Those Who Have Read Weems

[richie00boy]

What are the differences between Great Sound Speaker Manual and Designing, Building and Testing Your Own Speaker System? Which leans more towards the theoretical/design side?

I read Designing... years ago and would like to add a Weems book to my collection.

[Timn8ter]

Weems' book is a great introduction to DIY speaker building, however, it is dated and even contains erroneous information (TL design in particular). If you've passed the beginner stage I would move on to something more along the lines of Dickason's Cookbook. Another book that's attracted interest is Speaker Building 201.
http://www.audioxpress.com/bksprods/books/bkaa66.htm
If you want something more "heady" try a Geddes book.
http://www.audioxpress.com/bksprods/books/bkgl1.htm

[Ron E]

All of Weems' books are kind of versions of the same book with different projects. He wrote some for Radio Shack and some for TAB Books, IIRC. If you don't have one, it might be worth buying a recent copy - although there is probably a lot of overlap with the Alden book.

I think that the Dickason books are much better than Weems overall, but there are a lot more formulas in them.

[richie00boy]

Thanks both. I should have given more info. I've read the LDC several times over and would class myself as quite well into it. I read Designing... about 8-9 years ago and I thought it had a couple of good things in that LDC didn't and covers some things from a slightly different angle, which I thought might be useful to have in the library. I'm just curious as to the differences between the two Weems books mentioned really.

[MJK]

I have two of Weem's books and read them years ago. I think they are only so-so. One other book you might consider is :

Ray Alden's Speaker Building 210

http://www.audioxpress.com/bksprods/books/bkaa66.htm

I bought the earlier edition of this book and found his writing to be very clear and his explanations excellent. He understands loudspeaker design and he can explain it in a way that is very easy to grasp and understand. You don't need to be a math wiz to really learn from the earlier version of this book and I assume the same is true of this newer release. Highly recommended.

[kelticwizard]

I think Weems is the best.

Designing, Building and Testing is better than Great Sound for the fundamentals. I think Great Sound leans more toward projects with only a modicum of explanation, Designing, Building and Testing is more explanation of the basics.

Weems used to be against Transmission Lines, favored Bass Reflex. This was before Martin J. King's software. I do not know how much Weems has updated his Transmission Line section in more recent editions.

[richie00boy]

Thanks kelticwizard. I like Weems too.

The Weems Designing... book was the second book I read on speaker design and it has stuck in my mind as basically setting me off on the road I'm now following. I found it a great common sense introduction to speaker design with enough theory to whet my appetite.

[John Hope]

Richie00boy:

I bought Weem's book (Designing, building, blah blah) in 1978 and have built a number of successful Closed Box and Ported Box speaker systems with the help of this book.

If you're just starting in speaker building, it a great BASIC DIY book. The formulae given for ported enclosures etc work and can be verified in practice. The explanations are simple

As for stuff like transmission lines, loaded horns, ribbon tweeters, modern crossover design and other advanced topics, Weems is not the book to use.


Cheers

JFH

[richie00boy]

Thanks, but as I wrote above I'm not a beginner I was just looking to buy a Weems book partly out of nostalgia as it was Designing... that got me started properly, and partly as I remember there were a couple of little tidbits in there. Just adding to the collection