Comments on Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook

Douglas Self’s writing on audio power amplifiers provides the reader with invaluable information. Not only does he teach the fundamentals (and details) of power amplifier design per se but also discloses a systematic approach to analyse the distortion performance of typical amplifier topologies. The latter is particularly important as systematics does not appear to be a natural thing in audio circuit design—at least if we consider many other publications which shall remain unnamed here. Two years ago the 5th edition of the Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook has been published as the latest book by Self on this topic, and that’s the text I’m referring to below. In recent years I’ve done considerable research in high performance (and in particular low distortion) amplifier topologies. This paper will highlight a couple of results from this research which complement or contrast with Self’s writing. I hope that this information will be found helpful for audio circuit designers and that it will contribute to the art of power amplifier design. For consistency with the Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook I’ve largely adopted Self’s terminology even if I’ve used a different nomenclature in other publications. The order of the topics discussed roughly follows the structure of Self’s book. For ease of understanding, references to figures in the Audio Power Amplifier Design Handbook are noted as such by the addition of the corresponding page number in brackets. At this point of writing I’d like to acknowledge the invaluable help received from Walt Jung, Bruno Putzeys, Brad Wood, and Scott Wurcer. The contributions ranged from literature suggestions, notes with regards to content, providing transistor samples to proof reading. This all is very much appreciated!