Rating: 
Summary: All you want to know about audio power amplification!
Review: I've always enjoyed audio power amps. This book is a very good one covering a wide spectrum of anything related to power amps. Everything from raw dc power supplies to different output stage topologies. Each chapter covers a specific part and goes very detailed and will explain everything very professionally. This book has helped me a lot in audio amp design, and I'm sure it will suit for both beginners and professionals. The book also includes a couple of high quality amplifier designs ready to go, most of them also include p.c.b layouts. Simple said, it's a brilliant book if you like to know everything about audio amplification!
Rating:
Summary: Clear, Concise with none of the hype!
Review: Most of the audio magazines and authors of other HI-FI books get caught up in the specialty wires and components that for exorbitant amounts of $$ reduce distortion from .002 to .0016 and they claim to be able to hear the difference that a $300.00 power cord makes. Mr. Sloan cuts through all of this garbage and gets down to the matter at hand; building economical audio amplification that not only sounds GREAT but also is affordable for the average hobbyist. I learned more about audio signal amplification from this one book, than 4 years of high school electronics could teach me. This is a definite addition to any hobbyists' library or technician alike.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and practical
Review: My review of this book should be seen in the context of my background.
This book is not "right for everyone." I like dabbling with electronics
kits and a soldering iron. I have never read any book on power amplifiers
before. The only test equipment I own is a digital multimeter. I _loved_
this book.NOTE: This book is devoted purely to power amplifiers, and that too,
solid state power amps. If the reader does not know the difference
between an integrated amplifier and a power amplifier, he should start
elsewhere. This book is not for the absolute beginner to electronics. The author
simply assumes you know what a FET, BJT or an opamp is, for instance.
It _is_ possible to extract great value from this book without knowing
about degenerative feedback, for instance, but knowing all this would
help. The author has strong opinions, something I really enjoyed. I have
always learnt the most from people with strong opinions, provided they
show me how they have arrived at those opinions. Randy Slone's opinions
about valve amps and the "valve sound", for instance, are a must-read. The author's standards of good performance are superlative. The "good"
designs here are probably comparable to the best amps commercially
available, provided you agree with the author's yardsticks on quality
in a power amp. This book is well thought through for the amateur constructor. The
author gives you a list of transistors on page 13 which he then
uses in all his designs. His PCB designs are all single-sided,
allowing easy home fabrication, and are a bit sparse, allowing easy
soldering. This sparseness also allows photocopying the PCB layouts
directly to transparent acetate sheets to make the "positive artwork" for
PCB fabrication, without running the risk of errors. There are sections
on the pragmatics of looking for the "low-tech" components like heatsinks,
how to put things together mechanically, eliminating hum and ground loops,
soldering, PCB making, etc. Chapter 10 is probably the most insightful and interesting chapter of
all, holding the entire book together. It takes the reader through the
actual design of a new amplifier, starting with a set of objectives.
The author goes about plugging pieces into a design, one by one, to
build a no-compromise top-end design, showing the reader at each step
why he chooses each piece. Chapter 11 is a collection of ready-to-build designs. Most of the 12
designs in it are no-compromise designs. Design 11 is an ultra-high-end
Class A amp rated at 40W into 8 ohms. Design 3 is a bipolar-OPS design
giving second harmonic distortion less than 0.0001%. Design 12 is for
a MOSFET OPS amp with MOSFET-based reliability and a THD of 0.0038%. The author's writing style is conversational, laced with humour, and easy
to read. Also, this book cannot be read --- it has to be studied. Each
sentence in this book potentially carries a new idea or insight, which may
not be re-visited subsequently. The first time I encountered Kernighan
and Ritchie's "The C Programming Language," I remember feeling that _all_
essential concepts about C (a tough programming language for the beginner)
were stated explicitly in that slim book, if only the reader would read,
think, and absorb _each_ sentence. This book almost
reaches the same levels of richness of content. Where the book ends, the author's personal interaction begins. Over the
last few months, I've asked dozens of questions to the author on email,
and have been rewarded with insightful and friendly replies each
time. This enormously helps in giving the reader confidence to try his
hand at the designs. Is this the "perfect" book on audio power amplifiers? Are there flaws?
I'll be nit-picking, but here goes: 1. There are typographical errors in circuit diagrams. They do detract
from the smooth study of the (fairly involved) material. Two Q4's
occur in Figure 4.8a, on page 85, in the very first chapter attempting
any circuit analysis. 2. I would have liked sections which would start with transistor
characteristics and device selection, and then synthesize an input
stage, a VA stage and an OPS from the ground up. In other words,
this book alone is not enough for me to start with an assortment
of transistors and passive components and synthesize my own current
mirror or fully complementary input stage or emitter-follower OPS, for
instance. To be fair, many places do discuss the rationale behind the
value of passive components, but not always, and for a novice like me,
not enough. I'd have liked a Chapter 10 twice its current length. 3. I would have liked a list of substitutes for the transistors the
author uses in his designs. Not all of them are easy to find,
specially where I live. All in all, I find this a five-star book, and a must for any amateur or
professional amplifier designer or constructor's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Built one of the circuits and it works great!
