Linear Audio Volume 11 is the 12th issue of a series of printed bookzines dedicated to technical audio and perception. Compiled by Jan Didden, also audioXpress technical editor, Linear Audio is a different kind of resource, conceived as a vehicle for publishing technical information, developments and the state of the art of audio from a technical perspective, but also as an outlet for authors to write about their accomplishments and projects. Volume 11 is now available and opens with an editorial by audioXpress’ João Martins reflecting on the life and work of Oliver Sacks.
The tutorial section is headed by another interesting article by Gary Galo, exploring in depth RIAA Equalization for Displacement-Sensitive Phono Cartridges, inspired by the revival of interest in strain-gauge phono cartridges and the claims made for them regarding playback equalization. It is followed by another interesting tutorial where Hans Polak is Digging Deeper into Error Correction and trades views with Giovanni Stochino in an effort to get to the bottom or error correction in Error correction in Power Amplifiers – implementation issues, which includes his reply to correspondence by Hans Polak. Finally, Michael Kiwanuka researched Slewing in Audio Amplifiers of the Thompson Topology and goes to the root cause of slewing asymmetry.
Every issue of Linear Audio also includes multiple articles on Circuit Design. This edition includes an interesting article by Dimitri Danyuk, on how to design a high-performance single transconductance gain-stage preamp to match a low impedance level control. Douglas Self follows with his design of The Devinyliser, a device for removing low frequency anti-phase material from signals originating on vinyl disks, suppressing rumble without attenuating wanted bass information.
The next tutorial is by Guido Tent, explaining “Cathode followers: Love‘m or Hate‘m”, while Eugene Dvoskin comes up with Low-cost Superregs - design, performance and stability, showing that you don’t necessarily need to use expensive parts for great performance. The last tutorial is by Burkhard Vogel, which, not content with leaving ends loose, is back with The Glowing NoiseMaker Reloaded - a very thorough and interesting reading, describing the production of small-signal audio triode gain stages.
This edition of Linear Audio also delves on Room Acoustics, with an article where Hannes Allmaier warns us not to put speakers in rooms & what happens if you do - giving much needed insight into what really makes your system sound as it does. The CoFusor — Quick! Call the patent office! – is Bill Waslo’s contribution with simple and low-cost means to better sound in our listening rooms.
The Way I see it… column in this edition features Stan Curtis, Taking a Balanced View on how to feed your equipment with the cleanest mains power.
And no issue of Linear Audio is complete without Book reviews. In this edition, Jean/Pierre Vanderreydt reviewed the 3rd edition of Douglas Self’s Self on Audio, and found that even with overlap in other books, it still is a worthwhile addition to your library. Stuart Yaniger reviewed Menno Vanderveen’s Trans Tube Amplifiers on transconductance amplifiers which got him thinking about a few alternative approaches.
As always, another issue packed with creative, innovative and thought-provoking articles!
Linear Audio is a printed publication, published in a schedule determined by available content of the required quality level. A publication of minimum two issues per year (usually in April and September) of about 200 pages of technical content. Jan Didden calls it a “bookzine” and every volume is available online through www.linearaudio.net
