Customer Reviews

Loudspeaker Design Cookbook

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Warning: This book is not for beginners. Hard core hobbyists or speaker design professionals may find some useful models, empirical studies and references in this book. For the beginner, the minimum vital data needed to design and build a speaker is interwoven in to a jumble of esoteric empirical tests and computer simulations. For the more experienced speaker builder, the depth of this book is great and the footnote references are very complete. While the breadth is great, the depth of technical explanation for fundamental speaker enclosure modeling physics was a lacking. I guess I need to buy another book or research the footnotes myself.

This book could be a lot better with some solid editing. The writing - for the most part - is clear, but there are sections that are hard to read and there are some errors. The fonts are too small (many of the subscripts are illegible). The graphics are horrible. The book has over 100 frequency domain plots (developed with speaker CAD packages), which are illegible and poorly labeled. Most of the graphics are nowhere near the text.

I give this book two stars because of the breadth and the references, but it's no cookbook. You won't be able to look up a recipe and cook up a speaker.

The font size used for my 6th edition as quite small, dust off those reading glasses! Even the hundreds of graphs will need a magnifying glass if you need to determine what is presented in the graph. Clearly, the size reduction is a compromise to reduce page count, and thus minimize cost, but in my opinion, this is a few steps boyond the boundary of good printing techniques. Look for larger sized fonts and reasonably sized graphs in the next edition. The book rarely presents alternatives to commercial software (and, similarly, to commercial hardware) for calculations and measurements. Some calculations, maybe even most of them, can be handled with a simple spreadsheet, yet the book rarely offers the full equation, instead directing the reader to commercial software, which costs well in excess of the price of a couple pairs of good bookshelf speakers. Home built test equipment is presented, for lesser devices, but here again, for all Thiele-Small parameters, you'd need to purchase commercial equipment. Some tests do not need professionally designed equipment! Regarding content, some points are not definitively explained, despite the authors obvious skills for explanation. In some cases, the equations which are actually offered contain unexplained terms: you might have just read about one term, but the equation might be calling for a subscript of the term, with no explanation as to what conditions define the subscripted term.... what, then, would you use for a value? My review sounds a bit negative, but above all, these kinds of problems can easily be searched in online forums related to loudspeaker design (if indeed you have internet access). Should there be any confusion: this is a reference, a standard by which other tutorials are measured. When in doubt, ask online. Good book for the beginner, despite a few concerns.

Too bad that Amazon has it listed as a special order item. The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickanson, currently in its 6th edition, will teach you more than you ever wanted to know or even thought existed when it comes to both the art and (mostly) science of desgining loudspeaker systems. You'll also find out first hand how useful that algebra you learned in high school really is.

This book covers the most popular types of enclosures from the simple acoustic suspension (think old AR and Kloss designs) to ported bass reflex and bandpass designs that are so popular now. There is also a wealth of information on crossover design.

Dickanson builds upon the work of Thiele and Small in treating speaker systems with filter theory. The days of building a box, sticking a driver in it and hoping for the best are gone. Among amateur speaker builders, and even some pros, this is the one book that you just have to have on your shelf. It's simply the best of its kind.

I bought this book after reading many positive reviews and recomendations and although it is a very useful reference book there are cetain things which I must say. The phrase "but this is beyond the scope of this book" occurs far too often, leaving an empty feeling to most chapters. Most chapters seem to end 10 pages too early. Vance Dickason seems to be trying to get everyone to make exactly the same type of loudspeaker, leaving no room for experimentation. Thus, personally, taking all the fun out of speaker design. Finally the book has a very poor layout. with hundreds (literally) of tiny frequency plots for which to get anything for you need a magnifying glass and 4 hands in order to find the accompanying text.

As an Electrical Engineering student now working on a P.A. loudspeaker, I found this book a good introduction to the fundamentals of the Thile/Small Parameters theory. I suppose it is an excellent DIY guide for the amateurs looking for a few more equations. However, the equations are definately insufficient for the professional.

