IC Op-Amp Cookbook (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Valuable reference for amateur and professional
Review: Excellect description of op amps and application circuits. Gets detailed enough to keep you out of trouble, but not so detailed that you can't follow what's going on. The books main weakness is that it does not cover active filter design.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, LOUSEY printing
Review: I'm holding in my hand a copy of the third edition of Mr. Jung's book, the "IC Op-Amp Cookbook." It just arrived from Amazon.

As an earlier reviewer has pointed out, the printing quality is very poor, particularly in the diagrams. Characters printed in smaller font sizes have a tendency to fill in with ink, so that digits like "8" or letters like "d" tend to be nothing but little blobs. ("Vcc" tends to look like "V**".) The manufacturers' datasheets in the back of the book are nearly unreadable. ("1*00 -- is that number 1500, 1600, 1900 ?") Even in parts of the book printed in larger type, the effect of the edge-bleed is to make reading a painful experience.

So, I am returning the book to Amazon. Based on Mr. Lopez's comments this is clearly not an isolated case of a bad print run. I don't believe (as Mr. Jung implies) that the Lopez review is based on some kind of illegal photocopy.

I've owned both of the previous editions of Mr. Jung's fine book on op amps, and I've very disappointed in what the publisher has done to the third edition. Prentice Hall, shame on you.


Rating:
Summary: Author's response to Jerry Lopez
Review: Mr. Lopez says:

The information is there, but, the print is hardly readable, it is blurred and appears to be a copy of a copy and then reprinted.
A shame. I would suggest not purchasing this book due to the above issue with the print quality.

I say:

Gee, lots of comments occur to me on this. Why didn't he exchange the book? Contact the publisher? Contact the author?

What he describes is similar to what one sees with a poor scanned copy, like the samples pages available here. They suit the purpose, but shouldn't be confused with the real thing. When I pick up a copy of the actual book in question (PH, CR 1997 ISBN 0-13-889601-1), I don't see at all what Lopez suggests is there. The text and graphics print is sharp and readable.

Could he have gotten a bogus copy somehow?

Walt Jung

Rating:
Summary: IC Op-Amp cookbook - hard to read (paperback)
Review: The information is there, but, the print is hardly readable, it is blurred and appears to be a copy of a copy and then reprinted.
A shame. I would suggest not purchasing this book due to the above issue with the print quality.