Idiots guide to understanding electrical flow through a set of hifi components

[anthonyTD]

Still have my copy too! Great book.

I learnt from the Radio Designer's Handbook by Langford-Smith

PS, please excuse my latest Avatar, seems i have been interfered with, hopefully, normal service will resume shortly.

[Arkless Electronics]

"The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill as alway been put up as the electronic designers Bibble. It is not , but it is a good reference book but the real action and learning can only come from learning on the job and with experience. It like another set books by another self publishing Guru which I will not mention, but I had to clean the mess some of his designs have left behind.

K.I.S.S. is and always will be best from me. Learn from real humans doing the job not some academic who thinks he understands all.


Thing like these sites:-

http://www.satsleuth.com/Schematics.aspx?Category=Misc

http://sound.westhost.com/projects.htm

There are many many more.

I'd say that "The Art of Electronics" is the best general book on electronics I've come across in a lifetime of electronics. Bible? as close as it gets for solid state as is "The Radiotron Designers handbook" for valves. Yes experience counts for much more still but by it's nature only comes with erm... experience! (and lots of time). Manufacturer's application notes are one of the best sources of real meaty solid info but do assume a basic knowledge of electronics is already present.

[pbroido]

Ok so you guys have only proved what I probably already knew .... no shortcut from A to Z so I may as well enjoy the journey.

Thanks for the references and web links - ill start with links and have decided to chicken out and step gently into this. So rather than buy a Tisbury (easy way out) or scour the net for basic passive parts, I have found a DIY passive an "enthusiast" has put together with a single input and output. I am buying it for £40 and ill pull it apart and add a switch and a second input. This will be project 1. Lets see if I catch the bug.

Soldering iron at the ready, I guess I better buy a multimeter and some plasters. Anyone able to recommend a site for switches, rca inputs, some decent wire

P.S. My wife just walked past me and thinks Im nuts.
P.P.S. Project 2 will probably be Linear PSU's or should I stay away from electricity for a while?

[sq225917]

Colin, I take it you're referring to Doug Self... It would help if you are specific rather than essentially bad mouthing anyone who ever published a circuit book.


One might not like his approach, all measurement and no listening. But if one genuinely wants high fidelity there's little to add to his Oeuvre.

[Colin Wonfor]

I learnt from the Radio Designer's Handbook by Langford-Smith (4th Ed 1953!) which I still use as a reference today and for loudspeakers, I started off with Gilbert Briggs book, the Loudspeaker and the later 2nd Edition. It may be over half a century old but the basics are all there. There's more modern publications such as The Art of Electronics and many other textbooks (take your pick, most introductory ones will teach you the basics) plus loads of websites (a few mentioned above). As Col mentions, they need to be supplemented by experience in order to learn more fully.

Hi Paul, I got a hell of lot of good techy books over the years from the "Million Barn Book Store" near Bath and a few from a lovely shop in Lyme Regis.
Another good source is www.archive.org a free site.

[Colin Wonfor]

After 45 years of faffing about I have just bought Morgan Jones's "Valve Amplifiers". And now I have a headache! Although I have made stuff for years, my technical knowledge is inadequate, but my brain seems to have fossilised. And my memory is definitely going!
Learning as you go is all very well, but there comes a point when some theory is necessary. Unfortunately.

Oh so so true, thank god for calculators I lost my slide rule year ago.
And Window XL is a great help, or Mathcad.

[Colin Wonfor]

Wrong Simon, Doug is not who a refer to, so please get facts before you lay a label on me please.

But maybe you just did oh dear.

And to bad mouthing anybody that published would mean me, my Dad and lots of my friends and my daughter so again no facts whoops.

[sq225917]

That's why I was asking for clarification Colin. It seemed an odd call...

[Reffc]

Forgot to add, to play around with circuit simulations, I can recommend LT Spice as well. I use LT spice IV and it is powerful enough to "build" any amplifier circuit that you are to mention for simulation purposes. It would be the second step after learning the basics of what is required for a specific circuit and how each type of component works, and where to use them.

[anthonyTD]

Quite agree.
Most of the stuff i have designed over the years, using various software simulation, like Spice etc, has saved me a lot of headache, components, and time, but you still need a basic understanding of components, and their function in a circuit.

Forgot to add, to play around with circuit simulations, I can recommend LT Spice as well. I use LT spice IV and it is powerful enough to "build" any amplifier circuit that you are to mention for simulation purposes. It would be the second step after learning the basics of what is required for a specific circuit and how each type of component works, and where to use them.