A lot of space is spent on diagrams giving information already implied by previous ones. Additionally the hole book is based upon simulations by a $2500 software pack (LEAP & FilterShop by LinearX)! I cannot think of any amateur willing to spend $2500 in order to build a home loudspeaker. For the professionals using this software pack it is more than certain they need more specialized books.

This was a great starter book for me. I have no electrical knowledge or education, so the prospect of designing my own speakers left me at a loss. However, the reviews of this book led me to purchase it. After reading it 3 times, I know have a grasp of the basics that all the expert amateurs are talking about. Terminology, box design, and some of the principles of crossover design are all much clearer to me.

However, the book left me wanting much more. Each chapter only imparts basic information, where as I wanted much more detailed information about each subject. So, buy it, but don't expect to be an expert after reading just this one book.

This book is very confusing to the uninitiated reader and tends to assume you have expensive commercial software which might be cost effective for speaker designers but not the homebuilder. He covers a lot of material, and only determined and patient amateurs or pros with formal education are going to get very far.

The DIY audio world, except for the hard core horn speaker/triode amp contingent, is as someone here pointed out very insular and consists of a few authors for Ed Dell's "Audio Amateur' and its descendants. I have been a loyal subscriber since the early eighties and it's sadly apparent that the publication (now AudioXPress) is in its last days. While the High End industry gets more esoteric and expensive every year, it's obvious now that its market is to people who specifically want really expensive and bizarre looking items for prestiege and ego gratification.

A simple guide to building a few different speakers is probably what most readers expect, and this isn't that book.

This is just not a suitable book for loudspeaker construction for the amateur, which is what its title (at least, to me) implies.

The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook is awesome, but believe it or not, it doesn't have an index. Fortunately, the index can easily be found on the web. A list of corrections is on the web too. If you buy this book, you'll want to print these out and keep them with your book.

This book has TONS of information but good luck finding it.

Man, was I excited to get this book. Finally, a know-how book with enough info to help me build whatever I want and sort through the notation! Right?

Imagine my disappointment when I opened the book expecting to find a chart defining all the terms within the first few pages, and I couldn't find it. Where is it? I start skimming the text and I see those letters with subscripts scattered here and there like annoying gray dandelion balls in the front yard. So I keep flipping backward, expecting to see them defined somewhere. Nope... nope... wait... there's some of them... but where is Q? And what is f_s? Flipping... flipping... and now I'm on the first page in Chapter 0 and I haven't found a definition for Q. He talks about it, but never defines it. So I go for the index. Oh wait... there IS no index. But there is a bunch of annoying advertisements in the back like the car magazines I read every month. So I check the table of contents - finally after a few minutes I find Q defined somewhere around page 24 in Chapter 1, but he mentions it repeatedly before then.

There are two rules I've learned about technical writing:

1) Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.

2) Re-invent the wheel so your readers don't have to.

Vance Dickason must have lost these rules of thumb in the piles of papers he's sure to have on his desk. If he would just spend some time taking more pictures, drawing more basic diagrams, and placing easy to read tables at the early parts of chapters, this book would be fantastic! But in the meantime, be prepared to read for a long time.

The design for two speaker systems (a 5-speakerhome theater system and "high-end" studio monitor pair) are included in the book. Enough information exists to reproduce them from commercially available sources. When you find them, you'll realize that the DIY world is small and cozy. The only outside confirmation on their quality is from Dickason's collaborator and colleague at Atlantic Technology. (Dickason notes that if his colleague thinks " . . .they're good, then they're good.") One is left to trust the author.

Very adequately covered is box-design, a major part of a quality speaker. Dickason presents enough charts and tables for one to design these on their own.
Unfortunately, the other major aspect of speaker design, the crossover, is carried out with a software package that cost in excess of $2000. Without it, you'll have to pay to have the design done for you..I should note that Dickason shows that excellent cross-over designs are possible with this software.

This is no doubt a comprehensive text, but you'll have to become your own instructor.