High-end audio without all the hoop-la!


Before getting into my review of Randy's book I think it would be fair
to mention that since my first reviews of his textbooks almost 3 years
ago Randy and I have become good friends. Having visited him several
times at his home I can honestly state that this man is beyond
reproach as an electrical engineer and professional writer. His wife
also seems to think very highly him as well. :-) The idea that any of
his power amplifier designs where copied, borrowed or stolen is
totally absurd. Because he worked as a process engineer for Dupont he
designed "new" circuits on a regular basis that were more complicated
than any piece of home audio equipment you might find. Because he is
also a musician I can assure you he does in fact have an "ear".
Finally, to refer to this author or any other as a "nerd" and calling
his or her book "stinky" is very childish behavior. I hope that Amazon
will review postings of this nature and put them in their proper place
which in this case is the "recycle bin."
As I mentioned in my previous reviews of Randy's other textbooks, he
has a easy to read writing style and this book is no different. I
especially liked the chapters on power supplies and heat sinks. The
power supply chapter makes it easy to determine component values in
designing a power supply for a given application whether it be
regulated or non-regulated. He plainly discusses the pros and cons of
the different types of power supplies. The chapter on heat sinks
allows you to take any piece of heat sink material and determine it's
c/w rating for a given application. For those of you wanting to design
an amplifier circuit he discusses in depth the input, VA and output
stages. Different amplifier classes are also discussed and explained.
Overall I found this book quite informative and would recommend it to
the novice as well as the expert.