What exactly do you want to know? And how much time do you want to give to it?
Really hard to understand electronics in "layman's terms". You are faced with the basic terminology of electricity and mostly mathmatical relationships. Really hard to understand if you do not learn about inductance, resistance, capacitance, ect.... at least at some level....On line try electronicstheory.com. ("Ray's) (hit the electronicstheory link on the upper left at the site) It's only about 45 fairly easy pages and spells out the basics and is especially good for tubes which start on about page 37. Very simple and understandable presentation of tubes and how they work in circuits and Ohm's law and Kirchoff's laws, ect.... If you can't make it through these 45 pages you really do not want to understand audio electronics.
At the sonic frontiers site there is an excellent easy primer on tubes called "a Taste of Tubes" www.anthemav.com/frames/tubes2fr.html the link is at the bottom of the page. About 50 pages
A level up(at least) in difficulty is a series of great free articles by Norman Crowhurst and Joseph Marshall at www.audioxpress.com/resource/audioclass/index.htm
These articles are real classics and were originally published in Audiocraft Magazine in 1956. Some think they have never been surpassed as brief technical introductions. You will not be able to get much from the AudioXpress articles unless you understand the stuff at Ray's quite well. (electronicstheory.com).
A very good book on beginner's electricity is "Basic Electricity" by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville. Prompt publications available at www.samswebsite.com If you want to learn more electronics after Ray's get this book. It really spells out the basics clearly.
The "Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill is often recommended but it is not a first time out book.
Vance Dickason "Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" is the place to go on Speakers.
If you want books on tube electronics two I have that I can recommend are "The Beginners Guide to Tube Audio Design" by Bruce Rozenblit and "Valve Amplifiers" by Morgan Jones. Both are very good but are also a bit of work. These are similar in level to the AudioXpress free articles mentioned above. Read those first and if they interest you get the books.
Bruce Rozenblit has another book called "Audio Reality"
which I think is a pretty good book if you are new to it. He actually does a decent job of explaining basic stuff without going into formulas ect. It is not a long book. Bruce Rozenblit is smart, opionionated, and fun to read.
One more great web site with tons of very good free articles is Rod Elliot's site. http://sound.westhost.com/index.html Again most of this is advanced enough that you must read Ray's site first and maybe even the Basic Electricity book too. Strange... but you just can't understand audio electronics without understanding electricity.
I actually have a ton of other helpful free web sites mostly tube/speaker related. If you are interested in more e-mail me.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
I remain,
Really hard to understand electronics in "layman's terms". You are faced with the basic terminology of electricity and mostly mathmatical relationships. Really hard to understand if you do not learn about inductance, resistance, capacitance, ect.... at least at some level....On line try electronicstheory.com. ("Ray's) (hit the electronicstheory link on the upper left at the site) It's only about 45 fairly easy pages and spells out the basics and is especially good for tubes which start on about page 37. Very simple and understandable presentation of tubes and how they work in circuits and Ohm's law and Kirchoff's laws, ect.... If you can't make it through these 45 pages you really do not want to understand audio electronics.
At the sonic frontiers site there is an excellent easy primer on tubes called "a Taste of Tubes" www.anthemav.com/frames/tubes2fr.html the link is at the bottom of the page. About 50 pages
A level up(at least) in difficulty is a series of great free articles by Norman Crowhurst and Joseph Marshall at www.audioxpress.com/resource/audioclass/index.htm
These articles are real classics and were originally published in Audiocraft Magazine in 1956. Some think they have never been surpassed as brief technical introductions. You will not be able to get much from the AudioXpress articles unless you understand the stuff at Ray's quite well. (electronicstheory.com).
A very good book on beginner's electricity is "Basic Electricity" by Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville. Prompt publications available at www.samswebsite.com If you want to learn more electronics after Ray's get this book. It really spells out the basics clearly.
The "Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill is often recommended but it is not a first time out book.
Vance Dickason "Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" is the place to go on Speakers.
If you want books on tube electronics two I have that I can recommend are "The Beginners Guide to Tube Audio Design" by Bruce Rozenblit and "Valve Amplifiers" by Morgan Jones. Both are very good but are also a bit of work. These are similar in level to the AudioXpress free articles mentioned above. Read those first and if they interest you get the books.
Bruce Rozenblit has another book called "Audio Reality"
which I think is a pretty good book if you are new to it. He actually does a decent job of explaining basic stuff without going into formulas ect. It is not a long book. Bruce Rozenblit is smart, opionionated, and fun to read.
One more great web site with tons of very good free articles is Rod Elliot's site. http://sound.westhost.com/index.html Again most of this is advanced enough that you must read Ray's site first and maybe even the Basic Electricity book too. Strange... but you just can't understand audio electronics without understanding electricity.
I actually have a ton of other helpful free web sites mostly tube/speaker related. If you are interested in more e-mail me.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
I remain,