Whether you are a dedicated audiophile who wants to gain a more complete understanding of the design issues behind a truly great amp, or a professional electronic designer seeking to learn more about the art of amplifier design, there can be no better place to start than with the 35 classic magazine articles collected together in this book.Douglas Self offers a tried and tested method for designing audio amplifiers in a way that improves performance at every point in the circuit where distortion can creep in – without significantly increasing cost. Through the articles in this book, he takes readers through the causes of distortion, measurement techniques, and design solutions to minimise distortion and efficiency. Most of the articles are based round the design of a specific amplifier, making this book especially valuable for anyone considering building a Self amplifier from scratch.Self is senior designer with a high-end audio manufacturer, as well as a prolific and highly respected writer. His career in audio design is reflected in the articles in this book, originally published in the pages of Electronics World and Wireless World over a 25 year period. - An audio amp design cookbook, comprising 35 of Douglas Self's definitive audio design articles - Complete designs for readers to build and adapt - An anthology of classic designs for electronics enthusiasts, Hi-Fi devotees and professional designers alike

The content of this book will lead to affordable phono amplifier design approaches which will end up in lowest-noise solutions not far away from the edge of physical boundaries set by room temperature and given cartridges - thus, fully compatible with very expensive so called "high-end" or "state-of-the-art" offers on today’s markets - and, from a noise point of view in most cases outperforming them! This book demonstrates that theory is not far away from reality.

Small Signal Audio Design is a highly practical handbook providing an extensive repertoire of circuits that can be assembled to make almost any type of audio system. The publication of Electronics for Vinyl has freed up space for new material, (though this book still contains a lot on moving-magnet and moving-coil electronics) and this fully revised third edition offers wholly new chapters on tape machines, guitar electronics, and variable-gain amplifiers, plus much more. A major theme is the use of inexpensive and readily available parts to obtain state-of-the-art performance for noise, distortion, crosstalk, frequency response accuracy and other parameters. Virtually every page reveals nuggets of specialized knowledge not found anywhere else. For example, you can improve the offness of a fader simply by adding a resistor in the right place- if you know the right place. Essential points of theory that bear on practical audio performance are lucidly and thoroughly explained, with the mathematics kept to an absolute minimum. Self’s background in design for manufacture ensures he keeps a wary eye on the cost of things. This book features the engaging prose style familiar to readers of his other books. You will learn why mercury-filled cables are not a good idea, the pitfalls of plating gold on copper, and what quotes from Star Trek have to do with PCB design. Learn how to: make amplifiers with apparently impossibly low noise design discrete circuitry that can handle enormous signals with vanishingly low distortion use humble low-gain transistors to make an amplifier with an input impedance of more than 50 megohms transform the performance of low-cost-opamps build active filters with very low noise and distortion make incredibly accurate volume controls make a huge variety of audio equalisers make magnetic cartridge preamplifiers that have noise so low it is limited by basic physics, by using load synthesis sum, switch, clip, compress, and route audio signals be confident that phase perception is not an issue This expanded and updated third edition contains extensive new material on optimising RIAA equalisation, electronics for ribbon microphones, summation of noise sources, defining system frequency response, loudness controls, and much more. Including all the crucial theory, but with minimal mathematics, Small Signal Audio Design is the must-have companion for anyone studying, researching, or working in audio engineering and audio electronics.

Practical Audio Electronics is a comprehensive introduction to basic audio electronics and the fundamentals of sound circuit building, providing the reader with the necessary knowledge and skills to undertake projects from scratch. Imparting a thorough foundation of theory alongside the practical skills needed to understand, build, modify, and test audio circuits, this book equips the reader with the tools to explore the sonic possibilities that emerge when electronics technology is applied innovatively to the making of music. Suitable for all levels of technical proficiency, this book encourages a deeper understanding through highlighted sections of advanced material and example projects including circuits to make, alter, and amplify audio, providing a snapshot of the wide range of possibilities of practical audio electronics. An ideal resource for students, hobbyists, musicians, audio professionals, and those interested in exploring the possibilities of hardware-based sound and music creation.

Active crossovers are used by almost every sound reinforcement system and every recording studio monitoring set-up; but the use of active crossovers is rapidly expanding. This new edition, presents all the updates to loudspeaker technology and crossover design. The edition expands on loudspeaker configurations and design issues, sound reinforcement issues, more on lowpass and highpass filters, and may other filters. This new edition is a must read for anyone wanting comprehensive practical knowledge.

This book is essential for audio power amplifier designers and engineers for one simple reason...it enables you as a professional to develop reliable, high-performance circuits. The Author Douglas Self covers the major issues of distortion and linearity, power supplies, overload, DC-protection and reactive loading. He also tackles unusual forms of compensation and distortion produced by capacitors and fuses. This completely updated fifth edition includes four NEW chapters including one on The XD Principle, invented by the author, and used by Cambridge Audio. Crosstalk, power amplifier input systems, and microcontrollers in amplifiers are also now discussed in this fifth edition, making this book a must-have for audio power amplifier professionals and audiophiles.

This work offers a collection of Electronics World articles, including self-build projects. It aims to demystify amplifier design and establish empirical design techniques based on electronic design principles and experimental data.

This extensively reworked 2nd edition of the book includes ten new chapters. It also features an updated discussion of simulation software tools, covering topics such as simulating complex and / or expensive amplifier structures with the free LTspice software by developing a broad range of additional simulation models, especially those for triodes and transformers. The book adopts the structure used in The Sound of Silence books, with the first part, Basics - Calculations and Simulations, providing deep simulation-triggered insights into the gain and noise mechanisms of differential amplifiers, BJTs, resistors, and triodes. The second part then discusses the RIAA Phono-Amp Engine II, describing all the necessary design, simulation, calculation, construction and measurement processes for this multi-functional MC amplifier. The third part, Knowledge Transfer, presents new ideas on draft designs of the linear low-noise MC input stages (also an extremely low-noise one) and a range of practical measurement tools. Additionally, it includes a chapter on MM amplifiers and their noise production, and offers some surprising solutions. The brand new and extensive chapter on all the simulation models developed and used in the book rounds-out the voyage through the jungle of compromises, allowing best-in-class balanced MC phono-amplifiers to be produced. Lastly, the book also features an extensive index, and free downloads of all Mathcad worksheets are available on Springer's Extra Materials website (extra.springer.com).

Media attention can boost careers, generate millions of pounds and make dreams come true. It can also destroy reputations and derail carefully laid business plans. All publicity is not good publicity. For more than 30 years, Howard Bragman has helped prominent people - movie stars, business leaders, philanthropists - get their messages out in good times and in bad. His book won't make anyone famous overnight, but it will help readers understand the changing world of today's PR.