Updated: 24-Jan-01
Who is Doede Douma and why is he building (Tube) audio equipment?

Doede Douma working at the DDDAC 2000

I will not give a full CV here (after all I am not looking for a job...), never the less I like to give you some background on my audiophile CV.  It all started 28 year ago, when I built my first loudspeakers and amplifier at an age of 12 years. Nothing special of course, but the satisfaction on DIY was huge. I had no idea on what high end audio was all about, but who cares, I learned a lot from reading books from the library, magazines etc. At 16, I started with friends (yes, the DISCO 70's!) a drive-in-show, so I could combine the interesting DJ work with the building of the needed equipment. Still nothing to do with high end, I hear you say. Yes still right, When you're young, you want loud music, many Watts and dB's! I had my portion and I must admit, the parties were great fun... At 20, I was already studying electronics at technical university in Utrecht (yes, I am Dutch) and moved to a small apartment, rented from a friend of my brother. He was 10 years older and already a serious audiophile music listener. At this stage, I recognized, that music could have a much more emotional impact than washing out your ears with soundlevels of 120dB! As a poor student, it is obvious you cannot afford to buy, so I needed to build my own equipment and that was exactly what I did. Thanks to my study and the ideas I developed over time (see the other link with my design philosophy) I have been able to understand the correlation between what I actually did and what the audible resulted in. This is what others would call their "secrets" I would rather call it technical aproach

I have build, tweaked and bought numerous amplifiers, loudspeakers, CD players, Cartridges over the last 20 years, and the important "red wire" here, is that by following consequently my design ideas I slowly moved forward. When I build my own version of the HIRAGA le Monstre, a 10 Watt pure class A with very low feedback and low damping factor and superb power supply, I knew I was on the right way: this sounded very good! I than realized that what I had on hand here was nothing else than a transistor model / equivalent of a Tube amplifier! So than I started to dig up the old books on tube designing and started designing and building. I had great help from all the available WEB Sites (is it therefore I do this??) and great hobbyists, publishing their ideas. This year I also discovered the "truth" behind the real old (DHT) small signal triodes. These old babies really make a difference with the "new" mini tubes. The only way to use them right is in a totem pole configuration which I was pointed at in the designs of Triode Dick, a real guru on Triode Amplifier Designs!! Thanks again Dick!

And last but not least: The DIY of designing and building of your own equipment is not only very satisfying as hobby on itself, but it will save you money, which you can invest in better parts used or parts you cannot build yourself like Turntables, cartridges etc.

And for a finish: The designing/building is the way to enjoy the music and is not a goal on it self.........

Happy Listening and Building !!!!

Doede Douma

IMPORTANT: The information provided on this page is intended as guide for DIY activities and therefore free to copy and or publish. If any one wishes to use any of the information from my WEB site, please make sure to refer and footnote to my URL Link as source! Doede Douma