Small Signal Audio Design: 2nd edition

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2 Oct 2014

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Here is the Second Edition of my book on with audio small signal design, which is the amplification and control of audio in the analogue domain, where the operations are performed with op-amps or discrete transistors, usually working at a nominal level of 1 Volt or less. It is a unique collection of detailed information on small-signal audio, and has now been enlarged by 50%. All of the new material is wholly original and derived from my own researches; most of it has never been published before.

From any good/big bookshop, or via Taylor & Francis or Amazon. See links below:

750 pages

ISBN: 978-0-415-70974-3 Hardback

ISBN: 978-0-415-70973-6 Paperback

ISBN: 978-0-315-88537-7 ebook

Published by Focal Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis

Learn more about purchasing this book from:

The Taylor & Francis Site

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

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I try to make sure everything I write is wholly free from errors. I sometimes fail.
Typos and errors are listed here: Errata.
The first few chapters cover the principles of high-quality small-signal design, moving on to look closely at first hifi preamplifiers, and then mixing consoles. These two genres were chosen partly because they are of wide interest in themselves, but mainly because they use a large number of different functional blocks, with very little overlap between them. They cover a wide range of circuit functions that will be useful for all kinds of audio systems. You will find out how to adapt or design these building-blocks, and how to put them together to form a system. You should then be able to design pretty much anything in the small-signal audio field.

The summaries below have the new material highlighted in blue, to give an idea of the amount of new material that has been added.


	THE CHAPTERS: New chapters for the 2nd edition are shown in blue

Chapter   1: Basics
Chapter   2: Components
Chapter   3: Designing with discrete transistors
Chapter   4: Opamps and their properties
Chapter   5: Opamps for low voltages
Chapter   6: Filters
Chapter   7: Preamplifier architectures
Chapter   8: Moving-magnet inputs: levels & RIAA equalisation
Chapter   9: Moving-magnet inputs: archival & non-standard equalisation
Chapter 10: Moving-magnet inputs: discrete circuitry
Chapter 11: Moving-magnet inputs: noise & distortion
Chapter 12: Moving-coil disc inputs
Chapter 13: Volume-controls
Chapter 14: Balance controls
Chapter 15: Tone controls & equalisers
Chapter 16: Mixer architectures
Chapter 17: Microphone input amplifiers
Chapter 18: Line inputs
Chapter 19: Line outputs
Chapter 20: Headphone amplifiers
Chapter 21: Signal switching
Chapter 22: Mixer subsystems
Chapter 23: Level indication & metering
Chapter 24: Level control & special circuits
Chapter 25: Power supplies
Chapter 26: Interfacing with the digital domain



CONTENTS OF SAMPLE CHAPTER New topics for the 2nd edition are shown in blue

CHAPTER 8: MOVING-MAGNET INPUTS: LEVELS & RIAA EQUALISATION
Cartridge types
The vinyl medium
Spurious signals
Other problems with vinyl
Maximum signal levels on vinyl
Moving-Magnet cartridge sensitivities
Overload margins and amplifier limitations
Equalisation and its discontents
The unloved IEC Amendment
The "Neumann pole"
Opamp MM disc input stages
Calculating the RIAA equalisation components
Implementing RIAA equalisation
Implementing the IEC amendment
RIAA equalisation by cartridge loading
RIAA series-feedback network configurations
RIAA configurations compared for capacitor cost	
RIAA network optimisation: C1 as a single E6 capacitor
RIAA network optimisation: C1 as multiple 10nF capacitors
RIAA configurations compared for capacitor voltages
Equivalent RIAA configurations
RIAA components
RIAA component sensitivity: Configuration-A
RIAA component sensitivity: Configuration-C
Open-loop gain and RIAA accuracy
Switched-gain RIAA amplifiers
Shunt-feedback RIAA equalisation
Simulating inverse RIAA equalisation
Physical inverse RIAA equalisation
Passive and semi- passive RIAA equalisation
MM cartridge loading & frequency response
MM cartridge-preamplifier interaction
MM cartridge DC and AC coupling
Switched-gain flat stages
Subsonic filters
Ultrasonic filters
Combining subsonic and ultrasonic filters in one stage
Scratch filters
A practical MM amplifier: #1
A practical MM amplifier: #2


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