronics, Popular Electronics, Electronics Illustrated, and more that I can't remember. There were ham radio magazines, which still exist, 73 and QST. All had construction articles. I built many. Heathkit assembly manuals were also a good source of info. So were the ARRL handbooks and even tube manuals.
I used to hang out at the Lafayette Radio Electronics store, and even the local TV repair shop to suck up information (like a chat room or a forum) and bring home discarded electronics. I used to collect old TV's and radios to take them apart. After a while, I even learned how to put them back together. Tube electronics could be obtained for free just about everywhere. Once a month a neighbor (who was into wood working) would clean up his shop and take the discards to the trash dump. I always volunteered, and never came home empty handed! There were two TV repair shops within bicycle distance from my house. I visited their trash cans twice a week. Most of the discarded tubes still had life in them.
We had a 3 year vocational electronics program in High School that taught tubes. That is where I learned how to "make em glow". Sadly these programs have all been killed off because they are too expensive.
I must admit that it is far easier to find info today than it ever was. There is still no substitute for practical experience. Now if only there was still that never ending supply of old tube radios and TV sets........
There were several DIY general interest magazines that have dissapeared, Radio - Electronics, Popular Electronics, Electronics Illustrated, and more that I can't remember. There were ham radio magazines, which still exist, 73 and QST. All had construction articles. I built many. Heathkit assembly manuals were also a good source of info. So were the ARRL handbooks and even tube manuals.
I used to hang out at the Lafayette Radio Electronics store, and even the local TV repair shop to suck up information (like a chat room or a forum) and bring home discarded electronics. I used to collect old TV's and radios to take them apart. After a while, I even learned how to put them back together. Tube electronics could be obtained for free just about everywhere. Once a month a neighbor (who was into wood working) would clean up his shop and take the discards to the trash dump. I always volunteered, and never came home empty handed! There were two TV repair shops within bicycle distance from my house. I visited their trash cans twice a week. Most of the discarded tubes still had life in them.
We had a 3 year vocational electronics program in High School that taught tubes. That is where I learned how to "make em glow". Sadly these programs have all been killed off because they are too expensive.
I must admit that it is far easier to find info today than it ever was. There is still no substitute for practical experience. Now if only there was still that never ending supply of old tube radios and TV sets........
The percentage of people actually building anything anymore is probably very small. Pre-net would have been when I was in high school and college. In high school we had an active electronics program, with a ham radio station, and lots of free parts from local supporting companies. In college it was probably the peak of hi-fi. Everybody was frequenting the local dealers for what's now "vintage" equipment, and many engineering students were building their own amps and even tuners from scratch. I built Heathkit, Ace Audio, Dyanco and SWTP audio equipment. There were no distracting computers, cell phones and pagers, nor did many people waste time playing video games- you had to go to a place that had them, and pay!
IMO, learning electronics was both harder and easier. Today you can get the basics off the net, with pretty good material on most topics. OTOH, the depth isn't there. Nothing will replace the classic textbooks like Barnstead, Terman, Stout, Timbie & Bush and a lot of very good factory literature from the parts makers. Good technical books were available until recently, dirt cheap. Lately the prices have been rising at a steep rate, unless you find something for a few bucks locally.
Before the net, there was a lot of myth and bad information around. Now, myth and bad information are just a keystroke away.
IMO, learning electronics was both harder and easier. Today you can get the basics off the net, with pretty good material on most topics. OTOH, the depth isn't there. Nothing will replace the classic textbooks like Barnstead, Terman, Stout, Timbie & Bush and a lot of very good factory literature from the parts makers. Good technical books were available until recently, dirt cheap. Lately the prices have been rising at a steep rate, unless you find something for a few bucks locally.
Before the net, there was a lot of myth and bad information around. Now, myth and bad information are just a keystroke away.
I wish I got into tubes earlier
Until I heard my first valve amp, I never truly enjoyed my stereo. 5 years ago I loaned an amp from a patient that he built and I bought it and it has been a very uphill learning curve since then. Without this forum in particular I would have "No Idea" of what to do. What is humbling to me is to see the big hitter names that I recognise that freely contribute selflessly right here.
Instead of chasing girls at university in the 80's, I wish I had discovered tubes and got into it whichever way possible.
