Amazon.com: Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook (9780750627887): Douglas Self: Books

Kindle Edition
Read instantly on your iPad, PC or Mac, no Kindle required
Buy Price: $48.92
Rent From: $24.95
 
 
 
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$24.29 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook
 
 

Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook [Paperback]

Douglas Self (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
 
Kindle Edition
Rent from
$48.92
$24.95
 
Paperback $44.95  
Paperback, August 31, 1996 --  
There is a newer edition of this item:
Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook, Second Edition Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook, Second Edition 4.1 out of 5 stars (14)
Out of Print--Limited Availability

Book Description

August 31, 1996 0750627883 978-0750627887
This is a uniquely detailed guide to the theory and practice of audio power amplifiers, from the elegantly simple mathematics of the differential pair to the practicalities of bolting down power transistors without breaking them. Based on a large body of original research and twenty years of experience, this work provides the first authoritative exposition of power amplifier design and operation. It shows that much of the conventional wisdom is quite wrong, and supplies practical solutions to many intractable design problems.



Douglas Self has compiled a handbook for professional designers, amateur enthusiasts, academic investigators and students. This work is the first of its kind in the audio amplifier field, and has become the standard against which other works will be measured. It provides a clear and practical text on the state of the art of amplifier design.

The book includes the first complete explanation of the sources of power amplifier distortion, shows how they can be eliminated or minimised, and gives detailed information allowing power amplifiers to be designed and constructed, with performance figures that would have been thought impossible a few years ago. It also includes an unusually detailed and lucid account of the operation of negative feedback in amplifiers, making it an excellent text for teaching as well as a key source for design engineers.

Douglas Self is Chief Design Engineer at Soundcraft Electronics, a major audio manufacturing company. While much of his time is spent designing professional analog mixing consoles, he has also been deeply involved with power amplifiers, DSP programming for digital audio, and just about every branch of audio electronics. His latest power amplifier design, for the Spirit branch of Soundcraft, has exceeded twenty thousand units sold world-wide; a strong validation of the design methods in this book!


Unique detail on the theory and practice of audio power amplifiers
THE standard work on audio power amplifiers
Simple writing style makes the book highly readable


Editorial Reviews

Review

'The book is indipensable for designers with a leaning towards solid-state amplifiers devoid of radical elements.'
Ken Kessler

'The book provides a clear practical text on the state of the art, and will be useful as a text for teaching, as well as a key source for engineers.'
Sound & Communication Systems

Book Description

Renowned audio design guru Douglas Self demystifies the design, analysis and construction of the different classes of audio amplifiers in this classic handbook --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 408 pages
  • Publisher: Newnes (August 31, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0750627883
  • ISBN-13: 978-0750627887
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,264,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for power amplifier designers, February 23, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook (Paperback)
A generally thorough analysis of a much-misunderstood topic. Many writers have produced books and articles on amplifier design, but only a few have explored the topic in a truly scientific fashion. Many writers instead adopt a "cookery" approach, some even citing "ingredients" as the key to a good design (e.g. special capacitors and resistors, silver wire etc.) but with no clear justification except their own (biased?) personal claims of superior sonic performance. As a professional electronics designer and at the same time an audiophile, I suspect many of these designers are using speculation to cover for their lack of clear understanding.

Love him or hate him, Self at least avoids these sort of traps and, refreshingly, confines himself to demonstrable facts. Some of his comments will inevitably be ill-received by the subjective audio community, but his challenge is simple enough: if your approach sounds better, prove it. For example, he recommends we use blind listening tests under properly controlled conditions. Hopefully someone will rise to the challenge and perhaps subjective reviews will gain a better standing.

Some of my design philosophies differ from Self's, and there is certainly no shortage of other opinions out there! But whether or not you end up agreeing 100% with Mr. Self doesn't really matter. Either way, the book remains an excellent tutorial in the nitty gritty of power amplifier design. In particular I found the breakdown of the amplifier into its key stages,and the discussion of how these stages interact, most illuminating.

Study of this book will help amplifier designers of all persuasions in understanding and optimising their work, and I throughly recommend it.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended reading for anyone who wants to design an amp, May 12, 1999
This review is from: Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook (Paperback)
This book is not a "cookbook" approach, but presents well researched and tested approaches. As such it is guaranteed to offend some people (evaluation of design changes and improvements is scientific, as opposed to subjective). Self uses the book to take a shot at much of the patently mumbo-jumbo in high end HiFi, which is entertaining! The book features the "blameless" amplifier and the circuit is given, but it would have been nice for the PCB layout (or a Gerber file..) to be included so that some quick experimentation can be done. The only minus (apart from that) is that there some areas not treated: Nested Differential Feeback loops being one. A very unique book, collecting together a lot of very valuable information.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bipolar Transistor Power Amplifier Bible, July 13, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook (Paperback)
I can't imagine a better book about push-pull, audio bipolar power amplifiers. Self covers virtually every possible configuration with circuits, notes, simulations and measurements. This book includes an excellent chapter on power, heat and reliability based on many years of design , manufacturing and field service. He is truly an expert in all aspects of this amplifier topology.

He doesn't hide his disdain for MOSFETS, single-ended amplifiers and other "subjectivist" high-end concerns. Contrary to the findings of many others in this field, Self finds Total Harmonic Distortion the only measurement of amplifier quality that matters. He isn't convincing to this reviewer.

A "must have" book for anyone designing audio power amplifiers.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject