Doug Self was first published in Wireless World in 1975, he knew PB and publishes some PB papers sent to him on his own website
https://linearaudio.net/books/2219
It's on Amazon iirc.
Edit: https://www.amazon.nl/Baxandall-Self-Audio-Power-Classic/dp/9490929034/ref=sr_1_1
Jan
It's on Amazon iirc.
Edit: https://www.amazon.nl/Baxandall-Self-Audio-Power-Classic/dp/9490929034/ref=sr_1_1
Jan
That depends, a good written NDA can do a lot or a provisional patent before talking to investors.
In the US, its possible self-patent at pretty low cost. IIRC in that case the patent examiner is required to create a claim for you in addition to any claims you thought to make. You probably need to buy a book on the subject, such as those sold by Nolo publishing, but if you can follow the directions yourself then costs can be kept low.
https://www.nolo.com/search/products?query=patent
That said, most exceptionally good audio design is not necessarily well suited for patenting. Mostly it seems to involve using existing ideas in some optimal-for-the-purpose way. That's probably in large part because audio is a pretty mature field. Most of the easy to figure out good ideas are already known. Patents tend to by more plentiful in new fields where the low-hanging-fruit ideas have not yet been fully explored. That said, there are still new ideas being put forward in specialist areas such as data converter technology.
https://www.nolo.com/search/products?query=patent
That said, most exceptionally good audio design is not necessarily well suited for patenting. Mostly it seems to involve using existing ideas in some optimal-for-the-purpose way. That's probably in large part because audio is a pretty mature field. Most of the easy to figure out good ideas are already known. Patents tend to by more plentiful in new fields where the low-hanging-fruit ideas have not yet been fully explored. That said, there are still new ideas being put forward in specialist areas such as data converter technology.
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I did sign three NDA's in 2015, and one in 2017, the only times I had to do it, but the information by itself was hardly sensitive....Half of it was already published anonymously...so nothing is guaranteed.I remember after we made an amplifier by simplifying an existing model from the company's portfolio, cause we only had to make an existing model smaller and cheaper to manufacture by half, then add the digital part that was partly covered by ess and xmos by their respective NDA'S anyway, that I found a cheaper and more functional version in the third edition of The Art of electronics after we already got paid . I only paid 60 pounds for that book..pity I didn't read it before that project 🙂 Luckily the buyer was endorsed by a big known company in the high end market and they had enough money to not even care . So I assume I could've just copied that circuit with a very small mod cause nobody was even aware there's all the information outhere and my schematic either passed the patenting phase or simply nobody bothered to patent it.You have a pretty big chance to see your designs sold on ali express within 3 months if it becomes successful anyway and High end audio is usually about big prices surrounding secrecy until it's no more a secret...There are too many products outhere so that anyone would even bother to see if you copied anyone or not. If I'd be into making analogue power amplifiers I'd only need to copy an existing successful expired patent of the 80's to 2000 cause they all expired in 2020.Most successful bussinesses are done by selling old ideas wrapped in a new package.Integrating existing technologies that you're already licensed to use by their sellers is an even better sport.You pay 5 bucks to Analog Devices to buy the use of an OPA2132 with the application they provide 🙂 Why would I make new discrete op amps for 80 bucks when I can sell the use of three opa2132 in parallel??
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Unfortunately most of the information I am personally interested is found in datasheets that were never released for the public .I'd for one need to see the datasheet for njm2068 SD, njm4556SD and CX20187.And I'm interested too in the internal schematic of cx20188...and I can't pay a dime!
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Actually both sections of opa2132 in parallel are cheaper and good enough 😉 V6 guys you don't need yo pay me for that, but I can redisign for you the V6 with two opa132 on those parallel pcb's cause I got you like stupidly taller electronics that goes litterally through the roof and launch it encased in a blue resin with 24 k gold writing on it .Gold on blue looks much better than on red or orange, but the already doomed competition didn't even bother to hire a designer with minimum esthetic knowledge...or at least let a woman from the HR department express her opinions on the looks of those monstruous discrete op amps.They probably don't have an HR department anyway cause they couldn't afford one... I ONLY ask for a premium price of only 60 bucks per piece 🙂 And for an additional 10 bucks I can make them 3 times taller also although for just 60 bucks I can reduce them at 1/3rd the size of V6.
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Most don't care about Hi Fi. They can do without it. Me, I don't go to concerts. I listen to the great sound coming from my Hi Fi. This thread tells you all you need to know about the state of Hi Fi. Long live Hi Fi because we are in the minority!