Until I heard my first valve amp, I never truly enjoyed my stereo. 5 years ago I loaned an amp from a patient that he built and I bought it and it has been a very uphill learning curve since then. Without this forum in particular I would have "No Idea" of what to do. What is humbling to me is to see the big hitter names that I recognise that freely contribute selflessly right here.
Instead of chasing girls at university in the 80's, I wish I had discovered tubes and got into it whichever way possible.
Kits and magazines. Southwest Tech amps, Hafler. My first project was a Hafler DH101. The Jung/Marsh 'Picking Caps' article was the ruin of many store-bought pieces. Twenty years+ ago was also the heyday of DIY computers in a truer sense of the word, drawing much of the attention away from audio for a generation.
This is one of the ways they did it.
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I used to build tube preamps as I couldn't afford to build a power amp and my dad wouldn't fund it . But doing that with experimental tone arms kept me quite busy. Then I went to study engineering and transistors had just started appearing in the market. BC107's cost about three times what they cost now and that was 'very expensive' then. Additionally most of my seniors were not very competent with solid state devices . They had started with tubes !
They blew up several of my devices ( they never bought any themselves !). Eventually I stopped consulting them and did things on my own and blew far less components. We used to have open air music parties like we can never do today. It was great. We also had students from overseas and so there was a constant supply of 70's music. Almost every album released would reach us.
Most of the practical information came from Practical Wireless and Wireless World magazines which I bought religiously every month. I sacrificed a lot to do that ! I still have some of them and also the Audio magazine issue with the Jung/Marsh 'Picking Caps' article ! I was given permission to cut out and take anything I wanted from old copies of old Japanese Audio magazines when I was at Hitachi's factories. So I had a pile of those which unfortunately I can't find. While the language was unreadable the sketches and graphs were self explanatory.
Readers tried all sorts of experiments and those articles would be illuminating even now. I never threw them away but I can't find them. I wish I do.
I built my first satellite/ subwoofer system in '82 I think. I had read about it in one of the magazines. I used to keep the sub out of sight and it was most satisfying to see jaws drop when guys heard the bass which apparently came from diminutive speakers.
The enthusiasm didn't die down but slowed down with professional life / working / earning etc. Then I stumbled upon diyaudio.com ( in it's infancy !). It fanned the dying embers and it's a pretty good fire right now ! I still have some of the old pages saved on CD-R . The pages looked very different then .
Thanks to Diyaudio.com and all it's members for all the pleasure I'm getting doing what I really love doing ( amongst a few other things ).
Wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Cheers,
Ashok.
They blew up several of my devices ( they never bought any themselves !). Eventually I stopped consulting them and did things on my own and blew far less components. We used to have open air music parties like we can never do today. It was great. We also had students from overseas and so there was a constant supply of 70's music. Almost every album released would reach us.
Most of the practical information came from Practical Wireless and Wireless World magazines which I bought religiously every month. I sacrificed a lot to do that ! I still have some of them and also the Audio magazine issue with the Jung/Marsh 'Picking Caps' article ! I was given permission to cut out and take anything I wanted from old copies of old Japanese Audio magazines when I was at Hitachi's factories. So I had a pile of those which unfortunately I can't find. While the language was unreadable the sketches and graphs were self explanatory.
Readers tried all sorts of experiments and those articles would be illuminating even now. I never threw them away but I can't find them. I wish I do.
I built my first satellite/ subwoofer system in '82 I think. I had read about it in one of the magazines. I used to keep the sub out of sight and it was most satisfying to see jaws drop when guys heard the bass which apparently came from diminutive speakers.
The enthusiasm didn't die down but slowed down with professional life / working / earning etc. Then I stumbled upon diyaudio.com ( in it's infancy !). It fanned the dying embers and it's a pretty good fire right now ! I still have some of the old pages saved on CD-R . The pages looked very different then .
Thanks to Diyaudio.com and all it's members for all the pleasure I'm getting doing what I really love doing ( amongst a few other things ).
Wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Cheers,
Ashok.
tubelab.com said:
We had Olson Electronics on Euclid Ave. in Cleveland, and Lafayette was just across the street. A few blocks away was "Bernie's Ham Shack" which carried everything -- guys in flannel shirts puffing on camels and working 40m CW. Pioneer Electronics was a short bus ride to 55th Street, and still in existence is Surplus electronics but I think the have moved to Mentor OH
So you built a lot of stuff from scratch. TV's would go on the blink so there were always lots of heavy duty transformers which could be gutted out -- when color TV got going the VA rating of the trafos about doubled.
