I'm a longtime audio gear-head, but I am also a librarian at a design school, and for the first time, have a work related question.
There has been a speaker design project at the school for the last couple of years and I would like to buy some books for the students on how to design them. They design the speakers currently for looks of a desktop system and I am not sure if they even sound good, but I would like them to design it so it will.
Also, I would like to find some good books on simple diy audio project related to amps and preamps as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?
These students don't have time to dive into electrical engineering so it would have to explained in a simple way.
Thanks!!
There has been a speaker design project at the school for the last couple of years and I would like to buy some books for the students on how to design them. They design the speakers currently for looks of a desktop system and I am not sure if they even sound good, but I would like them to design it so it will.
Also, I would like to find some good books on simple diy audio project related to amps and preamps as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?
These students don't have time to dive into electrical engineering so it would have to explained in a simple way.
Thanks!!
The various David Weems books are IMHO the best written basic texts. Dickason assumes prior knowledge, and Alden is not as well written. It could be argued that all these books are obsolescent.
+1
Yeah, unfortunately, the internet has writ 'books for dummies' and 'up to the minute' broad spectrum textbooks obsolete, so for beginners, Weems is pretty much it.
GM
Yeah, unfortunately, the internet has writ 'books for dummies' and 'up to the minute' broad spectrum textbooks obsolete, so for beginners, Weems is pretty much it.
GM
Books by David Weems and Ray Alden are often hailed by beginners. If you buy these, I wouldn't pay more than about $10. Weems gives some cookbook formulas, but the designs he produces in his book almost never follow them, which is confusing and never explained. I've only leafed through an Alden book (can be obtained at Radio Shack).
If the students have had high school math (I can't imagine what other prior knowledge is needed) I would recommend the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 7th Edition Book . This at least gives all the standard cookbook tools for design. Although I might pick a few nits with some of its methodology, I haven't read it since the 5th edition...
A book I've never read is John Murphy's Intro to Loudspeaker Design: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Loudspeaker-Design-John-Murphy/dp/0966377346 I like the table of contents, but can't see enough of the book on preview to be able to recommend it.
Most of these books can be checked out from the library, which is what I would truly recommend 😉
If the students have had high school math (I can't imagine what other prior knowledge is needed) I would recommend the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook. Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 7th Edition Book . This at least gives all the standard cookbook tools for design. Although I might pick a few nits with some of its methodology, I haven't read it since the 5th edition...
A book I've never read is John Murphy's Intro to Loudspeaker Design: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Loudspeaker-Design-John-Murphy/dp/0966377346 I like the table of contents, but can't see enough of the book on preview to be able to recommend it.
Most of these books can be checked out from the library, which is what I would truly recommend 😉
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Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will order both the Weems book and the Loudspeaker Design book.
I want to get something that explains the principles of how everything works and how the individual components affect the others and how you make it and what you use with them. I would like them to have a better understanding beyond how they look.
Thanks again
I want to get something that explains the principles of how everything works and how the individual components affect the others and how you make it and what you use with them. I would like them to have a better understanding beyond how they look.
Thanks again
Hi,
Does anyone have any pdfs to share? The AES Loudspeaker Anthologies or Testing Loudspeakers by Joseph D'Appolito perhaps? I'm a high school teacher and I need to prepare a reference list of materials for students.
Does anyone have any pdfs to share? The AES Loudspeaker Anthologies or Testing Loudspeakers by Joseph D'Appolito perhaps? I'm a high school teacher and I need to prepare a reference list of materials for students.
Google is your friend. Well, possibly not your friend, but functional:
Mike MacLeod the ultimate loudspeaker design - Google Search
Mike MacLeod crossovers with free speadsheet and workbook - Google Search
Both of the aforementioned eBooks by Mike MacLeod appear to be listed on Apple Books, Kobo and Barns & Noble.
Sharing pdfs of texts currently under national and international copyright would be illegal, although it is possible your high school may subscribe to certain publishers for fair-use online access to a variety of texts or journals. The universities I've lectured at do so via Athens / Shibboleth for example. Probably a little expensive for a high school, but variations exist. Your librarian would have further information about any such memberships, so I'd recommend you contact them. Sometimes such things overlooked if not regularly used.
Mike MacLeod the ultimate loudspeaker design - Google Search
Mike MacLeod crossovers with free speadsheet and workbook - Google Search
Both of the aforementioned eBooks by Mike MacLeod appear to be listed on Apple Books, Kobo and Barns & Noble.
Sharing pdfs of texts currently under national and international copyright would be illegal, although it is possible your high school may subscribe to certain publishers for fair-use online access to a variety of texts or journals. The universities I've lectured at do so via Athens / Shibboleth for example. Probably a little expensive for a high school, but variations exist. Your librarian would have further information about any such memberships, so I'd recommend you contact them. Sometimes such things overlooked if not regularly used.
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I have most of the books on LS design. I would not recommend the 1st 2, Dickason is a good ref (but as said some shortcomings). I use Murphy’s SE for modeling, have likely read his book but it does not stand out in my head, but i suspect it is good.
dave
Looks like one i have not seen.
The reference on the title to TQWP makes me cautious. It has been clearly shown that a Voigt Horn like this is greatly enhanced with mass loading (ie an ML-Voigt), if his is a “traditional” design you would be better to spend the money on a coffee and muffin.
But the reference to XO design brings this up:
XOs are not easy to design, and with the massie improvements in the last coupled decades with single driver FR boxes suggest that these kinds of boxes can produce better overall sound than by spending the same budget on a single driver instead of spreading it over midbass/tweeter/XO.
The same kinds of boxes apply, so Dickason is still a decent reference, and there are a “zillion” well thot out designs on this forum.
dave
Bill has done a superb job of collecting and archiving a huge number of relevant historical documents and has written a few good “papers” himself.
I learned a lot from him in my early days (but in some things have advanced further). I initially hooked up with him because he was building many of the Radford TLs being sold in Calgary.
Thanx for the other link, looks like it is worthwhile browsing thru.
dave
A pre-T/S one that helped me a lot, though mainly posting it for finding web archived books, etc.: How To Build Speaker Enclosures By Alexix Badmaieff & Don Davis : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
For institutional use: Wayback Machine
GM
For institutional use: Wayback Machine
GM