Well, those of you who didn't attend the Bottlehead class yesterday missed out big time! Six of us made the trek to Bottlehead HQ on Bainbridge Island yesterday afternoon, ready to sit at the masters' feet for a few hours.
I've built around 5 or 6 tube amp kits, and they all work beautifully, but I've never really felt like I understood what the heck was going on. My hope was always that I would learn through doing, and some of that has happened, but there's still so much more to know. We beginners see schematics all over the place, but have only the dimmest idea of how to read them, never mind how to turn one into a viable wiring layout.
Doc and PB started the class by going over basic symbology, passive and active components. We then talked about how tubes work and suddenly a lot of that wiring I'd been doing started to become clear. Then after the break, we went step by step through a Quickie preamp, examining the physical circuit itself on a completed Quickie, and drawing the schematic on the board as we went. It was enormously instructive.
Some of you were asking for this to be broadcast over Skype, but I'm not sure it would have been very effective. Maybe some of the intro stuff, but once we got into closely examining the Quickie, it became clear that there is no substitute for actually being there as a part of the discussion in person. We were gathered around the Quickie, peering at it closely, asking questions, etc. Nothing beats real human interaction. I know it's a stretch for those of you who don't live in the area, but hey guys, the Pacific Northwest is beautiful, and if we can convince Doc to do some weekend-long classes, it will be well worth your time no matter where you live in the country. We had one guy yesterday who drove down from British Columbia! I know that the Bottlehead gang have a lot of ideas for future classes, so we have a great learning opportunity here if we support their efforts. To better cement the day's learning into my head, I asked PB to kit up a Quickie for me to take home.
Afterward, we settled in Doc's listening room upstairs with a growler of some great ale from the brewery next door for a sampling of some of the new Tape Project releases. It was a lot of fun to talk hi fi with a bunch of like-minded audio boors, listen to some great music and make some new friends. All in all, a wonderful afternoon and I'll definitely be there for the next one!