You would have done me a solid.I'll gladly buy your copy of AoE for $5.
I'll probably need to look through it a few times when I'm in college this year. Then you can have it.
You would have done me a solid.I'll gladly buy your copy of AoE for $5.
Thanks. I did manage to get a pdf of 'small signal audio amplifiers - douglas self' and it seems a whole lot more approachable.Don't like "The Art of..." ?
Perhaps that's because you got the wrong one?
One of the great pioneers of audio circuits in general and amplifiers in particular has written two of interest
The Art of Linear Electronics
&
Audio Electronics
Not only do these discuss audio amp designs but also how to build test equipment to measure the results.
Oh, sorry, the author John Linsley Hood
Most textbooks with "transistor, electronic, circuits" in the tiltles have chapters on audio amp design.
Texts by
Olsen, Amos, Ryder, Hartly-Jones, come to mind.
Ask in your local library.
While you are there ask them to hunt out for you the manufacturers own books (not attributable to an author)
Texas Instruments, Mullard, RCA, Motorola all produced audio amp design textbooks.
Bertus has some on pdf here.
Yup. And 9 years old, too.Don't forget you were once a noob!
Well, that's a hard guy to be. Prepare yourself for a future of perpetually feeling "behind the curve," in everything. No single book can present a topic, even the simplest topic, in a format that every person can understand, and not leave out any details. Knowledge is infinite, and cannot fit in a book. I guarantee that if you got every top gun audio amplifier designer in the world together in one room, not one of them would know everything there is to know about designing amplifiers, and their knowledge combined still would not fill the void of things yet to be discovered.I'm the kind if person that wants to understand every detail of everything, and this book isn't cutting it.
Thanks, Strantor. That did sink in! As I mentioned earlier, I have been studying electronics for about two years now and even though it doesn't seem like much, I've picked up quite a bit along the way. I built my first and only audio amp (so far) about two months ago and it sounded good for a first build. I could barely hear any distortion which was surprising considering I relied on the op amp's fast slew rate (10v/us) to restraint crossover distortion. I did however use an op amp and that's where the unsatisfaction arose. I later felt the need to actually construct the op amp! (Like I said, I like to know everything). I was reluctant to start with the basic one transistor amps mostly because I didn't think they'd teach me much, but I'm starting to think I was seriously mistaken. I know I may be way ahead of myself but I just can't resist it. I have followed that approach most of the time when learning electronics but for some reason, I thought I'd try something different for this endeavour. I will get to it immediately.Well, that's a hard guy to be. Prepare yourself for a future of perpetually feeling "behind the curve," in everything. No single book can present a topic, even the simplest topic, in a format that every person can understand, and not leave out any details. Knowledge is infinite, and cannot fit in a book. I guarantee that if you got every top gun audio amplifier designer in the world together in one room, not one of them would know everything there is to know about designing amplifiers, and their knowledge combined still would not fill the void of things yet to be discovered.
I'm sure you knew all that already, so here's some more practical advice:
I learn best without learning from any one book. If I sit down and read words from left to right and top to bottom, with no practical context, I absorb almost nil, and I understand very little of what I am reading. I keep books (my best book is google.com) around as reference to fall back on, when I don't understand real-world problems.
I've never built an audio amplifier, but if I were going to, my process would NOT look like this: Get a 900 page book, read it cover-to-cover it, gaze at the diagrams in the appendices starting on page 880, and then try to build an audio amplifier. If I tried that, guaranteed, I would be on AAC later that day, bitching about the book.
My process would look more like this: find an audio amplifier circuit on Google, buy the components. As I build it, I wonder what each component does, so I google some about it, and how it interacts with the other components. Finish the build, it sounds like shit, google "why does my amp sound like shit?". Can't find the answer on google, post a thread on AllAboutCircuits, and look for the answer in a book while I wait for the discussion to start rolling in. Bounce what I'm reading on AAC off of what I'm reading in my book, resolve the problem and how to fix it. Modify the circuit, still sounds like shit, repeat. It will be a long process of one-step-forward-and-two-steps-back, and I will probably make a dozen circuits before I get an acceptable result (acceptable result = worse quality than the cheapest commercial amp), but by the time I'm done, I'll have learned more than I would have reading the book. And that's not to say that I now know more information than what's contained in the book. That's to say that I retained and understood more of the concepts involved, by practical exercise, than I would have retained and understood by reading them off of a page. NOW, now and only now; now that I've gotten my hands dirty building the circuits in real life and have some context with which to read text about the subject, am I ready to read the book cover-to-cover, and the only purpose of reading the book at this point is to fill in the gaps that I missed by not following a logical sequence. Once I finish the book, it's back to the lab again, building trial & error circuits again, on a quest of continual improvement, more googling, more reading of books, more circuit building, and so-on. If I haven't made the world's best amp within a decade or two, it's probably time to move on to another quest.
That is very encouraging. I actually prefer power electronics design and construction to most other electronics stuff, but I thought it would fun and exciting to try something new.I agree with strantor, an iterative process is best. Shooting for the stars means you will not likely get off the ground. Try a small jump, then a short flight, ...
You will learn a lot along the way.
You may even learn that you like other areas of electronics better than audio.
Then Audioguru rips into you for using an LM741."why does my amp sound like shit?". Can't find the answer on google, post a thread on AllAboutCircuits, and look for the answer in a book while I wait for the discussion to start rolling in.
I believe I have that book, or at least did at one point. Sid was one of my teachers and I remember using a lab book he wrote. I don't remember much about it but it was probably good, he was a good teacher.If you want a lab manual, try Experiments with Electronic Circuits by Sid Antoch. Be forewarned that the book requires an oscilloscope.
The Art of Electronics, 3rdE is out. I ordered mine today...$89 shipped.Cool! Not available till April 30, though.
I hope you will present a short review of it here. I have been thinking of getting it too, but sometimes the sequel is a disappointment.The Art of Electronics, 3rdE is out. I ordered mine today...$89 shipped.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=art of electronics&sprefix=art of ele,aps,319
That's truly sad!I still can't go a page if this book (chapter 2) without thinking too hard ...
I will be happy to do that, but I have never used a prior edition, and won't be able to compare them. I really am looking forward to using the book.I hope you will present a short review of it here. I have been thinking of getting it too, but sometimes the sequel is a disappointment.
John
What to NOT do requires even more book than what TO do. Correct circuits are finite in number. Incorrect circuits are infinite in number. Most people find out the hard way, by eliminating mistakes, one by one, over a period of years.But one thing it did do that most don't.
It demonstrated what not to do(and often why not), which is almost as important.
I bought the 2nd Edition back in 2004, five years after its publication, and already a significant portion of the content was outdated, especially the material on embedded systems design. There is a lot of good stuff in there, but I'm not convinced it was worth the ~$100 cost. I probably will not by buying the 3rd Edition unless I see a lot of convincingly positive reviews.I am not a great fan of the book, it has many shortcomings.
Amen to that!But one thing it did do that most don't.
It demonstrated what not to do(and often why not), which is almost as important.
by Jake Hertz
by Jake Hertz
by Jake Hertz