Loudspeaker design cookbook over my head

[Fmaker]

Hi first off:
I am Richard. I have been lurking in these forums for a while now, trying to learn as much as possible and I have taken a lot of the suggestions and tried to put them to use. The biggest one of all is reading the Loudspeaker Design cookbook. First off, I am not illiterate, I am just really sarting out at the beginning of this hobby so to speak. My first speaker that I am now very slowly(due to just having my 4th back suggery just 3 weeks ago) working on is a sonosub with a Tempest driver in it. I am using WinISD and Eminence speaker design software just because I wanted to get a few different perspectives so to speak.
Anyway, I am wondering if anyone can recomemd a book that would prepare me for The Loudspeaker Cookbook, I am having trouble with such things as "finding delta for PRS and V t_ test volume equal tp V b, given cubic meters". I really don't know what that means in any language.
I am usually fast at picking stuff up, I taught myself to build computers and them overclock them and then make and customize the cases and make peltier, water cooled overclocked computers and finally go to the end of what I wanted to learn with that hobby. Although speaker building is, it seems; technical. It also seems to be very much artwork. And I would like to go there in this hobby as well.
So, me... No electronics training. Very bad at math, I am dislexic when it comes to numbers. Makes it very hard to do math. So, Xover design is really gong to be hard for me.. but I will figure out a way somehow, I always do.
Anyway, (sorry to be so long winded) As always. In advance, thanks for any help that any of you can suggest.

[SY]

You put your finger on it- your problem is math. So all the introductory speaker books in the world won't help. For some years, I taught physics and chemistry at the University level and I can't ever recall having a student who couldn't grasp the concepts- the problems were always that they lacked fluidity with math. Instead of grinding their neurons against the concepts of thermodynamics, they were in brainlock about algebra or calculus.

I'd suggest locking yourself up for a few months with a good book or two on algebra. Work ALL the problems- there's no substitute for that. It's drudgery, sure, but you can't play Beethoven without being fluid at playing scales. If you have to think about where your fingers go, you can't think about the music. When you can solve quadratic equation with no effort, when just looking at an expression suggests a way that it can be factored, then you're ready for LDC and more.

Best of luck; you come off as a bright young guy and I'd like to see you succeed.

[halojoy]

Loudspeaker Cookbook was my first.
I managed to get a hang of it, little by little.
It was not too difficult for me.

I remeber there is an alternative.
I think it was planet10 or somebody
who suggested it.

I will try to search on cookbook,
to find that thread.

/halo - out searchin www.diyaudio.com - be right back
------------------------------------------------

I am back. Here is that last book-thread
Loudspeaker Design Reading

Here is a search on books in Loudspeakers forum
Louspeaker books - 12 hits

halo- no more searching - for today

[Ryder]

Math is good.

Basic electricity is a must too!

Books like the Cookbook take familiarity with concepts like phase, induction, capacitance, impedance, resonance, Q, magnetism, ect for granted.

A speaker in a lot of ways is just a linear motor.

I suggest you pick up a book on basic electricity if you haven ot already done so, in which case, Nevermind! . You will learn some basic math along the way and it won't be so dry.

1) Bureau of Navy Personnel, Basic Electricity. An introduction to electricity

2) Van Valkenburgh, Nooger & Neville: Basic Electricity.

Online and quite good resources for free.

Ray Dall, Electronics Theory.com:
http://www.electronicstheory.com/html/e101-1.htm

Tony R. Kuphaldt, Lessons in Electric Circuits (LEC): http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits

Graham Knott’s Basic Electronics (Cambridge Regional College) ! http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.knott/index1.htm

If you want more. A university course like SY why not try MIT

*Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Intro to Electronics:

Change the number in “Lec1” part of the address. Use 1-13 for thirteen chapters from MIT.

http://web.mit.edu/6.071/www/lectures/lec1.pdf

Chapters include 1) Basic Concepts in Electricity, 2) DC Circuit Analysis I, 3) DC Circuit Analysis II , Nodal analysis, power transfer, 4) DC Circuit Analysis III, Thevenin and Norton equivalents, 5) Capacitance, 6) Inductance, 7) AC Sinusoidal Steady State, 9) Time Domain v Frequency Domain, 10) Resonance, 11) Fourier Series and Transform, 12) Information Concepts and the Uncertainty Principal, 13) Diodes

or, Boston U. Physics dept. Intro to Electronics.
http://physics.bu.edu/py106/Notes.html

That should get you going.

Cheers
Craig Ryder

[Pjotr]

Hi Richard,

The loudspeaker Design Cookbook is a book written in such a way that you can only understand what it is all about if you already know what it is all about. IMHO not a book to start with.

