I'm just getting the link in here, with a few words.

Unlike audioasylum, which I'll get to later, which can be kinda crazy, but has some really intelligent people on it and the occasional post from a world-expert...or GeeK_ZonE, which is kind of a closed club where you enter at some peril...

diyaudio seems a safe place and a place where a lot of really practical people who like to make things like to hang out.

I don't know which forums came first, but the vast width and breadth and depth of diyaudio makes me suspect they must have been pretty close to the front of the line when God was handing out forum features...

I call it the Mother of Forums because it is so big, because it is generally a safe place to be, and because the tone is warm, kinda...furry. You know, like the rug-covered wooden "mother" that rather cruel psychologist/researcher (his name escapes me as I write this but it will come back to me overnight...or just as I'm about to go to sleep after having turned OFF the computer...), gave the monkey (chimp?) baby to cling to, to test his theory about emotional development requiring soft cuddling during the infant stage...

On the other hand, as is the case in ANY forum, there are the usual irritating - but fairly occasional, not usually a mob - "experts" who have the last word. Who make BIG GENERALIZATIONS AS FINAL TRUTH:

As in: show me how an op amp can possibly hurt sound. Or: dipole speakers sound dead, lack focus.

Which is all nonsense. Later I'll list more silly over-generalizations. I have been guilty of making them myself, and I'm sure a few have crept into this blog...where I have gone overboard, I'll eventually notice and fix it. But I do stick to my guns about blinding tests (see Listen Up!).

But at diyaudio there's a real effort by members and moderators to...well, MODERATE...extreme views, big over-generalizations, by "soap-box" individuals.

So, this is a good forum for the beginner to join, or the expert to join who hadn't happened to find them yet.

You want to join, because unless you join, you can't see the attachments. Attachments are important!!!

But, remember (blast it, now the bolding is turned on again...arrrg), just because you joined, doesn't mean you need to post. REALLY. Read my article about joining forums without making a nuisance of yourself. diyaudio is so big...ahhh, that's the other reason I call it "the Mother of forums", it's kinda like those ancient fertility sculptures, the ones with ENORMOUS breasts and butts....that you can probably find all the info you need by reading...reading...reading...without having to post a question that's already been answered, in depth, a long time ago (or the thread started, a long time ago).

Now, if you have something valuable to add to an old thread....or, after studying the thread and googling your questions....you still have a question you'd like answered...by all means, add your question to the thread! I love it when somebody rejuvenates an old thread...it's like bringing something dead back to life. Now we've gone Egyptian!

Sometimes trying to rejuvenate an old thread doesn't work. Maybe it's so old it's archived. Maybe a newer thread has replaced it in the minds of the members, so your post gets ignored. This can happen. Don't get insulted, nobody means to snub you, they just didn't notice. If this happens, check for a newer thread. If no newer thread, then, hey, start a new one with your question.

Here's the link:

http://www.diyaudio.com/

Cheers!

Charlie



 

This forum is a great place for beginners and experts alike. It has great pluses and a few relatively minor minuses (of course).

To join, go here:

http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/

1. First and foremost, this forum is run by Max, and he don't allow no crap. This matters. Max stops insults and flame-wars FAST and kicks the offender off. I'm not sure if Max actually deletes the offending email...he may not be able to....but it's an email forum anyway, and hardly anyone ever looks back at old threads, it's all about the new emails in your in-box and the images in the Yahoo folders, so that's a heckuvalot better than forums where every insult is enshrined forever in permanently displayed threads.

2. An amazing, eclectic group of helpful contributors. It might take a while, but even the most arcane question will eventually get you an answer - probably twenty answers, all of them good. I recently decided to make my own PCB's for my auto-grid-bias circuit, because the cost from commercial houses was just too much per board in small quantities, and when I asked for ideas, I got twenty really good answers, with solid advice. Some of them told me which PCB houses to go to for the best price, some of them told me where to go for info on how to make my own, and most important of all, one of them tipped me off to FREE PCB software that works just fine and doesn't take a month to learn how to use. Another member asked about a tube so arcane it's not even in the TDSL...and, after a few head-scratching responses, by gum he finally got an answer pointing him to probably the only place on earth where he might be able to find it.

3. If you're into restoring old radios, this is the place. Period. If you want to make a receiver from scratch, this is also the place. These members know radio, both AM and FM, doesn't matter how old, how busted, or how weird the symptom.

