Any book recommendations?

Hi. Can anyone recommend a book for an ABSOLUTE beginner? I want to learn to build pre amps and eq boxes. Thanks.

None of the following are the easiest read but all are good in their own way. None are new so check your library system.

"The Art of Electronics" Horowitz & Hill
"Analog Circuit Design" or "The Art & Science of Audio Circuit Design" Jim Williams
"Troubleshooting Analog Circuits" Bob Pease (Robert A.)
"Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook" Douglas Self.  Doug designed some very nice recording consoles. He may have a newer book.
any thing by Walt Jung

Opamp applications by Walt Jung
Opamps for everyone

tremaines audio cyclopedia is inspiring and looks cool on the shelf

thank you guys

Speedskater said:

"The Art of Electronics" Horowitz & Hill
"Analog Circuit Design" or "The Art & Science of Audio Circuit Design" Jim Williams
"Troubleshooting Analog Circuits" Bob Pease (Robert A.)
"Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook" Douglas Self.  Doug designed some very nice recording consoles. He may have a newer book.
any thing by Walt Jung

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+1.

I'd recommend reading them in approximately that order, too.

Keep in mind that it's OK if you don't immediately understand everything you read. Everyone is different so there is no one universal 'best' approach, but I'd suggest something like:

- Read a chapter. Accept the material at face value, try not to go crazy when things don't make sense yet.
- Put the book down, sleep on it.
- Read the same chapter again. If there are examples, see if you 'get' them. If so, great; if not, no big deal.
- Put the book down, do something else altogether.
- Read the same chapter again. If the examples made sense to you, try some of the exercises. Have a cursory look at the next chapter.
- Do something else.
- Read the same chapter again. If you feel comfortable with the material, try to find a project here that use the techniques described in the material you've read and see if you can apply it. F'r example, if you've just studied the chapter on transistors in The Art of Electronics you could print out one of the simpler Discrete Op-Amp schematics here and see if you can pencil in the DC operating point.
- Lather, rinse, repeat.

If at any point you get seriously stuck just put the book away for a week or so, and get back to it later. Chances are that things make more sense the second time around. It's just like learning to play an instrument: try to be regular, but don't force yourself to take unrealistically big steps.

JD 'wax on, wax off' B.

EDIT: just re-read the thread, and I see that you wrote

Pleasurehead said:

I want to learn to build pre amps and eq boxes. Thanks.

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Strictly speaking to build them all you need is soldering skills, and a way to identify components (resistor color codes and the like). The books mentioned here are useful if you want to understand how preamps and EQ boxes work, how you could modify them to better suit your needs, how to fix them if they don't work (right) and ultimately how to design them from scratch.

I bought a french book called "Sono & Studio : équipement électronique sur mesure" by G. Haas, published by Publitronic - Elektor. Maybe this has been published in english...

Inside you'll find everything to build a mixing desk (preamps, EQs, compressors/limiters, different vu-meters, summing busses, aux sends and returns, measuring S/N, CMRR, etc...). All schematics are explained with words and sometimes a few formulas. Very easy to understand when you have very basic knowledges in electronics like me. Some nice non-purely-electronic basis about mixing desks too.

And also the pcbs for every schematics... Generally populated with quite easy-to-find and quite cheap parts.

I didn't build anything from that book yet so I only rely on elektor's reputation concerning the audio quality of those designs... Worth trying I guess

I found the Basic Electronics book published by the Navy way back when to be an excellent introduction to electronic components, their functions in a circuit, and basic design.  It's good basic theory presented in a clear and concise manner.  It'll give you a good foundation from which to expand your knowledge.

Cheers,
--
Don

Steve Dove's excellent series "designing a professional mixing console" was a great help for me when I started dabbling with audio electronics.

It's available to download (for free!) here and there - for example:  http://www.avensonaudio.com/tech/Steve-Dove-Console-Design.pdf

This is a unique series - it covers a lot of details particular to audio electronics in general and consoles in particular but in a very easy to read and understand.

Doug Self (former design engineer at Soundcraft) has a site with a lot of good info. http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/ampins/ampins.htm


C.

Ah thats great thank you all for taking the time to answer. Some good advice there. I might try an evening class or two as well. Cheers guys

I was thinking and "Old Colony Sound Lab" at "AudioXpress" has about very book of interest listed at one location.
Most of the books are available from many other vendors.

www.audioxpress.com/bksprods/books.htm

Add to the book list:

"The Joy of Audio Electronics"  Charles Hansen