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.

GaN Systems, the GaN (gallium nitride) power transistor specialist, announced an updated version of its Class-D audio amplifier evaluation kit, allowing evaluation for high-efficiency audio reference designs. Evolving from the original evaluation kit introduced in 2020, GaN Systems released the GeN2 amplifier and companion switched-mode power supply reference design today, shrinking the size and increasing its capabilities for Class-D audio designs.

High quality audio is now a “must have” across all segments from professional to home and portable applications. Class-D audio systems with GaN (gallium nitride) are not only smaller and lighter but provide better sound quality and were one of the technology trends in 2020. And because it’s that time of year to make predictions for the coming year, GaN Systems, a leading company in this space, published a forecast of 2021, identifying key trends for the technology.

Microchip Technology announced availability of its updated MPLAB Mindi analog simulation software, now including more models and features. The circuit simulation tool now supports more than 300 Microchip analog products, with SIMetrix’s enhanced SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) and SIMPLIS Technologies’ SIMPLIS (SIMulation of Piecewise LInear Systems) simulation environments.

Genelec announced major upgrades that deliver a completely new level of performance to some of its most popular studio monitors and compact speakers. Six of Genelec’s most popular models are about to become more powerful, lighter in weight and even greener, as a number of major upgrades are rolled out, including a switch to more efficient and better-quality Class D amplification.