Nelson spent his working life making and selling amplifiers. In retirement he helps the DIY Audio community with his own forum section and gives his circuits away to anyone who wants to make one of his designs,
These are Nelson's words about the JLH 1969;
"The JLH was designed at a time when “the tube era was in decline” and the new generation of
designers were pulling out all the stops to create big science amplifiers - pure voltage sources
with high power and infinitesimal distortion – complex circuits with lots of feedback.
designers were pulling out all the stops to create big science amplifiers - pure voltage sources
with high power and infinitesimal distortion – complex circuits with lots of feedback.
36 years and a little progress later, we can perhaps appreciate the simple charm of the JLH
topology as an exercise in minimalism, but if you haven’t listened to one, you might be very
surprised by the quality of sound, which is extraordinarily good within it’s power limitations*. If
you have efficient speakers and you like to listen to two-channel sound at reasonable levels, the
JLH is still in the top rank.
The amplifier has reasonable specifications; nothing special that isn’t wildly exceeded by a $3
chip, but it produces real music. Its flaws are not irritating and it does a wonderful job wringing
more music out of modern recordings and even MP3’s."
*Nelson now offers a five Watt amplifier circuit in response to the above which will work with any speaker with a decibel rating of 85db or more.
And regarding the above I detect a slight touch of green-eyed envy, one can see by the text the chap thinking, "I wished I'd designed that" and so do lots of others!