I'm a novice to all this stuff. I want to be able to play my iPod
through a tube amp that I aim to build from a kit and then through a
cheap set of 2.1 speakers. How do I tell if all of the components will
work with each other?

If the tube amp is a standard line in with a very high impedance load, it
should work. I would be concerned that the tube amp uses high voltage
internally.

To protect the Ipod from any chance of back EMF from the coupling caps going
in at the control grid of the input tube, I would put some 100 k-ohm
resistors to ground in parallel to the input of the amplifier. Make an
external adaptor that contains these resistors. A small 1/4 Watt 10 k
resistor can be soldered inside the phono plug that you are going to use to
the tube amp. You would do this for both the left and right channels.

Since the source resistance of your iPod is very low in comparison, the
sound quality will not be effected from this type of loading. The iPod
should be able to run a 16 to 32 ohm load without problems, since it was
designed to run a set of headphones.

--

Jerry G.
======


"simonb" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm a novice to all this stuff. I want to be able to play my iPod
through a tube amp that I aim to build from a kit and then through a
cheap set of 2.1 speakers. How do I tell if all of the components will
work with each other?

"simonb" wrote in message
ups.com

I'm a novice to all this stuff. I want to be able to play my iPod
through a tube amp that I aim to build from a kit and then through a
cheap set of 2.1 speakers. How do I tell if all of the components will
work with each other?

Try it.

On 14 Dec 2004 15:39:40 -0800, "simonb" wrote:

I'm a novice to all this stuff. I want to be able to play my iPod
through a tube amp that I aim to build from a kit and then through a
cheap set of 2.1 speakers. How do I tell if all of the components will
work with each other?

What are the specifications of this tube amp? Do they match the
requirements of the iPod and the speakers? There's little point in
us making a guess :-)

Any special reason you're putting a tube amp between a mediocre source
and mediocre speakers? The amp is generally the least critical part
of a playback chain.