Customer Reviews

Practical Audio Amplifier Circuit Projects

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Whether you are a musician or an engineer or both, there are numerous good references on solid state amplifiers out there for a reasonable price, and this is not one of them.

The author states in the preface that his main purpose is to present circuits that are complete and tested, and contain parts currently available in the U.S., and he may have succeeded. If so he should have titled the book something like "Easy to Build Audio Amplifier Circuit Projects" and left out the word "Practical", because after much tiresome reading of cyclical thought streams, you find out on page 43, "we're not looking at those massive megawatt amplifiers so beloved of heavy metal rock guitarists or the power-hungry audiophile. No, this is the hobbyist's introduction to audio power on a much smaller scale; in fact, the power output is no more than a watt."

And that's what every amplifier circuit in the book is limited to, 1 watt. This is a toy, and it's of no "practical" value.

As for the writing, the author begins with a chapter on simple components, then a simple LED circuit, so the expected audience is somebody with no electrical/electronic background. The next chapter is on audio preamplifiers, referring to but not presenting subjects like bandwidth, signal strength, op amps, feedback, gain stages, phase, bias, etc. So now suddenly the audience is understood to have had at least a semester's worth of electronics as well as a circuitry education.

Besides the buildability of his circuits, the author's other obsession is telling the reader over and over about the wonder that is the LM386 op amp integrated circuit. I can save you most of the cost of the book and a lot of reading by telling you how much easier it is for kids these days who don't have to bias a transistor network, all they have to do is buy one of these beautiful little LM386 chips! If you don't get the message at first, you will have countless opportunities throughout the book to try again.

Furthermore, beyond the blurry scope of the intended audience and dubious value of the entire book, the author rambles constantly without clear direction. This book does not seem to have been well planned or outlined, topics do not build sequentially, and it does not bear evidence of revision or editing. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I would guess the author worked out the schematics for his 16 projects, tested them thoroughly, then tried to write a book around them to reimburse himself for his time. But with all this rambling and nonsense in a mere 140 pages, the entire book could be edited down to a thick pamphlet or a medium web site without losing any substance or alienating anybody who may fall outside of a well-focused scope.

So as a learning tool for a hobbyist with an electronics background who for some reason has plenty of time to build circuitry that is too under-powered to be of any use, and who isn't interested yet in how the theory might scale up to something useful, this book could be worth maybe $5. Not $20, and certainly not $40.

For the rest of you who are more like me, I strongly recommend you look elsewhere.