I have no technical background. When I retired I wanted to realize my old dream of building tube amplifiers. Problem was I didn't know a thing, so I had to start from zero. Thanks to the invaluable help of friends and people on online forums I got there step by step. Over the years I have built preamps, power amps and phono stages, but my theoretical knowledge of electronics is still poor. The Ear 834 phono stage is at last a design that (almost?) measures up to my benchmark the Phonodude, a Dutch design based on Raytheon 5755s (unusual) and 12ax7s/5751s, that always came out best, whatever I tried. I'm Belgian.