Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK, but better texts available, April 29, 2003
Personally, I was disappointed by the fourth edition of this venerable text, for it has become increasingly mathematical and problem oriented. If you like sitting down and whiling away your afternoon with a problem set -- this is the text for you. But if instead you wish to study acoustics through a pedagogical method that is more verbal and graphical in nature -- better texts are available. Indeed, in my opinion, prior editions (1950, 1962, 1981) of this same text are superior, particularly the second edition. Although these too have their share of integral calculus and complex algebra, the quantity is more appropriate for a discipline that is mostly science and engineering but with aspects of art to it as well. Bear in mind that aside from a few specialized areas -- like ultrasonics and its use in non-destructive testing, or the use of digital processing in sound generation and analysis -- little new has come about in the field of acoustics since World War II. Thus unlike with most fields of science, there is no necessity to have the most modern texts to gather a wholly modern understanding of the field. Indeed, I recently examined almost every text relating to acoustics contained in the circumferential stacks of the Barker Engineering Library under the Great Dome of M.I.T. (and sadly, there aren't as many texts as one might hope). I was surprised both at the age of most volumes in the collection -- and the fact that most had not been checked out of the library in years. Indeed, from the "Date Due" slips in the back, you could see the field was very popular in the 1960's and 1970's, but popularity seemed to wain in the early 1980's -- approximately contemporaneously, curiously, with the introduction of the digital CD format of audio recording. By the mid-1990's, at M.I.T., at least, interest in acoustics among faculty and students seem to have declined precipitiously, if the popularity of library texts and the quantity of student theses published in the field is any indication. Of all the general texts on acoustics that I examined -- to me, one clearly stood out above the others. It was published in 1957 by the lead acoustical scientist at the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, Harry F. Olsen, Ph.D. It is entitled, "Acoustical Engineering", although it contains all the fundamental science as well. This text was reprinted in 1991 and is currently available. Olsen's work is surely a magnum opus, comprising 736 pages and 567 illustrations. It has its fair share of math, but the concepts are often additionally explained through well-crafted line drawings, showing, for example, wave forms drawn in progressive fashion in serial graphs, some of which are designed so that one can even mentally rotate the graphics to gather a three-dimensional perspective. Furthermore, the graphs are often supplemented by equivalent mechanical and electrical analogs, to further assist in understanding. Best of all, Olsen explains virtually everything acoustical you would ever want to know, from theories of acoustical wave propagation, to an enormous variety of loudspeaker designs, to the mathematical reasoning behind Johann Sebastian Bach's tempered tuning of musical instruments, an artistic practice that is almost universal today. Thus if it is a text for a problem-oriented course in acoustics that one seeks -- the fourth edition of the "Fundamentals of Acoustics" is a fine text. However, if one wishes to have a ready reference that is extraordinarily comprehensive, or a pedagogical work that doesn't focus on mathematical derivations, better choices can surely be made.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK, but better texts available, April 29, 2003
Personally, I was disappointed by the fourth edition of this venerable text, for it has become increasingly mathematical and problem oriented. If you like sitting down and whiling away your afternoon with a problem set -- this is the text for you. But if instead you wish to study acoustics through a pedagogical method that is more verbal and graphical in nature -- better texts are available. Indeed, in my opinion, prior editions (1950, 1962, 1981) of this same text are superior, particularly the second edition. Although these too have their share of integral calculus and complex algebra, the quantity is more appropriate for a discipline that is mostly science and engineering but with aspects of art to it as well. Bear in mind that aside from a few specialized areas -- like ultrasonics and its use in medical imaging and non-destructive testing, or the use of digital processing in sound generation and vibration analysis -- little new has come about in the field of acoustics since World War II. Thus unlike with most fields of science, there is no necessity to have the most modern texts to gather a wholly modern understanding of the field (with a few minor exceptions). Indeed, I recently examined almost every text relating to acoustics contained in the circumferential stacks of the Barker Engineering Library under the Great Dome of M.I.T. (and sadly, there aren't as many texts as one might hope). I was surprised both at the age of most volumes in the collection -- and the fact that most had not been checked out of the library in years. Indeed, from the "Date Due" slips in the back, you could see the field was very popular in the 1960's and 1970's, but popularity seemed to wane in the early 1980's -- approximately contemporaneously, curiously, with the introduction of the digital CD format of audio recording. By the mid-1990's, at M.I.T., at least, interest in acoustics among faculty and students seem to have declined precipitiously, if the popularity of library texts and the quantity of student theses published in the field is any indication. Of all the general texts on acoustics that I examined -- to me, one clearly stood out above the others. It was published in 1957 by Harry F. Olsen, Ph.D., the lead acoustical scientist at the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. It is entitled, "Acoustical Engineering", although the text contains all the fundamental science as well. This volume was reprinted in 1991 and is currently available. Olsen's work is surely a magnum opus, comprising 736 pages and 567 illustrations. It has its fair share of math, but the concepts are often additionally explained through well-crafted line drawings, showing, for example, wave forms drawn in progressive fashion in serial graphs, some of which are designed so that one can even mentally rotate the graphics to gather a three-dimensional perspective. Furthermore, the graphs are often supplemented by art showing equivalent mechanical and electrical analogs, to further assist in understanding. Best of all, Olsen explains virtually everything acoustical you would ever want to know, from theories of acoustical wave propagation, to an enormous variety of loudspeaker designs, to the mathematical reasoning behind Johann Sebastian Bach's tempered tuning of musical instruments, an artistic practice that is almost universal today. Thus if it is a text for a problem-oriented course in acoustics that one seeks -- the fourth edition of the "Fundamentals of Acoustics" is a fine text. However, if one wishes to have a ready reference that is extraordinarily comprehensive, or a pedagogical work that doesn't focus on mathematical derivations, better choices can surely be made.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not an introductory text, June 16, 2004
This text in not an introductory work, it is geared toward upper division college or graduate level engineering work. By this I am referring to the math level in the book. If you are not willing to work with partial differential equations, integrals, dot products, cross products and dell operators stay away from this book, it is intended for engineering students and not for audio, broadcast, or film students looking for a greater understanding of sound/acoustics.Here is a list of the chapters:
Fundamentals of vibration; Transverse motion - the vibrating string; Vibrations of bars; The two-dimensional wave equation: vibrations of memberanes and plates; The acoustic wave equation and simple solutions; Transmission phenomena; Absorption and attenuation of sound waves in fluids; Radiation and reception of acoustic waves; Pipes, cavities, and waveguides; resonators, ducts, and filters; Noise, signal, detection, hearing, and speech; Environmental acoustics; Architectural acoustics; Transduction; Underwater acoustics.
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