Re: Audio Cyclopedia - A highly recommended book



Iain Churches wrote:

One often sees references on this group to RDH, but very
few people seem to know about the excellent book entitled
Audio Cyclopedia, by Howard Tremaine, who was a designer
at McCurdy Industries, a Canadian company manufacturing
studio and broadcast equipment.

The book, in question and answer format, is comprised of 25 sections,
with more than 1700 pages. The second edition, fourth printing, which
is the edition most often seen, was published in 1975, is mainly tube/valve
orientated but does also have some SS circuits.

Chapters include:

Basic Principles of Sound
Acoustics, Studio techniques.
Microphones,
Attenuators,
Vacuum Tubes, Transistors and Diodes,
Audio Amplifiers,
Disc Recording,
Cutting Heads
Magnetic Recording
Loudspeakers.
Power Supplies,
Test Equipment.
Audio-frequency measurement
Installation
Charts and tables.

I am told by a former colleague from the UK who worked also at
Canadian Broadcasting that the book was one of their training manuals.

Highly recommended!

--
Iain

I found a copy in a local technical college library in 1995 and I paid
10c a page to copy
1,000 pages on the photocopier over two days.

The Audio Encyclopedia is a good book, to be sure, and slightly more
modern than RDH4,
but it all mainly obsolete now like most of what is in RDH4 because we
have
developed better ways of achieving good sound in loungerooms
compared to what was done in 1960.

But for anyone whose mind is stuck in the past, and who has unlimited
time
to waste during funded retirement for fixing old junk, the AE is a good
guide.

For myself, its a reference book, and I seldom need to read it now
because I just apply basic known principles to overcome problems and get
on with it.
I have very limited time, and have to earn my money, so I cannot waste
time on junk.

I condensed what I need know and what 95% of other ppl need to know at
my website
for good loungeroom sound.

But for those into cutting LP records or movie track sound et all, and I
don't know anyone at all interested,
and willing to spend the time alone making progress the AE is helpful,
but
one still has to learn what isn't in the books by doing an
apprenticeship.

There are dozens of intersting schematics of commercial circuit designs
in the AE
but I won't ever be using many...

Patrick Turner.
.

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