Buliding a valve amp

[joey]

Hi,

as i cant afford to buy a valve amp i was looking at buliding one instead!

I see theres a few books but at about £30 seems a lot for a book!

Dont have a clue where to start, anyone give me some advice?

Cheers

[SPS]

i would look in old book shops in the technical sections, i've picked up many old books which can be as good as newer books for a less than a £5'r
..old valve radio's all have a valve amp built in...the output stage
but there some strange 'cheap' ways building old commercial valve radios

the trouble with building a valve amp from scratch is the bits can be expensive ..but theres plenty of schematics on the net...

you can pick up cheap output transformers but the quality of the amp is dependant on them..

best thing is to look at simple cap coupled single ended amp.. say ecc 82 or 83 driving an el84.
and a simple power supply, if you get one going you can then upgrade

i spent a year reading before i was brave enough... and then you build...

a kit is always a good place to start...

[greenhomeelectronics]

What SPS says is spot on. I have recently discovered that decent output transformers are very expensive beasts, they account for 50 per cent of the cost of the build or thereabouts. Finding a donor project may be a good way forward, old valve stuff often comes up at boot sales and the such like. There are lots of very good pages on the web giving advice and designs if you want to build from scratch. If you go teh rebuild path it's surprising how nice you can make an old valve chassis look just by adding polished wood and sheet brass, it can be doen quite cheaply too. Do give building / modding a go as it is incredibly satisfying at the end of the day.
Dave.