TRANSFORMER Choke Valve Tube amp amplifier DVD program

This auction is for a brand new, BEST SELLING 3 DVD set (3 HOURS!), a video do-it-yourself workshop, produced and recorded in Australia. Save thousands of dollars by making your own power transformers, output (audio) transformers and chokes for your own valve (tube) amp! ValveMark was a butique tube amp maker in Perth, Australia. We stopped making tube amps and now concentrate exclusively on bringing you practical educational products such as this DVD set, disseminating valuable yet rare information in the audiophile community.

Please browse through our ebay store for more DIY resources, DVD programs, collections of tube circuits and transformer winding diagrams.

PAL or NTSC (you choose the format), a set of 3 high-resolution DVD discs, all regions (no region code, so any DVD player can play it). Total program length: approx 3 hours!

Output transformers are the heart of an amplifier. Most commercial amplifiers are made to a strict budget. The easiest way to save money on an amplfiier is on transformers. That is why your own amp can sound MUCH better than most commercial amps! Make your own transformers! This DVD program will show you how! It is quite simple, once you learn how!

When you MAKE YOUR OWN AMP, including the transformers, you are not making it with profit in mind, you care about the sound first and foremost! If you know what you are doing, your own amp can sound better than most commercial amps and will end up costing you only a small fraction of the price! This program will help you achieve that!

This methodology works for all tubes and transformers

As an example, this program uses output transformers for a single-ended, class-A 300B stereo amp but the principles and methodology given can be used for making transformers for any other type of valve amp, for any output valve or circuit configuration (triode, pentode, ultra-linear)! Once you have a winding diagram, you use exactly the same approach in making any audio transformer. The choke making procedure is also universal, for any tube (the only difference may be the size of the core and the diameter of the wire used, depending on the current draw of the amp), as is the way of making power transformers!

Detailed transformer diagrams for a single-ended 300B amplifier are included, together with all design and construction instructions for making your own power transformers, output transformers and chokes.

Want to use a different power valve? No problem! We have available a CD with 10 winding diagrams for different output transformers, some push-pull, some single-ended for various power tubes such as EL34, 300B, 2A3, PL519, 6L6, 6C33C-B, 6080 and more. Check our ebay store for more details.

Apart from all the action filmed on DVDs, this program comes with a bonus photo album with 36 full colour photos (A4 sized spiral-bound book)! Diagrams, close-up shots of important details, the photos of the flip-charts used in the program, it’s all there! That way you don’t have to skip back and forth and press pause all the time on your DVD player!

FAQs

Q: Can I use this knowledge to make transformers for guitar tube amps? A: Absolutely. If anything, output transformers for guitar amps are easier to make due to less stringent frequency requirements - you dont need that many sections as for audiophile audio transformers. Also, they are usually smaller in terms of core size and stack thickness. Winding of the power transformers and chokes is done in the same way for both guitar amps and hi-fi amps.

Q: Do you specify where to buy wire, laminations, bobbins, insulation material, end-bells for transformers? A: To some extent. A few reliable sources in Australia are listed in the accompanying book. Since these components and materials are both bulky and very heavy, the best is to buy them locally where you live. Just open your Yellow Pages and look for "Winding wire" or "Magnet Winding Wire" and start from there. Also, a good starting point is one of your local small transformer manufacturers, look under "Transformer manufacturers". Most will be willing to sell you a small quantity of materials you will need. Sure, you will pay retail prices, but unless you are going to make lots of chokes and transformers, wholesellers will not be interested in dealing with you. 

Q: Do I need expensive winding machines? A: Absolutely NOT! You will see Dr Bob's winder that he made from scrap metal. So far he wound almost a thousand transformers on that budget baby! We also include a design for a similar simple winder that you can make yourself for under $20. You'll be amazed how simple yet effective it is. No need for fancy equipment. It is not the equipment that makes a true craftsman, but his or her skills and mindset!

Q: Do I need to buy an expensive vacuum chamber for varnishing and impregnating the windings and finished transformers? A: Absolutely NOT! We've been making transformers for decades without it. If a transformer is well designed and made, there will be no buzzing or overheating, with or without the varnish. For a badly designed or made trafo, no amount of varnish will help it. Varnish may even make things worse, bettr without it!

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me any time. Thank you for bidding! I wish you every success with your DIY project and your quest for good sound.

7. Most importantly, I have never had one unhappy or unsatisfied buyer, someone who wanted to return a DVD program he or she bought. That tells you something. We ship on the same day of the payment and you get your stuff within 3 days in Australia and within 8-14 days world-wide. Although airmail (untraceable) postage is at buyer's risk, in a few very rare cases where the package does not arrive, we replace it at our expense - we don't want undesrved negative feedback, we want you to be happy! In other words, I try to make your experience with us a real pleasure.