Merlin's Pre-amp book in 2nd edition is out now

[tubeswell]

http://www.valvewizard.co.uk/Book1.html

Hiya Merlin - is there a coupon code for Lulu?

TIA

Pete

[Phil_S]

lulu has a general coupon for 6% off:
http://www.lulu.com/current_specials

[xtian]

Would love to know what's updated, for those of us "early adopters."

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Would love to know what's updated, for those of us "early adopters."

Agreed.

And, any word on when the power amp book will be available?

[xtian]

And, any word on when the power amp book will be available?

Right! Is that guy slacking, or what?!?

*wink*

[martin manning]

The description says there are four new chapters, one of which (Grounding) has been available on line for a while. The others are Noise/Hum/Microphony, Signal Switching, and Topology. Last I heard Merlin said it would likely be a couple of years until the trilogy is completed.

[Gaz]

Looking through the table of contents shows that there is new info added for all the chapters besides the totally new sections of the book. Must have!

[martin manning]

Funny but the page count seems to have decreased. The bibliography now starts on pg 278, where the 1st Ed bib started on pg 289. Could be smaller type? I have my order in, so I'll find out soon.

[tubeswell]

Last I heard Merlin said it would likely be a couple of years until the trilogy is completed.

Trilogy Meh. I'm waiting for him to write his book about tube tremolo & vibrato effects etc.

[xtian]

Got this reply from the man hisself:

There is some description of what's new here:
http://valvewizard.co.uk/Book1.html

You will also find the contents, chapter 1 and chapter 15, which you can read for free. I suggest you look them over for an idea of how it differs from the first edition.

There is a lot of new material, including some complete preamp designs in chapter 14. There is much more emphasis on practical design in this edition; a lot of the dull math and esoteric circuits have been stripped out, leaving only the the most popular/interesting stuff. This allowed me to fit in new stuff without adding to the page count/cost. There is a lot more discussion of blocking and how to avoid it, and how to minimise noise in high gain designs. Plus there's stuff on signal switching using relays, SSRs and FETs, which is bound to interest some folks!

Hope this helps,
Merlin

[martin manning]

Got this reply from the man hisself...

Sounds good- that means the 1st edition is still useful too!

[tubeswell]

Funny but the page count seems to have decreased. The bibliography now starts on pg 278, where the 1st Ed bib started on pg 289. Could be smaller type? I have my order in, so I'll find out soon.

So will I - holiday reading. (I'm taking a month off work over the southern hemisphere summer).

[surfsup]

(I'm taking a month off work over the southern hemisphere summer).


Nice! Good for you...I hope to receive mine soon. As a forum regular (on some other forums) and having discussed stuff with Merlin, I prefer sending money his way over some other authors who likely have nice textbooks but Merlin is actively involved and I do appreciate that.

[dorrisant]

surf is right... I have seen huge prices on books that didn't help as much as Merlin's books. Some may not agree. I think it is well worth the $ to get this second edition... I would have paid twice as much for the original anyway. Great stuff!!!

Tony

[martin manning]

The postie brought my copy on Christmas eve... how cool is that? After flipping through it I can say that Merlin has hit a home run with this (or maybe we should say a "sixer"?). Lots of new material that will be appreciated by the MI amp community, and hands-down the best value out there for technical material on this subject!