Review: Not having played with electronic in five years I was more than a little scared about building my own amp. After reading the book and then actually contacting Mr Slone to clarify some questions I had, I built one of his circuits. It sounds great and it sounds much better than the $3000 amp that I was looking at buying.
Rating: 
Summary: A comprehensive, resourceful guide for making audio amps
Review: Overall, I find this book to be an excellent resource. It covers everything from power supply design to output stages. In addition, it intelligently attempts to cover all aspects of power amplifiers, including different approaches and topologies. One thing that is particularly pleasing about the way Slone covers this topic is that he discusses it intellegently, and scientificly. I found the section where he debunks audio myths to be of particular interest. Most importantly though, the author adds his experience into the book, by including rules of thumb, and the "really" important yet subtle details that come only with experience. However, from a technical standpoint, this book is probably not for everyone. I've had an introductory course in EE (and will take my fundamentals course next year), and can understand most of what the author is saying. However, some topics seem heady, and I will probably not attempt to really read into those until after my fundamentals course. But I would say that if you have a good understanding of EE, this book should be no problem for you. However, if you don't (like me :), don't despair either, as there's really only a few chapters in the book that would be difficult. There's still a lot of material that one can understand with only a basic education in electronics. But, in any case, I am definetly keeping this book with me, because anything that I need to know about building amplifiers is most likely going to be in there.
Rating:
Summary: Factual, Clear, Satisfying
Review: Sloan delivers authoritative guidance in building quality high-current transistor amplifiers. This is not a step-by-step set of instructions, as one would expect with an kit. Its loaded with practical information for anyone with at least a basic knowledge electronics who wants to better understand audio amplifiers.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book on building your own audio amp.
Review: The author explains what is really good audio power amplifier in scientific point of view in first three chapters. The information and experiences you can learn from this book are very helpful to know what is truth and what is myth when reading so many articles in audio forums and magazines. This knowledge is very useful not only for people who want to build and upgrade your own amps but also for people who want to buy audio amps. The other chapters go into the circuit design, operation and construction of audio amps. Following the projects in this book, you can build your own power amps with good to excellent performance in low cost. The author sells many electronic components you may need when constructing your amps and I bought some devices from him. He also answered me many questions in detail about the amp circuit and construction by e-mail when I built my own amp by myself. Anyway, for now, I have my own audio power amp with excellent performance. With the excellent speakers I bought I feel almost all of my CDs become much more wonderful than before.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the Best
Review: This book comprises so many good features that I do not know how to start telling.I found it the best book I have ever read.If you are an electrical engineer or know nothing about electronics it is however useful for you.
I think hardly a Hi-Fi Amplifier could be costructed without reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good primer for class-B power amp design, BUT...
Review: This book covers most of the topics needed to sucessfully design and build a conventional transistor power amplifier. While the reading is technical in nature, it is kept to a level suitable for the majority of electronics amateurs. In this respect, it is a decent book. HOWEVER, if you are truly serious about power amplifier design, and technically inclined, this book falls short of these glowing reviews. Years ago, I read the work of Douglas Self, presented in a series of articles entitled "Distortion in Power Amplifiers", and published in Electronics World and Wireless World magazine 1993-1994. Sloan's book is just a poor regurgitation of the original articles by Doug Self. So if you have the technical inclination, and want to really understand the material well, do yourself a favour and skip this book. The original articles by D. Self are far more insightful. What's more, they are now available, along with a wealth of other good articles, in a single compilation entitled "Self on Audio" ISBN 0-7506-4765-5. Self also has another book, "Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook", which I have not read. WARNING: the content of this book is extremely opinionated! What's more, these opinions are generally veiled behind a facade of "objectivity", lending them false authority. Some people may like Mr. Slone's strong stance, but I find it closed-minded and counter productive. It took me many years to learn that absolute objectivity does not exist in the world of Audio, admirable as the goal may be. Mr. Slone has a tendancy to make highly opinionated or misleading statements, cleverly worded and presented as FACT. Even D. Self suffers the same affliction, though to a lesser degree. For the amateur who has not yet the design experience to distinguish the opinions from genuine engineering objectivity, this is bound to lead to "tunnel vision", which I find highly objectionable. It closes a lot of doors and avenues for exploration which are an important component of the well rounded experience which is the hallmark of a true Master audio designer. Sloan is good, but clearly not a Master. If you want better technical explanations, with less opinion sharing, get the REAL goods, and buy Douglas Self's book instead. And if you do buy this book, or any other for that matter, always remember to remain open minded!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent DIY guide to building a power amp.
Review: This book is an excellent manual for someone who wants to build a power amplifier. If you have experience building electronics you could set out building any of the designs after one read through the book. The 12 designs presented cover applications from musical instrument amps to home and professional audio. General principles of amps are covered with many insights and opinions from the author, however few proofs or evidence of these assertions are provided and it is left to the reader to follow up on the theory and mathematics. Details and guidelines for physical construction are also presented, making this an all-in-one manual for building an amp.
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