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Summary: Essential reading for power amplifier designers
Review: A generally thorough analysis of a much-misunderstood topic. Many writers have produced books and articles on amplifier design, but only a few have explored the topic in a truly scientific fashion. Many writers instead adopt a "cookery" approach, some even citing "ingredients" as the key to a good design (e.g. special capacitors and resistors, silver wire etc.) but with no clear justification except their own (biased?) personal claims of superior sonic performance. As a professional electronics designer and at the same time an audiophile, I suspect many of these designers are using speculation to cover for their lack of clear understanding.Love him or hate him, Self at least avoids these sort of traps and, refreshingly, confines himself to demonstrable facts. Some of his comments will inevitably be ill-received by the subjective audio community, but his challenge is simple enough: if your approach sounds better, prove it. For example, he recommends we use blind listening tests under properly controlled conditions. Hopefully someone will rise to the challenge and perhaps subjective reviews will gain a better standing. Some of my design philosophies differ from Self's, and there is certainly no shortage of other opinions out there! But whether or not you end up agreeing 100% with Mr. Self doesn't really matter. Either way, the book remains an excellent tutorial in the nitty gritty of power amplifier design. In particular I found the breakdown of the amplifier into its key stages,and the discussion of how these stages interact, most illuminating. Study of this book will help amplifier designers of all persuasions in understanding and optimising their work, and I throughly recommend it.
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Summary: If you're into building audio power amps, you NEED this bk.
Review: Doug Self's AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER DESIGN HANDBOOK is required reading for anyone who likes to build or tinker with audio power amps. He goes after the sources of amplifier distortion with a vengence and gives the reader his version of a "blameless" amplifier with parts values and device type numbers so that if you choose to try to duplicate his design for a one-off, you can do so. His book is heavily illustrated, (although some schematics were badly smeared in my copy) with lots of graphs and charts showing his reasons for his design. Even if you aren't interested in building an amp, Self's book will help you understand what goes into designing a low distortion power amp. A must have for any audio do-it-your-selfer!
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Summary: Bipolar Transistor Power Amplifier Bible
Review: I can't imagine a better book about push-pull, audio bipolar power amplifiers. Self covers virtually every possible configuration with circuits, notes, simulations and measurements. This book includes an excellent chapter on power, heat and reliability based on many years of design , manufacturing and field service. He is truly an expert in all aspects of this amplifier topology. He doesn't hide his disdain for MOSFETS, single-ended amplifiers and other "subjectivist" high-end concerns. Contrary to the findings of many others in this field, Self finds Total Harmonic Distortion the only measurement of amplifier quality that matters. He isn't convincing to this reviewer. A "must have" book for anyone designing audio power amplifiers.
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Summary: Recommended reading for anyone who wants to design an amp
Review: This book is not a "cookbook" approach, but presents well researched and tested approaches. As such it is guaranteed to offend some people (evaluation of design changes and improvements is scientific, as opposed to subjective). Self uses the book to take a shot at much of the patently mumbo-jumbo in high end HiFi, which is entertaining! The book features the "blameless" amplifier and the circuit is given, but it would have been nice for the PCB layout (or a Gerber file..) to be included so that some quick experimentation can be done. The only minus (apart from that) is that there some areas not treated: Nested Differential Feeback loops being one. A very unique book, collecting together a lot of very valuable information.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended reading for anyone who wants to design an amp
Review: This book is not a "cookbook" approach, but presents well researched and tested approaches. As such it is guaranteed to offend some people (evaluation of design changes and improvements is scientific, as opposed to subjective). Self uses the book to take a shot at much of the patently mumbo-jumbo in high end HiFi, which is entertaining! The book features the "blameless" amplifier and the circuit is given, but it would have been nice for the PCB layout (or a Gerber file..) to be included so that some quick experimentation can be done. The only minus (apart from that) is that there some areas not treated: Nested Differential Feeback loops being one. A very unique book, collecting together a lot of very valuable information.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended reading for anyone who wants to design an amp
Review: This book is not a "cookbook" approach, but presents well researched and tested approaches. As such it is guaranteed to offend some people (evaluation of design changes and improvements is scientific, as opposed to subjective). Self uses the book to take a shot at much of the patently mumbo-jumbo in high end HiFi, which is entertaining! The book features the "blameless" amplifier and the circuit is given, but it would have been nice for the PCB layout (or a Gerber file..) to be included so that some quick experimentation can be done. The only minus (apart from that) is that there some areas not treated: Nested Differential Feeback loops being one. A very unique book, collecting together a lot of very valuable information.
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Summary: Good and Bad Depending on Your Needs
Review: This is a good book if you're interested in very low distortion amplifier design. If you believe, as many do, that small amounts of THD are inaudible (i.e. < .1%) and sometimes the "cure" is worse than the "disease", this is NOT the book for you. Self spends much of the book chasing THD from .01% down to .004%. When he's not pursuing vanishing low THD, he's generally discrediting the audiophile community (which he refers to as "subjectivists"). There is some good info here, some of which I've not seen anywhere else, but it's hardly comprehensive. For example, there's no discussion of how to select semiconductors, design high-power output stages (with many parallel devices) or regulate driver stage power supplies. Self also briefly (and I think unfairly) dismisses power MOSFETs calling them a poor choice for any design. Self is from the UK so be prepared for typical British phrases and spelling. There are only a handful of books on this topic, and each one has something to offer, but if you're interested in high-end (audiophile) designs, prepare to be offended and disappointed with this one.
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Summary: An excellent book on transistor audio power amplifier design
Review: This is an excellent book. It looks at the classic Class B transistor audio amplifier and studies in-depth all possible sources of distortion. The author is a professional audio designer and this shows in his approach. A design for a 'blameless' 50W amp is presented. Very well written and strongly recommended for those who really want to understand how to design audiophile/hi-fi standard amplifiers.
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