High Performance Loudspeakers

Since the first publication of this title twenty years ago, Martin Colloms has worked to ensure that each successive edition has kept ahead of innovations occuring in high performance loudspeaker design. This fully revised and updated volume includes more new material than ever before. Colloms maps the increasing pace of technological change in the industry, which has been driven by new applications, materials and design techniques. A highly detailed technical coverage of every aspect of high performance loudspeaker design which now includes: Multi-media and Home Theatre, Dolby PRO-LOGIC (?), Dolby AC-3 THX, and multi-channel surround sound Short path, low order crossover network designs, audibility and control of loudspeaker distortion, digital active speakers and the system requirements of optimized digital filters Bending wave panel speaker technology (NXT) A unique non-partisan interpretation of manufacturers? technologies and claims Throughout the industry this book has justly won its reputation as the quintessential volume covering speaker design and analysis, both amongst audio engineers, equipment designers and students of audio engineering.

Provides a technology overview of what goes into a high performance loudspeaker and covers all the latest advances in the field The design of high performance loudspeakers requires a mix of developed skills in electroacoustics, high fidelity sound reproduction and subjective evaluation. Taking a designer’s view of the subject, this new edition of High Performance Loudspeakers, Seventh Edition provides a comprehensive, timely and practical knowledge base to aid the design of superior loudspeaker systems fit for purpose. It is updated throughout with the latest progress in research and technology, synthesis and analysis, digital signal processing incorporated products, automated production test systems and wireless compact designs. This Seventh Edition of the highly successful guide to the design and specifications of high quality loudspeakers and loudspeaker systems addresses the issue of where higher performance and sound quality is required and shows how the numerous considerations — including application, target price, size, aspiration and particular market — lead to a complex mix of design and engineering decisions. The book has also been substantially revised to reflect the many changes in the technology of loudspeakers and includes two brand new chapters — one covering ultra-compact systems and DSP integration, and the second providing details of a worked example of the loudspeaker systems design process. Offers a complete overview of the technology Thoroughly updated with new content to reflect the latest advances in the field while retaining the firm theoretical foundation of previous editions Presents a designer's point of view of the field, helping to equip both amateur enthusiasts and academically trained graduates with industry practice Covers all the newest developments in the field of high performance loudspeakers Offers a critical and objective approach to all subjects covered, rather than a simple spelling out of theory and facts Appeals to both amateur speaker builders as a source of ideas, and to professional speaker designers with an overview of competitive products and features Acknowledged industry-wide as the definitive work on speaker design and analysis, High Performance Loudspeakers, Seventh Edition is essential reading for audio engineers, speaker designers, equipment designers and students of acoustic engineering, electronics and electro-acoustics. It will also prove invaluable to students of electronics, broadcasting and recording techniques, but will also be of interest to authors and journalists in audio, and not least, amateur loudspeaker builders and enthusiasts.

Provides a technology overview of what goes into a high performance loudspeaker and covers all the latest advances in the field The design of high performance loudspeakers requires a mix of developed skills in electroacoustics, high fidelity sound reproduction and subjective evaluation. Taking a designer’s view of the subject, this new edition of High Performance Loudspeakers, Seventh Edition provides a comprehensive, timely and practical knowledge base to aid the design of superior loudspeaker systems fit for purpose. It is updated throughout with the latest progress in research and technology, synthesis and analysis, digital signal processing incorporated products, automated production test systems and wireless compact designs. This Seventh Edition of the highly successful guide to the design and specifications of high quality loudspeakers and loudspeaker systems addresses the issue of where higher performance and sound quality is required and shows how the numerous considerations — including application, target price, size, aspiration and particular market — lead to a complex mix of design and engineering decisions. The book has also been substantially revised to reflect the many changes in the technology of loudspeakers and includes two brand new chapters — one covering ultra-compact systems and DSP integration, and the second providing details of a worked example of the loudspeaker systems design process. Offers a complete overview of the technology Thoroughly updated with new content to reflect the latest advances in the field while retaining the firm theoretical foundation of previous editions Presents a designer's point of view of the field, helping to equip both amateur enthusiasts and academically trained graduates with industry practice Covers all the newest developments in the field of high performance loudspeakers Offers a critical and objective approach to all subjects covered, rather than a simple spelling out of theory and facts Appeals to both amateur speaker builders as a source of ideas, and to professional speaker designers with an overview of competitive products and features Acknowledged industry-wide as the definitive work on speaker design and analysis, High Performance Loudspeakers, Seventh Edition is essential reading for audio engineers, speaker designers, equipment designers and students of acoustic engineering, electronics and electro-acoustics. It will also prove invaluable to students of electronics, broadcasting and recording techniques, but will also be of interest to authors and journalists in audio, and not least, amateur loudspeaker builders and enthusiasts.

In 12 fact-filled chapters--covering everything from stereo to multichannel music to home theater--discover how to choose the best components for the money, how to match components fore the best sound, and how to set up and fine-tune a system for maximum performance.

Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms, Third Edition explains the physical and perceptual processes that are involved in sound reproduction and demonstrates how to use the processes to create high-quality listening experiences in stereo and multichannel formats. Understanding the principles of sound production is necessary to achieve the goals of sound reproduction in spaces ranging from recording control rooms and home listening rooms to large cinemas. This revision brings new science-based perspectives on the performance of loudspeakers, room acoustics, measurements and equalization, all of which need to be appropriately used to ensure the accurate delivery of music and movie sound tracks from creators to listeners. The robust website (www.routledge.com/cw/toole) is the perfect companion to this necessary resource.

A poet’s audio obsession, from collecting his earliest vinyl to his quest for the ideal vacuum tubes. A captivating book that “ingeniously mixes personal memoir with cultural history and offers us an indispensable guide for the search of acoustic truth” (Yunte Huang, author of Charlie Chan). Garrett Hongo’s passion for audio dates back to the Empire 398 turntable his father paired with a Dynakit tube amplifier in their modest tract home in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. But his adult quest begins in the CD-changer era, as he seeks out speakers and amps both powerful and refined enough to honor the top notes of the greatest opera sopranos. In recounting this search, he describes a journey of identity where meaning, fulfillment, and even liberation were often most available to him through music and its astonishingly varied delivery systems. Hongo writes about the sound of surf being his first music as a kid in Hawai‘i, about doo-wop and soul reaching out to him while growing up among Black and Asian classmates in L.A., about Rilke and Joni Mitchell as the twin poets of his adolescence, and about feeling the pulse of John Coltrane’s jazz and the rhythmic chords of Billy Joel’s piano from his car radio while driving the freeways as a young man trying to become a poet. Journeying further, he visits devoted collectors of decades-old audio gear as well as designers of the latest tube equipment, listens to sublime arias performed at La Scala, hears a ghostly lute at the grave of English Romantic poet John Keats in Rome, drinks in wisdom from blues musicians and a diversity of poetic elders while turning his ear toward the memory-rich strains of the music that has shaped him: Hawaiian steel guitar and canefield songs; Bach and the Band; Mingus, Puccini, and Duke Ellington. And in the decades-long process of perfecting his stereo setup, Hongo also discovers his own now-celebrated poetic voice.