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/what-is-the-average-non-audiophile-music-system.1120045/
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/what-is-the-average-non-audiophile-music-system.1120045/
A friend of mine who lives in the USA for 19 years never had any separate audio system...his main hobby is paragliding...he bought recently some 300 bucks Hifiman headphones and a smaller than half of his palm portable brick having a dac plus hpa from FIIO for 120 bucks and he's absolutely in rave of what he has now compared to what he listened for two decades...He moved his wife and kids back to Romania as everything is cheaper here, food much healthier, his parents allowed him to use two big houses that in the US would cost at least 1 million bucks each and he runs his US bussiness from here he just needs to anwer the phone from 16 PM to 24 PM.When he's in the US he earns about 10k$ per month, being here he gets about 4k$, but he doesn't need to pay about 1500 monthly rent , children schooling and medical insurance, car gas for 100 miles daily, or food with a high content of sugars and oils....Here medical insurance is about 50 bucks/month, in the US , the cheapest one is 250 bucks...
People need to have a life first...
Besides in Chicago he'd need to pay for a plane for his paragliding hobby while here we have lots of mountains to glide from and over 🙂
People need to have a life first...
Besides in Chicago he'd need to pay for a plane for his paragliding hobby while here we have lots of mountains to glide from and over 🙂
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The original question is in my view a very good one. It does though raise questions of it's own.
Is the item/design to be compared with others ? (If not, it's a somewhat subjective issue in my view).
Objectivity/confidence/humility are some of the most difficult skills to learn, I'm sure we have all seen great projects fail, or poor ones succeed for non performance /cost/technical, related reasons. As engineers, this can be galling and frustrating. It seems often to be related to marketing or a "right place right time" influence. This does not in many ways have any relationship with the design's quality itself.
Will third parties judge the quality/suitability of the item/design? If so, the 'Way to market/gain' is almost as difficult as the original design one, as complexity seems to grow exponentially the more people are involved, and speaking personally, it's sometimes awkward for 'technical's' to fully engage with the 'non technical'.
Sorry to say, for the lone or small team design products, these 'downstream' issues are wider ranging and more complex to deal with in my view. A goal is to get quick external validation and build upon that.
Is the item/design to be compared with others ? (If not, it's a somewhat subjective issue in my view).
Objectivity/confidence/humility are some of the most difficult skills to learn, I'm sure we have all seen great projects fail, or poor ones succeed for non performance /cost/technical, related reasons. As engineers, this can be galling and frustrating. It seems often to be related to marketing or a "right place right time" influence. This does not in many ways have any relationship with the design's quality itself.
Will third parties judge the quality/suitability of the item/design? If so, the 'Way to market/gain' is almost as difficult as the original design one, as complexity seems to grow exponentially the more people are involved, and speaking personally, it's sometimes awkward for 'technical's' to fully engage with the 'non technical'.
Sorry to say, for the lone or small team design products, these 'downstream' issues are wider ranging and more complex to deal with in my view. A goal is to get quick external validation and build upon that.
Which begs the question: if so, what does Hi Fi mean?
Fidelity to what ????
FWIW at least once a year, often multiple times, I assist to concert at Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires Opera house, or listen to a Symphonic orchestra, live of course, etc.
Just sit there, close yur eyes and listen: NO repeat NO emphatically NO reproduction System sounds like that, even remotely.
I can enjoy them very much, in fact with purely Studio created Music there is no "original" to begin with, but they are like a Xerox photocopy places besides a paper printed picture: yes, you can "recognize" faces, images ... not much more.
Closest I ever found is when original sound source is very modest, so easier to reach: a Jazz trio or a String Quartet, not much beyond.
Or when we simplify the chain to its bare minimum: good Binaural recording, played through good headphones.
There’s “high enough” fidelity when the music is clean, clear, life*like* and enjoyable. Is it true to the original? No, but close enough that I’m not willing to chase “more”. The bar is a lot higher than any TV sound bar and “subwoofer”, but not obsessive as to require $40k a pair speakers. But the speakers are 10 cubic feet each so most people say “Not in my living room.” The results of peer review of most of my stuff is that it’s just too big.
Then there is the kind of “high fidelity” where you are trying to actually re-create the concert/rave experience. Being true to the original is more about energy density than frequency response or polar pattern. This requires speakers and amps that most people don’t approve of, and distance from neighbors. And a good reason to drag all that gear out - I haven’t done it since before Covid. And is often quite the opposite from the “high enough” fidelity used for everyday listening in terms of “fidelity”.
I chase both kinds of “fidelity” and realized long ago that it takes completely separate equipment. The system that meets sort of half way in the middle can get to intimate night club levels cleanly in a 20x20 shop space - a pair of 2x15 3 ways driven by 200 watt tube mono blocks. It wont do a Metallica concert -not even close, but more modest levels of Led Zep or Floyd is fine - or sound as good on symphonic as the living room system does. And it does sound exactly like a girl with a guitar in a bar would sound because other than the tubes its pretty much the same rig.