I think that just about everyone in the day tried to build some OTL hifi amp. Hum was always a problem in just about everything you built. When silicon state invaded tube-turf you had to gingerly solder the leads, heatsinking them so as to not blow out the little critter.
Yep....hanging around the local Radio Shack, perusing thru the Layfayette store on Union Avenue in Portland Oregon, now named Martin Luther King Ave.
The Layfayette I guess now was a "chain" store, the place was huge with drivers galore...hundreds.the in-store-made enclosures of every size & shape, even the LaScala clones.
Cascade surplus was another, they had some of those old wire mesh memory cores with the note pasted on them "We can't remember what these are for".
Silly me, I told them "Those are memory cores"...they promptly pulled out a notebook and assigned me "Your number ***...Ha ha ha" Inside joke.
These places are long gone now as electronics has moved into a new era.
________________________________________Rick............
The Layfayette I guess now was a "chain" store, the place was huge with drivers galore...hundreds.the in-store-made enclosures of every size & shape, even the LaScala clones.
Cascade surplus was another, they had some of those old wire mesh memory cores with the note pasted on them "We can't remember what these are for".
Silly me, I told them "Those are memory cores"...they promptly pulled out a notebook and assigned me "Your number ***...Ha ha ha" Inside joke.
These places are long gone now as electronics has moved into a new era.
________________________________________Rick............
tubelab.com said:
Advice from older builders, textbooks and magazines for me, in addition to Tubelab's list, Ham Radio, was excellent, and most of the projects from it and QST worked well. 73 and CQ were a bit dicier. A lot of it was just try something, see if it worked ...
Bill Orr, W6SAI, had a radio handbook for many years that had excellent practical theory and construction projects. Even today, old issues of Radio Electronics are a treasure trove for tube builders. I see them all the time at hamfests for between free and $0.10 .....
I did a little light repair after school at the local Radio Shack, back when employees were actually expected to have at least some knowledge. A real repairman in town did the hard stuff.
I think the internet is a mixed bag. There is a lot of bad info out there. I am sure I have unwittingly contributed to that a time or two ...
Win W5JAG
Before the Internet...
Well, it was really sad - we had to talk to real people. In 1992, I saw an advert in Glass Audio saying a group called "The London Live DIY Hi-Fi Circle" was starting up and would have monthly meetings in a pub, so I went. Often. We had (and still have) home meetings where people demonstrate that their home-made electrostatics aren't quite as reliable as they'd hoped, where amplifiers hum, and where DACs lose lock. All good stuff. Eeee, and there were electronics shops too. My 12th birthday present was £3, with which I bought an Antex soldering iron and an OC44 transistor (which I quickly melted with said Antex).
The other way to find like-minded loonies was to get an electronics job. This also allowed access to component stores and test equipment.
Oh, and I used to read someone's "Hi-Fi News" and "Wireless World" outside their house as I did my paper round.
Well, it was really sad - we had to talk to real people. In 1992, I saw an advert in Glass Audio saying a group called "The London Live DIY Hi-Fi Circle" was starting up and would have monthly meetings in a pub, so I went. Often. We had (and still have) home meetings where people demonstrate that their home-made electrostatics aren't quite as reliable as they'd hoped, where amplifiers hum, and where DACs lose lock. All good stuff. Eeee, and there were electronics shops too. My 12th birthday present was £3, with which I bought an Antex soldering iron and an OC44 transistor (which I quickly melted with said Antex).
The other way to find like-minded loonies was to get an electronics job. This also allowed access to component stores and test equipment.
Oh, and I used to read someone's "Hi-Fi News" and "Wireless World" outside their house as I did my paper round.
Heck, I had FEDs (fire emitting diodes), and before that the sweet smell of burning selenium rectifiers. As you can see, the brain damage was completely minimal 
BTW, my fate was sealed for electronics when, as a small child, I removed the bulb from my night light, carefully inserted my little finger, then turned on the switch.
BTW, my fate was sealed for electronics when, as a small child, I removed the bulb from my night light, carefully inserted my little finger, then turned on the switch.
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