Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense


Basically this whole book is the effort of a hayseed electronics vendor
to peddle his own kits of plain vanilla grade stereo equipment. With
skilled electronic assemblers in America getting $8.30/hr (and equally
skilled Asians getting that per day!) and components in hobby
quantities bringing a 50 to 500 percent premium over what commercial
buyers pay even in 100 piece quantities, he claims a hobbyist can
better commercial grade designs in his hobby workshop cheaper.

This reminds me of Fred Willard's character in the excellent film, "A
Mighty Wind". One of his catchphrases-"I Don't Think So!"-applies here.


These amp designs, apparently mostly from Douglas Self's books, are
nothing special or unique: as someone else pointed out, if they were,
there would be dozens of amplifiers of "Slone type" sold ,just as many
companies made "Williamson style" amplifiers, without compensating DTN
Williamson, during the early postwar hi-fi era.

About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
(and gross margin) or not at all. You can get an education, perhaps,
but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that, and
besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand: the websites of
High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment manufacturers list
continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
designers.

"Paul" wrote in news:1103518483.213394.192520
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense

Yet another schizo review by "Paul", who apparently has
an obsession of some sort. I can't tell if he's actually
read the book for content, or skimmed it and decided the
author's attitudes conflicted with his, and isn't about to
let anyone forget it.

I found the book useful as I did Self's. It's a jumping-off
point for geeks like me who find some fascination with
audio electronics design. Slone's not God (Leach is .
There are at least a million ways to design and build
audio amplifiers, some of which are better than most. He
covers only part of that vast range of design, of course.

Slone's skepticism of audio cognescenti is understandable;
they argue perceptions without understanding technology, he designs
what they cannot and of course they bite the hand that feeds
them. I find his attitudes honest and refreshing.

And the arguments go on, ad infinitum. Buy the book, read
it and see if it's a useful reference to go on the shelf
with your other references, give it away to someone deserving,
or drop it off at a used bookstore for a dime on a dollar.

At any rate, make it YOUR decision.

--Damon, who needs to learn more MOSFET design. Maybe

In rec.audio.tech Damon Hill damon1six1 wrote:
"Paul" wrote in news:1103518483.213394.192520
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense

Yet another schizo review by "Paul", who apparently has
an obsession of some sort.

The reason why "Paul" seems schizophreniac is that he is quoting,
without attribution, from the reviews (by several persons, who
disagree with each other) at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...ws/0071379290/

For instance this review was written by "Bob Lockett "Lockett,
Stockett and Barrel" (Shawnee Mission, Kansas)".

--
http://www.mat.uc.pt/~rps/

..pt is Portugal| `Whom the gods love die young'-Menander (342-292 BC)
Europe | Villeneuve 50-82, Toivonen 56-86, Senna 60-94

first -- Self isn't a fan of MOSFET's, Randy is a proponent.

secondly -- if you have analog design skills the folks at TI, Nat Semi,
Linear Tech, ADI and Maxim would like to talk with you.

third -- Slone is out front with his "life ethic", and a lot of
"red-state-o-phobes" don't like it.

"Paul" wrote in message
oups.com...
Twaddle, stuff, and nonsense


Basically this whole book is the effort of a hayseed electronics vendor
to peddle his own kits of plain vanilla grade stereo equipment. With
skilled electronic assemblers in America getting $8.30/hr (and equally
skilled Asians getting that per day!) and components in hobby
quantities bringing a 50 to 500 percent premium over what commercial
buyers pay even in 100 piece quantities, he claims a hobbyist can
better commercial grade designs in his hobby workshop cheaper.

This reminds me of Fred Willard's character in the excellent film, "A
Mighty Wind". One of his catchphrases-"I Don't Think So!"-applies here.


These amp designs, apparently mostly from Douglas Self's books, are
nothing special or unique: as someone else pointed out, if they were,
there would be dozens of amplifiers of "Slone type" sold ,just as many
companies made "Williamson style" amplifiers, without compensating DTN
Williamson, during the early postwar hi-fi era.

About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
(and gross margin) or not at all. You can get an education, perhaps,
but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that, and
besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand: the websites of
High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment manufacturers list
continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
designers.

"Paul" wrote in message
oups.com

About the only justification for homebrewing audio amps is to get a
design offered commercially only as a "high end" piece at huge expense
(and gross margin) or not at all.

I suspect that most people who build amps just do it for the fun.

You can get an education, perhaps,
but a breadboard project of a couple watts can give you that,

Building low-powered amps is more fun. Building high-powered amps is risker,
and potentially far more expensive.

and besides, audio amp design isn't exactly in big demand:

It's a solved problem for the most part.

the websites of High End, pro, and mainstream audio equipment
manufacturers list
continuing job vacancies for DSP software engineers but never analog
designers.

Which makes a point.