Personal Imports - Importing Goods Into The UK - A Quick Guide To Buying from Overseas on eBay

Importing into the UK - A Quick Guide To The Costs Of Buying Overseas. With the rise of eBay, many people are buying items from abroad more frequently and easily than has ever been possible before. Substantial savings can be made over 'official' import prices or goods that are not usually available in the UK can be obtained. This is especially true of exotic electronic good from China. As an example, valve or vacuum tube amplifiers and CD players are very well regarded amongst the Chinese audiophile community - hence there are a large number of designs at very tempting prices for the adventurous UK valve enthusiast. There are a number of things that should be considered when importing from abroad via eBay.......Read More

Layman's Guide To Valve | Tube Amplifier Terminology - what does push-pull, Single Ended, Ultralinear Mean?

Valve or Vacuum Tube Amplifiers Demystified - a layman's guide. For those new to the world of valve audio or hi-fi amplifiers it can be tricky to decipher some of the terminology you may read about in magazines, on the web or in manufacturer's brochures. This article will give you a whistle-stop high level overview of some of the terms you are likely to come across when researching a potential tube amplifier purchase. So, if you've ever wondered what Class A operation is, about single ended or push-pull output stages and even what on earth ultra-linear means in an amplifier design, read on....Read More

Types of Valve or Vacuum Tubes

Types of Valves or Vacuum Tubes There are a number of different type of vacuum tube or valve, with complicated sounding names like 'Triode'. This article provides a brief introduction to the various types of tube that you may commonly encounter. The tube naming convention is actually very simple - the name refers to the electrode configuration found in the valve or tube - hence 'ode' in the name. The first part.......Read More

How Does a Valve or Vacuum Tube Work?

How does a Valve / Vacuum Tube Work? The simplest valve has two electrodes - a filament and a plate (called the Anode) - and resembles nothing more than the humble light bulb in operation. When a current is applied to the filament, it heats up (as does the filament in a light bulb) causing it to emit electrons creating a negatively charged cloud of electrons in the vacuum envelope in a process known as thermionic emission.......Read More

A History of The Valve Or Vacuum Tube

A Brief History Of The Valve or Vacuum Tube. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a golden age of science and technological research, laying the foundations of the modern world and the electronic age. The list of scientists involved with research into evacuated tubes reads like a whos who of the great innovators of the time - Guthrie, Edison, Tesla, Flemming. Thermionic emission was first reported in 1873 by Thomas Guthrie, but it wasnt until 10 years later in research by Thomas Edison into the Edison Effect that this was really noted.......Read More