Better books and much more readable to start are the books of David B. Weems. These are well written, starting at the beginning and with a good sense of humour. Have a look at “Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual” by Weems.

But if you are an absolute beginner you are probably better of by a well-designed complete DIY package from a speaker DIY supplier. You get at least a good feeling what it is all about by building the thing and it saves you a lot of frustrations by giving you at least a proper sounding speaker. Speaker building should be fun by it self, although hard working is part of the game.

[planet10]

The Basic & Advanced speaker building books (by Alden?) from Radio Shack might give you some of the background you need...but you will still have to be able to grasp the math -- or get into vintage full-range systems, then you can just say, if its a box, bigger is better (has to be solid too) and an open baffle is better but needs to be even bigger... then the math boils down to bigger

dave

[kelticwizard]

A very excellent book that gives you an overview of the concepts is:
"Designing, Building, and Testing Loudspeakers", by David B. Weems.

It goes easy on the math, but you will have a firm idea of what is going on with loudspeaker design after you read it.

About the only fault with the book, at least with the edition that was around 20 years ago, was that he was not terribly enthusiastic about Transmission Line loudspeakers. Now that various equations have appeared since then to clear away much of the mystery, he has changed his opinion of them in later articles he has written. Whether he has gone back and updated his book, I don't know. I do know that there is a brand new, updated edition out.

But everything else about the book is clear and to the point. This is no mere collection of projects-the theory is there for you.

You will have a real knowledge of the basics of loudspeaker design after reading this.

If you don't want to buy it, the local library will either have it or get it for you in InterLibrary Loan. InterLibrary Loan means that any book that any library has in the USA is available to any other library in the USA as soon as they ask for it on the system. Nifty, huh?

[kelticwizard]

I saw Pjotr's reply only after I posted. I am glad he is an admirer of Weems' books, as I am.

I have read both of Weems' books, and while Great Sound Stereo Speaker Maual covers much the same ground as "Designing, Building, Testing...", I really do think that "Designing, Building...." covers the ground better. The "Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual" gives you a reduced amount of attention to the theory, and more attention on the projects. "Designing, Building, Testing..." spends more time on the theory, and less on the projects. Once you read the book, of course, you can design your own projects.

[halojoy]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...627832-8389451

1. Introduction to Loudspeaker Design
by John L. Murphy

2. Loudspeaker Design Cookbook
by Vance Dickason

3. Designing, Building, and Testing Your Own Speaker System with Projects
by David B. Weems

4. Great Sound Stereo Speaker Manual
by David B. Weems, G. R. Koonce

5. Theory and design of loudspeaker enclosures
by J. E. Benson

6. The Audiophile Loudspeaker Anyone Can Build: Anyone Can Build
by Gene Healy

7. Electrostatic Loudspeaker Design Cookbook
by Roger Sanders

8. Loudspeaker Recipes: Book 1: Four Two-Way Systems
by Vance Dickason

9. Designing, Building and Testing Your Own Speaker System
by David B. Weems

10. Building Stereo Speakers: Plans, Parts, Tolls, Techniques
by Andy J. Wells

11. How to Build Your Own Stereo Speakers: Construction Applications, Circuits and Characteristics
by Robert Gordon Middleton

12. Designing, building & testing your own speaker system -- with projects
by David B. Weems

13. Electrostatic Loudspeaker: Design and Construction
by Ronald Wagner

15. Theory & Design of Loudspeaker Enclosures
by J. E. Benson
16. How to Design, Build and Test Complete Speaker Systems
by David B Weems

17. How to Build Your Own Stereo Speakers
by Christopher Robin

18. How to design, build, & test complete speaker systems
by David B. Weems

19. How to Design and Build Loudspeaker and Listening Enclosures
by Carolyn Davis, Don Davis

21. Advanced Speaker Designs for the Hobbyist & Technician
by Ray Alden

22. 21 Hi-Fi Stereo Speaker Cabinets You Can Build
by Christopher. Robin

23. Speaker Builders Loudspeaker Projects No 1: 19 Top Quality Designs You Can Build
by Audio Amateur Mazagine Staff
---------------------------------------------------------------------

What is hard to know wjich of these books are the right
for you. And which one to start with?

/halo - does not know

[Pjotr]

Thanks Kelticwizard mentioning “Designing Building…” This is the book to start. Both books are somewhat supplementing each other.

When you are starting to build speakers it is always wise to start simple. The math for calculating a closed box is rather simple. Crossovers are even for the most experienced sometimes still a nightmare to get them right. The advantage of building a good ready designed DIY box is that it saves you the hassle to get the x-over right.

Here in Europe we have 2 excellent DIY speaker magazines “Klang & Ton” and “HifiHobby”. Both in German. No math, but a wealth of good designs.