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.
Preface; Introduction and general survey; History, architecture and negative feedback; The general principles of power amplifiers; The small signal stages; The Class-B output stage; The output stage II; Compensation, slew-rate, and stability; Power supplies and PSRR; Class-A power amplifiers; Class D power amplifiers; Class-G power amplifiers; FET output stages; Thermal compensation and thermal dynamics; Amplifier and loudspeaker protection; Grounding and practical matters; Testing and safety; Index.
This comprehensive book on audio power amplifier design will appeal to members of the professional audio engineering community as well as the student and enthusiast. Designing Audio Power Amplifiersbegins with power amplifier design basics that a novice can understand and moves all the way through to in-depth design techniques for very sophisticated audiophiles and professional audio power amplifiers. This book is the single best source of knowledge for anyone who wishes to design audio power amplifiers. It also provides a detailed introduction to nearly all aspects of analog circuit design, making it an effective educational text. Develop and hone your audio amplifier design skills with in-depth coverage of these and other topics: Basic and advanced audio power amplifier design Low-noise amplifier design Static and dynamic crossover distortion demystified Understanding negative feedback and the controversy surrounding it Advanced NFB compensation techniques, including TPC and TMC Sophisticated DC servo design MOSFET power amplifiers and error correction Audio measurements and instrumentation Overlooked sources of distortion SPICE simulation for audio amplifiers, including a tutorial on LTspice SPICE transistor modeling, including the VDMOS model for power MOSFETs Thermal design and the use of ThermalTrak(tm) transistors Four chapters on class D amplifiers, including measurement techniques Professional power amplifiers Switch-mode power supplies (SMPS). design Static and dynamic crossover distortion demystified Understanding negative feedback and the controversy surrounding it Advanced NFB compensation techniques, including TPC and TMC Sophisticated DC servo design MOSFET power amplifiers and error correction Audio measurements and instrumentation Overlooked sources of distortion SPICE simulation for audio amplifiers, including a tutorial on LTspice SPICE transistor modeling, including the VDMOS model for power MOSFETs Thermal design and the use of ThermalTrak(tm) transistors Four chapters on class D amplifiers, including measurement techniques Professional power amplifiers Switch-mode power supplies (SMPS). the use of ThermalTrak(tm) transistors Four chapters on class D amplifiers, including measurement techniques Professional power amplifiers Switch-mode power supplies (SMPS).
Learn to use inexpensive and readily available parts to obtain state-of-the-art performance in all the vital parameters of noise, distortion, crosstalk and so on. With ample coverage of preamplifiers and mixers and a new chapter on headphone amplifiers, this practical handbook provides an extensive repertoire of circuits that can be put together to make almost any type of audio system. A resource packed full of valuable information, with virtually every page revealing nuggets of specialized knowledge not found elsewhere. Essential points of theory that bear on practical performance are lucidly and thoroughly explained, with the mathematics kept to a relative minimum. Douglas' background in design for manufacture ensures he keeps a wary eye on the cost of things. Includes a chapter on power-supplies, full of practical ways to keep both the ripple and the cost down, showing how to power everything. Douglas wears his learning lightly, and this book features the engaging prose style familiar to readers of his other books. You will learn why mercury cables are not a good idea, the pitfalls of plating gold on copper, and what quotes from Star Trek have to do with PCB design. Learn how to: make amplifiers with apparently impossibly low noise design discrete circuitry that can handle enormous signals with vanishingly low distortion use humble low-gain transistors to make an amplifier with an input impedance of more than 50 Megohms transform the performance of low-cost-opamps, how to make filters with very low noise and distortion make incredibly accurate volume controls make a huge variety of audio equalisers make magnetic cartridge preamplifiers that have noise so low it is limited by basic physics sum, switch, clip, compress, and route audio signals The second edition is expanded throughout (with added information on new ADCs and DACs, microcontrollers, more coverage of discrete op amp design, and many other topics), and includes a completely new chapter on headphone amplifiers.
Morgan Jones' Valve Amplifiers has been widely recognised as the most complete guide to valve amplifier design, modification, analysis, construction and maintenance written for over 30 years. As such it is unique in presenting the essentials of 'hollow-state' electronics and valve amp design for engineers and enthusiasts in the familiar context of current best practice in electronic design, using only currently available components. The author's straightforward approach, using as little maths as possible, and lots of design knowhow, makes this book ideal for those with a limited knowledge of the field as well as being the standard reference text for experts in valve audio and a wider audience of audio engineers facing design challenges involving valves. Design principles and construction techniques are provided so readers can devise and build from scratch designs that actually work. Morgan Jones takes the reader through each step in the process of design, starting with a brief review of electronic fundamentals relevant to valve amplifiers, simple stages, compound stages, linking stages together, and finally, complete designs. Practical aspects, including safety, are addressed throughout. The third edition includes a new chapter on distortion and many further new and expanded sections throughout the book, including: comparison of bias methods, constant current sinks, upper valve choice, buffering and distortion, shunt regulated push-pull (SRPP) amplifier, use of oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers, valve cooling and heatsinks, US envelope nomenclature and suffixes, heater voltage versus applied current, moving coil transformer source and load terminations. - The practical guide to analysis, modification, design, construction and maintenance of valve amplifiers - The fully up-to-date approach to valve electronics - Essential reading for audio designers and music and electronics enthusiasts alike
Whether you are a dedicated audiophile who wants to gain a more complete understanding of the design issues behind a truly great amp, or a professional electronic designer seeking to learn more about the art of amplifier design, there can be no better place to start than with the 35 classic magazine articles collected together in this book.Douglas Self offers a tried and tested method for designing audio amplifiers in a way that improves performance at every point in the circuit where distortion can creep in – without significantly increasing cost. Through the articles in this book, he takes readers through the causes of distortion, measurement techniques, and design solutions to minimise distortion and efficiency. Most of the articles are based round the design of a specific amplifier, making this book especially valuable for anyone considering building a Self amplifier from scratch.Self is senior designer with a high-end audio manufacturer, as well as a prolific and highly respected writer. His career in audio design is reflected in the articles in this book, originally published in the pages of Electronics World and Wireless World over a 25 year period. - An audio amp design cookbook, comprising 35 of Douglas Self's definitive audio design articles - Complete designs for readers to build and adapt - An anthology of classic designs for electronics enthusiasts, Hi-Fi devotees and professional designers alike
The audio amplifier is at the heart of audio design. Its performance determines largely the performance of any audio system. John Linsley Hood is widely regarded as the finest audio designer around, and pioneered design in the post-valve era. His mastery of audio technology extends from valves to the latest techniques. This is John Linsley Hood's greatest work yet, describing the milestones that have marked the development of audio amplifiers since the earliest days to the latest systems. Including classic amps with valves at their heart and exciting new designs using the latest components, this book is the complete world guide to audio amp design. John Linsley Hood is responsible for numerous amplifier designs that have led the way to better sound, and has also kept up a commentary on developments in audio in magazines such as The Gramophone, Electronics in Action and Electronics and Wireless World. He is also the author of The Art of Linear Electronics and Audio Electronics published by Newnes. - Complete world guide to audio amp design written by world famous author - Covers classic amps to new designs using latest components - Includes the best of valves as well as best of transistors
