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Rating: 
Summary: Superb valve amplifier evangelism!
Review: As a former academic who has designed and taught a course on valve amplifier design, I strongly recommend this book. It is an unusual blend of the practical and the mildly theoretical, with both areas starting at a very elementary level but continuing to the point of genuine sophistication. Morgan Jones is wonderfully enthusiastic about his subject, and even more so for his clear personal preferences within this field. If only UK school science lessons had this level of emotional involvement! Any constructor, whether professional or amateur, member of the valve era or member of the IC age, would do well to buy this book. Nick Sheldon
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Summary: Fills several niches well
Review: I give Jones high marks for several reasons: 1) Comprehensive coverage of vacuum tube phono (RIAA) preamp design and optimization, the best in or out of print as far as I know; 2) Overall organization and breadth; 3) Technical explanation at a useful (not excruciatingly hard but not oversimplified) level; 4) Readable style. While I am not as committed a believer as Jones is to the supremacy of push-pull amplification, I recommend this book frequently and with enthusiasm. Is it perfect, the best possible book for the tube audio enthusiast ever to be written? No. Is it the best book available? A resounding yes. -j
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Summary: One of the better tube amplifier design books, but limited
Review: I wanted a book that would help someone build a vacuum tube amplifier who understood basic electronics but who had no prior experience with vacuum tubes (or valves as the British call them). This book was the answer to my search. Morgan Jones does a great job with the book. There were some minor (editing?) errors but these were of no great consequence. From the education in the book, I was able to build a single ended monobloc amp for about $500 which sounds a good as some commercial tube amps costing $5000 (my unbiased opinion)
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Summary: Good for beginners, but minor misconceptions put me off.
Review: If you don't know much about valve amplifiers ['valve' = `tube' in USA], you will learn a lot by reading this book, which starts from the basics. It is generally readable and easy to understand. In addition to theory, it also covers some very practical aspects the practical [how to cut metal, how to solder, and so on]. The author's style is highly enthusiatic but came across to me as being slightly amateurish. Its focus is on hi-fi audio amplifiers - it does not touch on valve guitar amplifiers. What I liked most was the author's down-to earth common sense approach, which he evidently acquired through his training at the BBC. [no nonsense about gold plating your mains fuses here] What I liked *least* were minor misconceptions and the details he gets wrong here and there. As a few examples, if you took him at his word, you would believe: - Fitting metal screening to an input valve will shorten its life. - The B-H curve of a transformer's iron can be treated as the Vin - Vout characteristic. - The getter in a valve is only effective if the heater is hot before the anode voltage is applied. Two topics I thought were significant omissions: - How to measure amplifier characteristics [eg frequency response, power output, distortion]. - How to design feedback amplifiers to get the best performance for a given output transformer. Troubleshooting [a pretty important topic] is only touched on. As I said, if you don't know much about valve amplifiers, you can learn a lot from this book and will find it easy to read with lots of useful information. But if [like me] you are put off by incorrect details and a slightly amateurish air, leave it on the bookshelf.
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Summary: This book is exceptionally well written.
Review: Morgan Jones has done a marvelous job covering this subject. Almost all of the books on vaccum tube circuits were written over 25 years ago and are hopelessly out of date. Also, he has gone to great legnths to make his book easily understandable to amateurs. This book covers both the theory of operation of vaccum tube circuits and practical designs for builders. Morgan starts at the very beginning and explains the different classes of amplifiers, modes of operation and gives valuable practical advice on tube selection, layout, troubleshooting and design. I have read many books on vaccum tube amplifier design both old an new and have found that this is by far the finest book for both beginners and professionals alike.
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Summary: Well Written But Conventional
Review: Morgan Jones is an ex-BBC engineer - it shows! His techincal knowledge is excellent, his presentation is clear and easy to follow. Here's the big BUT - like the BBC - there is little creativity or 'daring' in his designs. His project is based on something he did 20-odd years ago and did not excite my imagination. A very good introduction (I enjoyed it immensely) but I think that Rainer zur Linde and Menno van der Veen have more to offer in extending thermionic technology.
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Summary: A thoughtful treatment of a little known subject.
Review: There are very few young people today that know what a valve amplifier is, let alone having heard one. Most probably think of those humming old radiograms (seen in the movies) in the early days of radio when the valve itself was still undergoing refinement. The modern valve amplifiers give by far the warmest richest sound that can be wished for in an amplifier - and they DO NOT HUM. I am an avid suporter of valve amplifiers. I firmly believe that the transitor to take a valve's place in audio amplifiers has still to be manufactured. This book takes the novice through a wonderful discovery of the valve. This book is notable since it is one of very few current textbooks that goes to the trouble of explaining in relative detail (a full treatment would require several volumes) on how amplifiers work. I am a teacher at a technical college and have found great use for this book in my lectures. In my experience students have a greater understanding of the complexity of the transistor once they fully understand the valve. Enough said on education. What grabbed me is how this book guides one to the actual building of an amplifier - this being my hobby. I think that anyone that has heard a well designed valve amplifier in action and has a little electronic background ought to buy this book and work through it. It is immensly gratifying to design and build one's own valve amplifier. Especially because a valve is far more tolerant to the misuse of a novice designer than any transistor.
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