4. A bit weak on tube amps, but that's just because it's still growing and started from a base of radio guys. Max's website (see link above) has great tube amp info and projects on it, and good tube amp projects will be appearing on Fun With Tubes sooner or later, it's just a matter of time. In the meantime, there are plenty of guys there who can point you to a great tube amp project anywhere on the web, so that's almost as good. If you want to ask for help in choosing a project, it helps to specify what type of amp you wish to build. Do you want to make a 1 watt SET? A 20 watt SET? A 25 or 50 watt Push-Pull? A 200 watt monster? A chip-amp? Try to get an idea of what you'd like to make, and I'm sure you'll get some really good answers. Another really, really good approach - if you already have the speakers you know you want to keep a long time - is tell them what speakers you have, and ask for advice on what amp to build to drive those speakers. This is very likely to get you solid-platinum advice.

later, when I have more time to work on this, I'm going to search the Fun With Tubes folders and find some good projects and link them here. I'm sure they are there, but they just have to be looked at.

Best, Charlie

http://geek.scorpiorising.ca/GeeK_ZonE/

This is a small forum made up of some of the world experts on tubes and tube amps. It is a great place to browse and lurk, but I would caution you to think long and hard before joining. Frankly, it is a rather close community of only about a dozen, at best, regular contributors, and these guys are perfectly happy having their own little forum and staying within their own paradigms.

This forum has a big plus: you don't have to join to see the links, attachments or posted photos. Which is good, because you should lurk on this one, maybe for a long time.

The biggest problem I have with this forum is that a few of the members - some of them - are not hesitant about insulting you if your post is in opposition to their personal dogma. I mean being downright offensive. So, you ask for help here at your peril. Maybe you get help, maybe you get insulted. They also like to hijack threads - that is, of newbies. This is an especially offensive practice of purposefully going off-topic to wreck whatever thread you're trying to create. Finally, the moderator, while a nice guy and a tube amp expert in his own way, is more concerned with being "one of the guys" than policing the forum, (he said so himself: here's the link: http://geek.scorpiorising.ca/GeeK_ZonE/index.php?topic=3779.0..)...so he is slow to intervene to stop insults, and, what is worse, he does not delete insults. So the insults stay there forever. Not a good place for beginners to post questions, frankly, but a very good forum for learning by lurking and then looking stuff up on google (or a list of links I'm going to create that get you to articles that explain tube electronics really well). It might be a good forum for someone already expert, who can hold their own in a flame-war...if you really want to subject yourself to that. The members who are especially expert, and professional in their conduct, and whose threads you might wish to read - to really learn some stuff, let me tell you - are:

1. Miles Prower. This guy knows tube amps, topologies, screen supplies on pentodes, power supplies, how to use negative feedback, and he knows how to make tubes WORK. He's also a solid contributor who does not insult, and gives outstanding advice and technical explanations. I have great admiration for his expertise, meticulous thinking and professional conduct. Here are some of his threads and projects that are simply superb, some of the world's best (although he does require you to do your own dimensioning (resistor and capacitor values, for example...but, hey, there's no better way to learn than to take a great design and dimension it yourself - what matters is you've been given a great topology by an expert, learning how to dimension it will make you a far better DIY'er:

Miles Prower Thread: The Wolverine: GREAT 845 SET PROJECT: I AM GOING TO BUILD THIS ONE!!! - THIS IS THE BEST 845 TOPOLOGY I'VE SEEN EVER, AND, WHILE IT'S TECHNICALLY DEMANDING AND YOU MUST CREATE A NEGATIVE RAIL, I'LL BET THERE'S A MILLION WAYS TO TWEAK THIS AMP TO GET PERFECTION:
 http://geek.scorpiorising.ca/GeeK_ZonE/index.php?topic=3866.0

Schematic for the Wolverine: http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8586/wolverinemainqw0.jpg

Miles Prower Thread: Le Renard: SUPERB 6BQ6GTB PUSH-PULL OUTPUT, SMALLER AMP, DESIGN PRINCIPLES SIMPLY OUTSTANDING, INCLUDING INPUT HEDGE SPLITTER AND IMPECCABLE SCREEN POWER SUPPLY:
http://geek.scorpiorising.ca/GeeK_ZonE/index.php?topic=3492.0

(more to come)

Best, Charlie