SS amp theory

[Brion55]

What book(s), websites and such would you suggest for learning SS audio power amp theory? I am well versed in general electronics and have worked with audio stuff for years, but never had a good reason or inclination to learn. Now I have plenty of time on my hands and would like to learn.

Thanks in advance.

[Stocker]

Others will be better prepared to answer such a question I'm sure, but I got a great deal of information reading Douglas Self's description of his Blameless class B amplifier, found without too much trouble on his website, via Google.

[andy_c]

The two biggies are:

Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook by Douglas Self

High Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual by Randy Slone

They are good complements of each other, as the first is oriented toward theory, the second toward practical considerations.

[jcx]

look for op amp circuit explainations as well, gain stages and compensation are very similar - national.com has classic design/app notes by widlar

you might want to download the free Lt SwitcherCad III Spice
http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp

Spice simulation is a good learning tool to play with topologies and poke at the internals in ways not readily done with physical amps

[Greg Erskine]

Originally posted by andy_c
The two biggies are:

Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook by Douglas Self

High Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual by Randy Slone

They are good complements of each other, as the first is oriented toward theory, the second toward practical considerations.

I recommend these two books as well.

I found Professor Leach's description of his amp from "go to woe" excellent.

http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~mleach/lowtim/

And I found Cambie's articles on the ETI480 helpful.

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~cambie/

[Fritzell]

I want to do the same thing as you actually. I have ordered the "Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook" by Douglas Self (haven't recieved it yet tho), and im hoping to learn as much as possible so after i hopefully can build a complete amplifier and understanding every bit of it. That also help you do more efficient error searching if something goes wrong

[Leolabs]

Dont forget this guy too:John Curl

[vmike]

Another good source of transistor amp theory would be the 1960's printings of the GE Transistor Manual. The best of these would probably be the one published in 64, it has schematics and theory from which almost all of the since built solid state amps were derived. The 64 printing has a mostly black cover, the other good one is the 61 printing with a mostly white cover.

Old books can be your friends.

mike

[jpnascim]

Originally posted by Brion55
What book(s), websites and such would you suggest for learning SS audio power amp theory? I am well versed in general electronics and have worked with audio stuff for years, but never had a good reason or inclination to learn. Now I have plenty of time on my hands and would like to learn.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Brion55,

I have "High Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual" from Randy Slone and I confirm most of what has been said here by others. The book in general is a very nice reference. It is more towards practical issues of builing a nice amplifier (as andy_c pointed), it shows what are good topologies, what are not, gives a lot of simulation graphs, how stages interact with each other and etc. It also has ready designs for you to use and PCB board lay-outs too. It is all you need to build an amplifier and get it working. His writing style is also nice.

But attention, in my opinion, if you are a beginner in electronics you may not extract most of it (although it is ok to read). It is full of affirmatives that may sound mystical to the beginner (e.g. it won't explain how does a diff pair work in details), if you start looking for proofs in text you may not be satisifed. Sometimes I also found that Slone did not choose the best way to explain a circuit - he seems to think in a different way. You may need to complement with an Electronics Text book (e.g. Art of Electronics).

But I must say that this book is very, very good. It is rich, dense. And best of all, it gives you a chance to build an amplifier that works and sounds really good. (I built one myself)

Best regards,

João Pedro

[name773]

for a quickish intro, check out Rod Elliot's amplifier basics and amplifier design articles. all of his articles can be found here, and in particular the current sources/sinks/mirrors article is helpful when reading the other two.