Any Kevin O'Conner books on PDF??

[okgb]

without copying , you can share with us what you thought were particularly good concepts or idea's that helped you !
I'd appreciate that

[phatt]

I'd just like to add to the intelligent and well balanced observation of King tut books by *pamaz*

Most folks who purchase these books likely already have a basic knowledge of the workings of valves and certainly will widen horizons BUT,,,,

For those who lack a basic knowledge of Amplification and electronics then it might not be what you expect.
Sadly for those looking for a short cut to Audio guru status via a quick speed read of such books maybe better off building a few simple kits before embarking on stuff that is over your head.

Lesson 1 is don't diy anything Expen$ive that you don't fully understand and have no chance of fault finding if it does not work.

Having purchased one tut book I must say it was nice to get away from annoying computer interruptions and just sit and read it all in one place under the tree by the pool.

But if you have a working knowledge of the basics of Valve smoke then most of what you need to know is likely found on the net anyway.
Heck Merlin already has several pages of the basics most of which is extremely important and not covered well on the net or in books I've read. Grounding is one issue that springs to mind. So Thanks Merlin,, cleared up a few bits i did not know.

Just from reading Merlin's pdf pages (Valve Wizard site for those that don't know) I can tell the books would be worth the money outlay.
If you don't want to outlay money then use your nouse ,, there are quite a few really talented tecks on this Forum as well as others so do some sniffing and work out the ones that write intelligent answers to tecky questions and then hone in on their replies on the many forums.

Don't make the mistake of expecting all tech guys to agree it's the nature of the beast. Just Ask 10 different Tecks how to correctly bias an Amplifier and you will have at least 3 different and perfectly valid answers.
My 2 cents worth, Phil.

[phatt]

without copying , you can share with us what you thought were particularly good concepts or idea's that helped you !
I'd appreciate that

I believe it is ok to copy snippets of books as reference but might be best to wait 40 odd years before copying whole books without permission.
Phil.

[alexradium]

yes, sharing is good . Once you own what you are sharing or it's something that is supposed to be shared freely.
I spent a bunch of money for the books , and I need to spend some more money to have the pdf done.
Furthermore I'm stealing an intellectual property to someone that is basing his own living on that books.
Please give me some good reason to share that are not going against what I've written here above, and I will do it immediately. No jokes.

+1 on all you said.
If anybody is seriously interested in building amps,for personal use or profit,you better invest some money on knowledge rather than expensive capacitors or tubes,that will remain with you forever,if you understand it correctly...

[phatt]

yes, sharing is good . Once you own what you are sharing or it's something that is supposed to be shared freely.
I spent a bunch of money for the books , and I need to spend some more money to have the pdf done.
Furthermore I'm stealing an intellectual property to someone that is basing his own living on that books.
Please give me some good reason to share that are not going against what I've written here above, and I will do it immediately. No jokes.

+1 on all you said.
If anybody is seriously interested in building amps,for personal use or profit,you better invest some money on knowledge rather than expensive capacitors or tubes,that will remain with you forever,if you understand it correctly...

Yes a big plus from me to.

If as much attention was paid to some basic R/C maths as is paid to glass bottles with gold print and fancy colored capacitors then the industry would go broke fast,,, but that is unlikely to happen as there is very little WOW factor in a 100k resistor.

I guess A big glass bottle just looks so much more impressive than a humble resistor or capacitor.

I'm yet to find a tone knob on any Valve I've ever encountered,, Yet a simple free simulation of some tweaked R and C values can reap stunning results to the tone shaping of the sound.
Yes some Valves are different but often only by degree the real secret is in the design of the whole amp. and that requires some understanding of the boring uninspiring bits that join the Valves.

Oh and don't forget the other boring bit,, that big blob of iron and copper that transforms the High voltage, High Impedance, Low Current power Valves to a Low Voltage Low Impedance, High Current to drive the speaker,,,They also make up a big part of the final result,, but that's a whole other subject. lol.
Phil.

[alexradium]

I own all of the TUT books and the 2 written by Merlin Blencowe.
And it's all you need among the amp books.
Blencowe's are really well written.
O'Connor' s at times are too biased along the vison of the writer, but in any case , the most important and valuable books on guitar amps ever written. Money well spent IMHO.
All of the other books (weber, torres, hunter) i've read on this topic are not even comparable to the above ones.

edit: what happens with all of the other books, is that they are addressed in a too practical way. I mean, they explain how to solve a specific problem, but they give you no background on the solution adopted and on "why and how" to perform such solutions. O connor and Blencowe, on the other side, are giving you both theory, maths and practical implementation of what's proposed.

Pamaz,which books from the TUT series do you think are worthy to complete the 2 Blencowes books?
I mean,those containing real world innovative things that are not already shown anywhere else.

[pamaz]

It's my personal point of view, so take these words not as a bible.
I'm more that sure that somebody else will not agree with my choice. BTW what I'm saying is done in the perspective to have a "more than basic" knowledge of some guitar circuits.

