Customer Reviews

Signals and Systems, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I'm a UW computer engr student. We use this book here because Van Veen is the author (he is a professor here). The book is aweful. It's just plain bad. The material lacks clarity, the examples are either too easy, too hard, or do not provide any instruction at all. The math often has missing steps leaving the reader clueless as to how one arrives at the final result. The matlab code is worthless -- it doesn't teach anything nor explain anything. I recommend Oppenheim or Schaum's guide. I beg you not to waste your time or money on this ...text.

I bought this book to review the theory of signal processing, which I had studied 4 years ago. What caught my attention was that the author threats the 4 different Fourier representations at the same time, instead of separated, what seemed to be a great approach. But in the course of the reading I found that the lack of organization throwed away what could be a great idea. Sometimes I was so lost in the theory development that I prefer to give up and try another book. In the end I found myself studying (again) the Oppenheim's Signals & Systems, that treats the Fourier representations separately, but in a much more organized manner. So, as an advice, try another one.

I had professor Van Veen for my signals and systems professor in college. While he wasn't a bad professor, his textbook is terrible. Copying what was said in other reviews, the examples are very hard to follow, often skipping steps. The text is wordy and it seems like the author goes out of his way not to make a conclusion that would help clear up of his confusion. I'd like to add that this is the only other review I've ever written for a book and I only did it after several of my coworkers who had the same book expressed the same concerns.

This book is little to no help to someone unfamiliar to the subject. Main ideas are no pointed out very well and are very disorganized. The examples are scarce and when they are present, they're hardly explained clearly. Sometimes the math is left out completely and all you're given is a problem and a solution. The "interactive solutions" feature is misleading. I've found nothing interactive and there are little to no solutions. This book is just bad.

... Admittedly, the book does cover all the concepts, but fails to present the information in the clear, concise manner you want when studying signal processing. Below is one of my favourite quotes, which pretty much surmises the whole book. It's regarding the time-shift property of the z-transform:

"Multiplication by z exp n0 introduces a pole of order no at z = 0 if n0 > 0. In this case the ROC cannot include z = 0, even if Rx does include 0, unless X(z) has a zero of at least order n0 at z = 0 that cancels out all the new poles. If n0 < 0, then multiplication by z exp -no introduces n0 poles at infinity. If these poles are not cancelled by zeros at infinity in X(z), then the ROC of z exp -n0 X(z) cannot include abs(z) = infinity."

I agree with the other reviews too which stated that the examples jump steps and do little to explain the concepts. I even found an error with one (Haykin, it's your example on page 471). In my opinion, if you don't have much time, and want a book that doesn't require a lot of re-reading, keep looking.

Gets 2 stars for covering all the material.

I'm a Computer Engineering student at UW-Madison -- same university as the author (Van Veen). We use this textbook here; and I must say, it is TERRIBLE! It is verbose, the examples are not useful nor instructive, the book's math derivations (even in the example problems) have numerous missing steps which leaves the reader clueless as to how one arrives at the final result, and worst of all the material is presented in an extremely obscure way. If you are a beginner to signals and systems I recommend you read through Schaum's Guide. Do not waste your time or money on this book!

This book is a must for second or third year engineering students (electrical, biomedical, etc...) the concepts can be difficult to understand but the book did a good job simplifying it.

"I'm not excited by this book. I think this is the worst book on the subject yet." to paraphrase the back cover.

This book lacks mathematical rigor, clarity and applications. It seems to be just a random stream of equations at times. The end-of chapter Matlab sections are completely useless because they explain nothing. In short, this book is a severely overpriced piece of garbage.

Signals and Systems covers several topics rapidly and concisely. Everything you need to know is there but you might spend some time looking for it. The writing is very fluid and engaging.

I think, this book is a very good one. It gives wonderful and precise introduction to the subject. Many examples with solutions provided make it very useful for self study. To my opinion, this book is wonderful. I may recommend to buy it.