[Discovery]

Any recommendations on good resources for audio amplifier designs? Web pages are preferred, but books are fine too. I am not really interested in designing a headphone amplifier anytime soon, but would like to better understand some of the tradeoffs involved with different designs (BJT versus FET versus opamps-valves/tubes are really outside my scope of interest at this point).

I have looked over the projects at HeadWize and other sites, but most seem to focus on that particular design and do not have much generic information. At least one of my EE textbooks from college covers amplifier designs, but not as it relates to audio (sound quality, driving different impedance cans, etc.) From reading this forum for awhile, it appears that there are some good DIY amplifier designs (META42, CORDA, CMOY, etc.), but I would like to better understand some of the tradeoffs of the particular designs that are out there.

Thanks

 

[zzz]

I am yet to find a *good* book on audio amplifier design (I have a couple written by heavily opinionated mofos though), but electronics books that have a few thick chapters on amplifiers in general would probably help a lot. There's really nothing magical about audio amplifiers after all: both cmoy and meta42 use circuits studied in freshman courses in any EE program.

Headwize library has at least one somewhat general article on [opamp] amplifier design: http://headwize.powerpill.org/projec...=opamp_prj.htm . You can also search the archives here and there, as I'm sure this or similar questions were asked and answered before.

 

[kwkarth]

One book you might find of interest:
"The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook"
80 High Performance Audio Electronics Projects
By G. Randy Slone
McGraw Hill / Tab Electronics
ISBN# 0-07-137929-0

Happy Constructing!!

 

[Jan Meier]

Dear Discovery,

You might want to take a look at the sites below. They learned me a lot

http://www.sound.au.com/

http://www.dself.demon.co.uk/ampins.htm

Cheers,

Jan

 

[Rpell]

The following two books are excellent, although they are written from an objectivist ("the lower the distortion, the better the amplifier") point of view:

"Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook"
By Douglas Self (ISBN: 075064527X)

"High-Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual"
By G. Randy Slone (ISBN: 0071341196)

The sites that Jan Meier listed are excellent resources as well.

For a somewhat different perspective, I would highly recommend Nelson Pass' articles on amplifier design at http://www.passdiy.com/.

 

[Tomo]

Hello,

I personally think flipping thru specs for chips and transistors very useful. Sometimes, application examples can simply be used for audio amplifiers. (or even they are audio amplifiers in certain cases.)

If you can read Japanese, or if you have patience enough to slash thru unknown language, you can try this one.

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/evo/amp/

This is perhaps the most extensive library which is dedicated solely for audio amplifier designs. This library include designs both for tubes and solid states. Note some articles contain English paragraphs. The webmaster is appearently attempting to translate the library.

Note that these are mostly speaker amplifiers. But then headphone amplifier designs are basically the same with different impedance and power needs. It, however, lacks any simple designs.

Nonetheless schematics are universal format so you should at least be able to see the schematics.

Tomo

 

[Discovery]

Thanks for all of the useful information.

I appreciate the help.

 

[aeberbach]

I like "Inside Tube Amps" by Dan Torres. Even if you're not an EE (like I'm not) this is easy. It's written with guitarists in mind, and they're only slightly smarter than drummers!

http://www.eventcom.net/tubeamps

 

[ezkcdude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rpell /img/forum/go_quote.gif The following two books are excellent, although they are written from an objectivist ("the lower the distortion, the better the amplifier") point of view: "Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook" By Douglas Self (ISBN: 075064527X) "High-Power Audio Amplifier Construction Manual" By G. Randy Slone (ISBN: 0071341196) The sites that Jan Meier listed are excellent resources as well. For a somewhat different perspective, I would highly recommend Nelson Pass' articles on amplifier design at http://www.passdiy.com/.

Have any newer/better books come out on amplifier design since these two? From the reviews on Amazon, it seems that both are flawed in one way or another. It would be nice to have a solid-state amplifier design book designed from the ground up - first teaching about what BJT/FETs are and how they work - and then discussing low-level amplification, high-current designs, power regulation, etc. I get the feeling there just aren't any books that are this comprehensive.

 

[devin_mm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan Meier /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://www.dself.demon.co.uk/ampins.htm

Jan this link doesn't seem to work for me.

Edit: Nevermind I'm a moron.

 

[ezkcdude]

devin, this was a very old thread (from 2002), so I wouldn't be surprised if the links don't work anymore.

 

[devin_mm]

Hahaha I didn't even look at the first post date whoops.

 

[Kryosphinx]

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/elect...page.php?cat=1
Lots of amplifier circuit diagrams.