Morgan Jones "Valve Amplifiers"

[gingertube]

I have a copy of the first edition.

I see that its now at 3rd edition - Can anyone advise if it is substantially different - that is, is it worth me buying a new copy?

Thanks,
Ian

[rcavictim]

I have only seen version 3 having only recently having obtained a copy. From personal discussion with the author, as I understand it there is a fair bit of new material in the 3rd edition. One example is a thorough testing and distortion analysis of the 6SN7 family which was apparently no small effort to complete. The new construction addition made the new book too unwieldly so a separate book was created.

[slowmotion]

Hi

I would absolutely get the 3rd, even if you have the first.
Lot's of new information in the 3rd edition makes it worth it.

cheers

[audiousername]

I'm a bit late to this thread, but perhaps you should try hunting down a copy at a library to see if it will be useful before buying it. That's what I did.

[mark_titano]

Originally posted by slowmotion
Hi

I would absolutely get the 3rd, even if you have the first.
Lot's of new information in the 3rd edition makes it worth it.

cheers

Could you say which are these new informations?

I know that, in the third edition, Mr Jones has got rid of the construction section.
He decided to put out a separate tome on amp construction, Building Valve Amplifiers (I have just purchase it ).
On Amazon I've found a review of Building Valve Amplifiers made by BHD (he is a member of this forum ) that explain some of the differences between the first edition of Valve Amplifiers and the others:

"....Originally, the author covered amplifier construction techniques in the first edition of Valve Amplifiers, but that volume is now in it's third edition and is over six hundred pages long WITHOUT the construction section. It's understandable that Mr. Jones decided to put out a separate tome on amp construction, since the construction information is as long as the entire first edition of Valve Amplifiers....."

Mark

[Blue]

Probably best to get a copy from the Library first (if you can)

I hope Morgan Jones has developed his thinking since his Electronics World article of 1996 (simply to sell his book at the time) when he systematically screwed up the classic concertina push pull design. The Maths was there but the knowledge wasn't and such things like 22.7k resistors and a wrongly placed dominant pole etc. showed this, as did the raft of criticism and corrective advise that followed.

I also hope that all those that have contributed to the feedback in Electronics World get their share of the profit from the books as well as those of us who publish information and advice freely on the Internet in magazines and on forums like this.

Basically it’s a coffee table book a bit like those Supercar books that any Porsche or Ferrari owner would never have but every Ford Taurus owner has lying around. Both do well for Amazon shareholders


Morgan Jones if you read this (and I’ve put your name again to help you find yourself)

You never answered my question about the mains transformer and choke in the 1996 EW article, I believed they were from a BBC MU/51 and so would have had 6.7V and 5.3V heater windings. I subsequently found out that the transformer has a –10V tap on the input side so you most likely had a 250V winding on 240V ac (UK) which would make the heaters about 2% high.

If the above is the case and in keeping with the breath held buttocks clenched accuracy of the rest of the 1996 article you should have labelled the transformer HT winding as 302.3-0-302.3 Vac. Also as an ex-BBC engineer why did you not keep the capacitor(s) across the choke ? In fact why did you ruin a perfectly serviceable pair of Leak mono blocks to make a worse stereo amplifier ??

So I put down my copy on my glass coffee table and head to the beach in my Suzuki Swift from Andys Rent A Car and say good bye, not good buy because it isn't.

BLUE

[leadbelly]

Hmmm, someone must have had chicory in their morning coffee.....

[Blue]

True it was early in the morning but chicory that's the stuff in CAMP coffee isn't it and Batman and Robin quotes.....

I hope this is not a homophobic diversion..... please stand up

Blue

[SY]

I've never seen the earlier editions of the book, but you make a good case for the 3rd versus the 1st.

[gingertube]

Thanks for all your responses - as a result I bought the third edition and spent the weekend reading it cover to cover. Lots of new information - well worth the money even if you already own a 1st edition as i did.
Cheers,
Gingertube (Ian)