I would recommend the following:
TUT1 : it covers the general infos on the guitar amp in its subsystems. I found particularly interesting the LOOP chapter.
TUT3: it's an analysys of the tipycal fender/marshall topologies. I mean, after all 90% of the market is turning around these two brands and their characteristic. Furthermore there are interesting notes on grounding, that in guitar amps is delicate ( especially on High gain stuff) .
TUT4: starting from hearing characteristics, to the power scaling types and related problems. Some more analysis of particular amplifiers.
These are my favourite ones.
Remember that sometimes o'connor vision is very personal. Not to say over critical

ciao

Paolo

[pamaz]

Just to reply which are some of the more interesting thing I found on the TUT books, just to give an idea of what kind of knowledge you'll find there inside, think about the typical master volume implementation and how the volume itself affects the bandwidth of the amplifier.
I think that 99.9% of the people never ever thought about it.
And how does it take to linearize such behaviour ( the correct answer is : just one resistor, that not a single commercial builder implements in its master volume).
Such simple and basic infos are precious and can make a difference.
But no one out of O'connor has taken the time to investigate such details.
That's the reason why I would encorage you to buy that books, not to copy them.
And be sure that in no way I'm affiliated with them, nor I know them personally.

[aquataur]

Paolo,

I share your opinion, but no books.
Although I think the TUT series is quite hefty priced, this does not justify sharing them.
An old saying says: what does not cost anything is not worth anything. This is true to the one that downloads such a pdf and drowns it somewhere on the pc. On the other hand, you only buy if if you think it is worth.

You can make yourself a picture of the quality by reading the few pages they show there. Also the user´s comments here may help.

For Kevin´s books, some of the later volumes concentrate entirely on power scaling, which may be waaay over the top for a beginner.
On the other hand those volumes contain snippets and gems of contemporary mosfet circuitry, that might be well worth.

Also, you want to look at the more generic articles of why and how you use a certain effect rather than rushing and building it.
I found that you can take many concepts and use them on some entirely other fields, like stomp box effects.

Trouble is, those things are spread throughout all the volumes, bits here and there. Moreover, Kevin is contradicting himself if he says you can do it in the preamp and then explains three more volumes how to do it on the power amp. And he does not like to hear that.

-helmut

[okgb]

Upshot of this thread for me, I may seek out the other fellow's book, but
the O'Conner has dropped farther off the radar for me , don't care, don't have enough time
[ or value his perspective enough ] to collect and compare information , will just search info on a
per/ needed basis . Tough selling books for anyone these days, if his angle is to price em high, then Good Luck !

[aquataur]

Hard to judge for me if they are priced high. I believe technical books, notably if they are chock full of drawings, are a lot of work to write.
That kind of books I always remember expensive. This is probalby also connected to the expected number of sales.
A Harry Potter book for comparison may be cheap despite a bigger number of pages purely because of the number of prints.

I personally thought it was worth it compared to the way I profited from reading them. But this well has dried out now.

-helmut

[tip142]

Okgb,don't whorry i think that M.Blencowe is definitive better .....
Believe me....
You don't waste anything.
A long time ago(come a man on the tracks.....walking thirty miles with his bag .... Dire Straits),i personally hear some rumours about O'Connor books(in the past "1993-94 "they are identically really expensive;now after good 15 years or better i' don't remember )is about the same......
M.Blencowe have an Internet site where you have possibilities to dialing with him.

What you want,better then this?


P.s- if you purchase a Merlin book,don't by an incident share with these Johnny Connor Wimbledon Rolex tennis Player...

[aquataur]

i personally hear some rumours about O'Connor books(in the past "1993-94 "they are identically really expensive;now after good 15 years or better i' don't remember )is about the same......

Do not understand what you are trying to say us here...

M.Blencowe have an Internet site where you have possibilities to dialing with him.

This is the case with the Canadian too.

However. I think I will have to purchase Merlin´s tube sorcerer book to make my own impression.

-helmut

[tip142]

That the books of Kevin O'Connor is "EXPENSIVE",now exactly like in the past.
Maybe, if you are a beginner you don't have always money to spend,when you begin workin then there are other area where money ask - this is Life.......

[okgb]

What ? there is allot of free information , If really interested and serious seek out a local person and apprentice ,
Do you need his book or just want it , maybe no one needs his books but don't forget the library , or here , ask a question at a time
If one is experimenting , you'll learn as you go . Suppose you could always bu a book , read it and resell on fleebay .

[aquataur]

Just ordered Merlins Preamp book.
In about two weeks I will let you know what I think which book series is overpayed

-helmut

[tip142]

[tip142]

What ? there is allot of free information , If really interested and serious seek out a local person and apprentice ,
Do you need his book or just want it , maybe no one needs his books but don't forget the library , or here , ask a question at a time
If one is experimenting , you'll learn as you go . Suppose you could always bu a book , read it and resell on fleebay .

Sorry,but i' don't really understand.
If you ever buy a K. O'Connor book and then resell?
I think No, there are others "Your" post were the question is the same,second point you have some philosophy ideas regarding the free info, the library or ask a question at the ....
From this point of view ,why, you want to see if maybe someone have those book?
Does you change your Philosofy in the middle time?
Sincerely i' don't understand,in a simple rhyme.
Tip142


Can't find the old thread , and as it was very large don't expect anyone to scan it , but how about a page or two
that may be particularly good ? still wondering if the're worth the money . tia
okgb
Cap Cooler

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[okgb]

Don't understand that reply either , but how can we cap the thread off in a positive way ?

If money doesn't matter buy one book and see what you think , or but a few books from different people
and see what is common .

if money does matter , search out as many sources and see what is common or average it for information ,
perhaps being careful to not take everything as truth until you try it for yourself

[tip142]

Don't understand that reply either , but how can we cap the thread off in a positive way ?
In a simple way