Then there is the kind of “high fidelity” where you are trying to actually re-create the concert/rave experience. Being true to the original is more about energy density than frequency response or polar pattern. This requires speakers and amps that most people don’t approve of, and distance from neighbors. And a good reason to drag all that gear out - I haven’t done it since before Covid. And is often quite the opposite from the “high enough” fidelity used for everyday listening in terms of “fidelity”.
I chase both kinds of “fidelity” and realized long ago that it takes completely separate equipment. The system that meets sort of half way in the middle can get to intimate night club levels cleanly in a 20x20 shop space - a pair of 2x15 3 ways driven by 200 watt tube mono blocks. It wont do a Metallica concert -not even close, but more modest levels of Led Zep or Floyd is fine - or sound as good on symphonic as the living room system does. And it does sound exactly like a girl with a guitar in a bar would sound because other than the tubes its pretty much the same rig.
My two cents...
I expect an audio system to reproduce sounds so naturally that the listener can (at least for a moment) suspend the knowledge that he is listening to a recording. This applies for sound levels appropriate for the home.
Most speakers don't have a chance of doing this because they get the power response wrong (power radiated into the room does not match the direct sound). I own planars because they come closer to the ideal.
I expect electronics to contribute nothing. My electronics really do contribute nothing. That is my answer to the OP's question.
With those fixed, the weak link is the recording. Most recordings are not made in a manner where they could ever sound real, but the ones that do can be surprising. For example, I have recordings with nature sounds (birds, rain, distant thunder) so realistic that I feel an urge to look out the window.
A long-ago girlfriend once had her drum kit in the living room. Nothing that came out of the speakers I had at the time sounded like real drums. I would love to repeat that experiment with my present system (I suspect it is close in timber but lacks punch).
Ed
I expect an audio system to reproduce sounds so naturally that the listener can (at least for a moment) suspend the knowledge that he is listening to a recording. This applies for sound levels appropriate for the home.
Most speakers don't have a chance of doing this because they get the power response wrong (power radiated into the room does not match the direct sound). I own planars because they come closer to the ideal.
I expect electronics to contribute nothing. My electronics really do contribute nothing. That is my answer to the OP's question.
With those fixed, the weak link is the recording. Most recordings are not made in a manner where they could ever sound real, but the ones that do can be surprising. For example, I have recordings with nature sounds (birds, rain, distant thunder) so realistic that I feel an urge to look out the window.
A long-ago girlfriend once had her drum kit in the living room. Nothing that came out of the speakers I had at the time sounded like real drums. I would love to repeat that experiment with my present system (I suspect it is close in timber but lacks punch).
Ed
I don't know why your question hooked me.. I am just a hobbyist, tinkering with audio stuff since a few years, let me answer from this perspective. The first "Designer" I came across was "Boozhoundlabs" who offered a kit for a "very simple JFET phono preamp". At that time I was impressed by his documentation. After years of digging into JFET phono preamps I learned that "Boozhoundlabs" was not really a professional electronics designer but a merchant who made up a very simple board design of a not-very-refined phono stage and offered it as a kit. But if you search for this kit you can still find reference to his "works" all over the internet, with bunches of people claiming 'his' phono preamp to be the very best. Next designer that I explored was Salas. But because his approach to a phono preamp was much more professional, it was much harder for me as a beginner to follow this development thread. But I ordered a Salas phono DIY kit later and I am very happy about what I learned and how this phono stage plays.
Some other designers that contributed to the equipment in my living room are Mark Johnson, Randall Thatcher and of course Nelson Pass. All of them provided useful and simple-enough designs / PCB layouts that helped me build my DIY audio system. What they all have in common is their focus on DIY friendly documentation.
Taking a quick look at the threads you started I wasn't able to find a recent thread about one of your designs. What kind of stuff are you doing? Where can we find your works?
Regards, Addi
Recordings that mostly are ALL artificial to begin with!!
I have been playing music all my life, have been to many concerts, small (living room) as well as big venues.
Not a single one sounded great and with the ridiculous amount of "detail" that recordings have.
Details that are quite literally not even in the instruments themselves.
But very often the acoustics are really really bad.
The ONLY exception was the perfect and ideal position in a very well done concert hall.
Also, you just have to be lucky about the good or bad ears of how the master mix was being done.
Plus what speakers those were mixed on.
Some (especially these days) are being just tailored to sound nice, NOT to sound realistic.
Or you get music like certain acoustic music like flamenco (for example) from the 70-90s, that all seem to have a weird scope in the EQ.
Absolutely beautiful music, but with some of those albums, I created my own additional EQ, because the recordings just don't sound so nice at all.
If you want more feedback, generally that can be achieved with more open loop gain.
Good feedback needs appropriate gain and phase margin.
(Who says engineers don't have a sense of humour? No one? I'll get my coat...)
Good feedback needs appropriate gain and phase margin.
(Who says engineers don't have a sense of humour? No one? I'll get my coat...)
