• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Morgan Jones "Building Valve Amplifiers"

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I have the 'Valve Amplifiers 3rd Ed" and "Building..." as well.

Lots of information there, for sure. I'm not sorry I bought them, though the organization seems a bit strange to me.

It's too bad that the indexes are so incomplete. Try searching for information on grounding to chassis - a common question for beginners, certainly - and you will see what I mean. Even using the translation to British (ground=earth) doesn't help much. Whether there are more than 2 paragraphs on that topic in both books will remain a mystery to me! :( :confused:

Anyway, Morgan Jones is in good company - it's the same situation (trying to find info on connecting circuit ground/earth to the chassis) in the Radio Designers Handbook 4th Ed - 3 paragraphs in 1400 pages. :)
 
I should update, being as I have had "Valve Amplifiers" for some time now.

It is indeed full of a wealth of information, but does hold something back, some of the 'Black Art' is left for the radar to discover, if they persist long enough.

This is somewhat akin to 'Tricks in 2 stroke engine tuning being a somewhat verbal knowledge, rarely ever committed to text.

I have also read much of Merlins work online, and just got one of his other books as a gift (which I asked for!!!). Well, in actual fact I got 2 copies of the same book, rather than one or both of the two I had listed as gift ideas)

I can say that both authors are extremely knowledgeable, and without doubt, most amateur electronics hobbyists will have much to learn from either author, but it takes effort (not a bad thing) as both authors seem to be a bit awkward as far as flow.

Establishing a practical workflow is up to the reader to work on.

Initially this may be annoying, but I actually found I enjoyed the process, it just builds the readers understanding, having to at least work out the order of events...

I should clarify that I found Morgan Jones writing style meandering....

Apologies if that wasn't clear.

Of course, some chapter jumping etc is going to be required, whatever text you study. E.g. I'm not sure I'll spend much time building my own version of the SRPP designs which seem to be a favourite if the author, but a topology I may never wish to use, at least I haven't thought of a reason...yet.

Ultimately, I only really understood loadlines after studying 5 pages if a traditional printed text book in the typical geometric illustration and algebra format.
 
I got out my copy of Valve Amplifiers 3rd Ed with the intention of working through it over the holidays.

I didn't get very far on my project!


My conclusion: If you already know this material, you will find the book useful.
Intended audience: People with lots of math/science/engineering background.
Those people will be able to learn the material from any source, and probably know most of it already.

If you don't have much engineering background, in my opinion (as a relative electronics beginner with some science background) you won't find MJ's book very useful - or understandable. There are other, better organized and more clearly written sources for learning the same topics.

I'm assuming the 4th Ed is similar to the 3rd Ed.

Again and again I see the MJ book recommended for beginners to tube audio, but I don't think that's good advice.

My copy is back on the shelf and will return to its usual role: a book for reference on specific topics, not a general text for learning electronics.
 
I found Bruce Rosenblitz’s A Beginners Guide to Vacuum Tube Design to be a good introduction to the topic. I even reread it occasionally to freshen up, though I’m sure if I was in the engineering profession (or busier with tube projects), MJ’s book would take its place as a reference.
 
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Posts containing links to and discussion of material under copyright have been deleted. Just because it appears on the web doesn't make it ethical or legal to download and promote such material. To do so is depriving the authors of their livelihood and legitimate income.
 
I'm not flaunting the rules, but can a mod answer:

In the context of discussion and understanding (and given that much of the copyrighted works are, legitimately or not, online already; also given that this material can be found via search engine and without a forum member linking it):

For the aid of future discussion, what is the forum rule regarding quoting of text, citing quotes and diagrams, and Harvard referencing?

I would have thought that this would be acceptable.
 
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Linking to a copyrighted work that has been uploaded without the copyright holder's express permission is the problem the rule is meant to address. This pure and simple is theft of someone else's intellectual property.

Fair use law covers most if not all of the questions you are raising.

Quoting and/or citing specific portions of a work should not a problem if proper attribution is provided. Harvard referencing would usually only apply within the quoted or cited portion of the work, but I see no reason why it could not be included. Likewise with a diagram that was part of the quotation.

Schematics that remain in copyright should never be posted here, snippets germane to a question being asked may be covered under fair use. It is always OK to redraw the schematic and post that - the copyright applies to the document itself and not the electrical design shown on it. (Electrical designs cannot be copyrighted, but documents can.)
 
For information:
The link posted led to a very legitimate-looking website which stated that materials there had been uploaded by the copyright owners. Other books on that site seemed, on casual examination, to be mostly public domain.
I contacted Prof Horowitz -one of the authors- by email for clarification, and he replied within hours. The online text is not authorized, and was uploaded (from a Kindle book version) without the author's permission.
I'm putting the whole situation into the 'innocent mistake by somebody who wanted to help a beginner' category.
Thanks to kevinkr for his clear explanation.
 
You can assume that most of the published-by-a-major-publisher books which appear on sites claiming to have copyright permission do not in fact have that permission. Commercial publishers have to spend a lot of time sending take-down notices to these sites. I know this because it happened to me once; a book I had edited appeared a few months later on one of these sites which is actually intended for self-publication. Once I had alerted them the publisher sent a notice and it was removed.

The problem is morons (i.e. lacking intelligence) or fools (i.e. lacking morality) think that when they have bought a book they own its contents. They do not; they merely own the paper and printing of that physical object in their hand or they have a licence to have and use a copy of a pdf or other file format for their own personal use.
 
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