Book Recommendations for Beginner

[jeffmoore17]

Hello guys. I am new here and have been reading the forums for a few weeks now. I am about to embark on my first ever DIY loudspeaker project and would like to get a couple of book recommendations.

I am an experienced and expert woodworker, and also a longtime audiophile, but don't know beans about speaker design, especially the crossover aspect of the project. If you could, please recommend to me a couple of books to get me started.

For what it's worth, for my first project, I am considering building a speaker along the lines of the Tyler Acoustics Taylo Reference Monitor, in fact, I plan on using those exact drivers.

Any other recommendations are truly welcome and appreciated.

[sdclc126]

One of the most common responses I've seen on this forum regarding your question is to recommend against attempting to design a speaker from scratch as a beginner. You'll find the majority here recommend that you build a kit or established design first (and maybe second, third and forth), before attempting your very own design. It's a huge undertaking and takes lots of experience and resources to get right.

Having said that, and to answer your question, the book most often recommended is Dickason's "The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook." You can find it at such vendors as www.partsexpress.com, and the 6th edition is still on sale at www.madisound.com for just eleven bucks.

[Slanski62]

I'm in the same boat as you. I bought The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. While I'm sure it's a fantastic reference, I found it to be way over my beginner's head. I hope this anti-recommendation will help you narrow down your list.

Cheers

[anatech]

Hi jeffmoore17,
There are many designs floating around. Many commercial designs use boxes that are too small. Bearing that in mind, buy drivers that you can get specs for.

The Weems book is good too.

Now, give the books a good read and I'm sure that after you've done some reading you can build a good speaker. Maybe not perfect (what is?), but better than most at anywhere close to the money you've spent. Enjoy building them and learn with each one.

-Chris

[augerpro]

I thought Speaker Building 201 was an excellent first book lay out the basics.

[ppfred]

I agree that The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook is not for beginners.
You can't go wrong with "Speaker Buiilding 201" by Ray Alden. It is comprehensive and well written with eleven different projects, enough to wet anyone's appetite.
It is available from audioXpress & amazon.com for about $30
The ISBN # is 1882580451

[noodle_snacks]

I have both speaker building 201 and Vance Dickasons Book, the former is probably better for an absolute beginer (having a few projects to build), but i found neither book had enough information on crossover design to really help you, its one of those things where some measurement equipment, and plenty of educated trial and error is required to get good results. Good websites such as zaph audio give quite detailed information on why certain crossover topologies were chosen, For your first design i'd suggest not spending lots on drivers, and going with a combination that has been used elsewhere, so people can provide assistance.

[psych&sound]

For the beginner with minimal highschool math and science, the Weems and Alden books are probably best - and basic test equipment is very helpful (e.g.: DMM, LCR, SPL.)
With College math and science, and a sincere desire to get good at this, the Dickason and D'Appolito books are much better - a PC based measurement/simulation system is very desireable.

For the expert to be: Earl Geddes, John Eargle, F. Alton Everest, JAES.

As a wood working expert, you may want to find a design expert (most don't have skills, space, and/or tools to build really nice enclosures) and collaborate.