Douglas Self

All the design and development inspiration and direction an audio engineer needs in one blockbuster book! Douglas Self has selected the very best sound engineering design material from the Focal and Newnes portfolio and complied it into this volume. The result is a book covering the gamut of sound engineering. The material has been selected for its timelessness as well as for its relevance to contemporary sound engineering issues.

Audio Engineering Explained

The Design of Active Crossovers is a unique guide to the design of high-quality circuitry for splitting audio frequencies into separate bands and directing them to different loudspeaker drive units specifically designed for handling their own range of frequencies. Traditionally this has been done by using passive crossover units built into the loudspeaker boxes; this is the simplest solution, but it is also a bundle of compromises. The high cost of passive crossover components, and the power losses in them, means that passive crossovers have to use relatively few parts. This limits how well the crossover can do its basic job. Active crossovers, sometimes called electronic crossovers, tackle the problem in a much more sophisticated manner. The division of the audio into bands is performed at low signal levels, before the power amplifiers, where it can be done with much greater precision. Very sophisticated filtering and response-shaping networks can be built at comparatively low cost. Time-delay networks that compensate for phyical misalignments in speaker construction can be implemented easily; the equivalent in a passive crossover is impractical because of the large cost and the heavy signal losses. Active crossover technology is also directly applicable to other band-splitting signal-processing devices such as multi-band compressors. The use of active crossovers is increasing. They are used by almost every sound reinforcement system, by almost every recording studio monitoring set-up, and to a small but growing extent in domestic hifi. There is a growing acceptance in the hifi industry that multi-amplification using active crossovers is the obvious next step (and possibly the last big one) to getting the best possible sound. There is also a large usage of active crossovers in car audio, with the emphasis on routing the bass to enormous low-frequency loudspeakers. One of the very few drawbacks to using the active crossover approach is that it requires more power amplifiers; these have often been built into the loudspeaker, along with the crossover, and this deprives the customer of the chance to choose their own amplifier, leading to resistance to the whole active crossover philosophy. A comprehensive proposal for solving this problem is an important part of this book. The design of active crossovers is closely linked with that of the loudspeakers they drive. A chapter gives a concise but complete account of all the loudspeaker design issues that affect the associated active crossover. This book is packed full of valuable information, with virtually every page revealing nuggets of specialized knowledge never before published. Essential points of theory bearing on practical performance are lucidly and thoroughly explained, with the mathematics kept to an essential minimum. Douglas' background in design for manufacture ensures he keeps a wary eye on the cost of things. Features: Crossover basics and requirements The many different crossover types and how they work Design almost any kind of active filter with minimal mathematics Make crossover filters with very low noise and distortion Make high-performance time-delay filters that give a constant delay over a wide range of frequency Make a wide variety of audio equaliser stages: shelving, peaking and notch characteristics All about active crossover system design for optimal noise and dynamic range There is a large amount of new material that has never been published before. A few examples: using capacitance multipliers in biquad equalisers, opamp output biasing to reduce distortion, the design of NTMTM notch crossovers, the design of special filters for filler-driver crossovers, the use of mixed capacitors to reduce filter distortion, differentially elevated internal levels to reduce noise, and so on. Douglas wears his learning lightly, and this book features the engaging prose style familiar from his other books The Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook, Self on Audio, and the recent Small Signal Audio Design.

The Design of Active Crossovers

The basics -- Components -- Opamps and their properties -- Preamp architecture -- Moving-magnet inputs : phono amp architecture -- Signals from vinyl : levels & limitations -- RIAA equalization -- Archival & non-standard equalization -- Moving-magnet inputs : noise & distortion -- Moving-magnet inputs : discrete circuitry -- Moving-coil head amplifiers -- Subsonic filtering -- Ultrasonic & scratch filtering -- Line outputs -- Level indication -- Power supplies -- Moving-magnet inputs : practical designs

Electronics for Vinyl

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

Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook

This book is essential for audio power amplifier designers and engineers for one simple reason...it enables you as a professional to develop reliable, high-performance circuits. The Author Douglas Self covers the major issues of distortion and linearity, power supplies, overload, DC-protection and reactive loading. He also tackles unusual forms of compensation and distortion produced by capacitors and fuses. This completely updated fifth edition includes four NEW chapters including one on The XD Principle, invented by the author, and used by Cambridge Audio. Crosstalk, power amplifier input systems, and microcontrollers in amplifiers are also now discussed in this fifth edition, making this book a must-have for audio power amplifier professionals and audiophiles.

All the design and development inspiration and direction an audio engineer needs in one blockbuster book! Douglas Self has selected the very best sound engineering design material from the Focal and Newnes portfolio and complied it into this volume. The result is a book covering the gamut of sound engineering. The material has been selected for its timelessness as well as for its relevance to contemporary sound engineering issues. * Hand picked content, provides everything you want to know in one volume * Proven best design practices * Case histories and design examples get you off and running on your current project

John Watkinson

John Linsley Hood

Don Davis

Ian Sinclair

Andrew Singmin

Eugene Patronis

Richard Brice

Ben Duncan

The Newnes Know It All Series takes the best of what our authors have written to create hard-working desk references that will be an engineer's first port of call for key information, design techniques and rules of thumb. Guaranteed not to gather dust on a shelf! Audio engineers need to master a wide area of topics in order to excel. The Audio Engineering Know It All covers every angle, including digital signal processing, power supply design, microphone and loudspeaker technology as well as audio compression. A 360-degree view from our best-selling authors Includes such topics as fundamentals, compression, and test and measurement The ultimate hard-working desk reference; all the essential information, techniques and tricks of the trade in one volume

Audio Engineering: Know It All

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Douglas Self

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