Book Review: Bob Cordell’s Designing Audio Circuits and Systems

Designing Audio Circuits and Systems is a surprising effort by the author and one that deserves careful exploration. A true compendium of lessons in audio that reflects Bob Cordell’s long-standing track record of designing audio equipment as well as advanced test equipment. The vast content contained in this book makes it an essential reference for anyone designing audio circuits, including excellent “hands-on” material for anyone starting to experiment in audio electronics.

Whether it is power amplifiers, vinyl reproduction preamplifiers, active crossover filters or, as in this case, small-signal circuits for a very wide range of applications, Douglas Self is one of those authors who consistently has produced reference works about technical audio. You may think that as a fourth edition, it would just be a refinement on the three editions that went before it but Self always adds new material and new insights to make it worthwhile to get this new book.

Designing Audio Circuits and Systems will have its 1st Edition published in April 2024, and advanced copies are being sent to reviewers, which includes audioXpress. Bob Cordell, wrote this new book as a comprehensive guide to audio circuits and systems design, beginning with analog audio basics, all the way through to in-depth design techniques for home and professional audio preamps, amplifiers, filters, equalizers, and even headphone amplifiers and DACs.

We know many of our readers will enjoy this extended book review by our technical editor, Jan Didden, about Bob Cordell’s Designing Audio Power Amplifiers, 2nd Edition. When Cordell published his long-awaited first edition of Audio Power Amplifier Design, it was hailed as a significant addition on the subject. Reactions of readers made it clear that Cordell hit his mark, and in this article, Didden explains why the long-awaited second edition is an essential buy. This review was originally published in audioXpress, October 2019.

Our longtime columnist Richard Honeycutt shares his insights on Geoff Hill’s recently released book, Loudspeaker Modelling and Design: A Practical Introduction, which demonstrates modern software and hardware being applied to the processes behind loudspeaker design and modeling. Learn more about this indispensable work, now available from publisher Routledge / Focal Press. This article was originally published in audioxpress, February 2019.