[floresjc]

This question is for Frank, although I know there are several super techies on here who can probably chime in too. I want to learn "how to design a preamp, dac, and amp" in my own words.

I have a degree in aerospace engineering, so I'm familiar with basic electrical theory, and I know there are no shortage of texts for fundamental electrical engineering.

Do you have a few foundational works that you think would be appropriate that go through the basics of electrical engineering as applies to audio design? I'd like my audio gear to be a little less "magic" and its just something I'm interested in general. I would figure that I would need to read a couple types of books, ones dealing with EE fundamentals and maybe some more focused literature on applying that to audio design (dacs, preamps, amps). And I figured you would be the guy to ask.

Thanks for any direction you can point me in.

[Trismos]

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pass-labs/

[avahifi]

You have to look at everything.  All circuits critically damped.  No under-damped resonances allowed at any frequency and from any source (power supply feeds, grounds, audio signals).  All circuits terminated with a Q of .5 or less. All audio circuits must have overkill current capacity and low output impedance.

A conventional audio amplifier is not a black box.  It is a voltage amplifier followed by a current amplifier.  You must evaluate very closely what the voltage amplifeir is doing while driving the current amplifier under stress conditions (adverse output load, ultrasonic input signals, etc).  Both the voltage amplifier and the current amplifier must work linearly independently under a wide set of conditions, not just audio bandwidth and assumed load conditions.

Do the engineering math to solve the necessary equations.  Don't make assumptions that Spice models are accurate. They are not.  Be aware that most computers don't have the dynamic range to avoid rounding errors that provide results that are not good representative of what you think you are solving.  Question everything.

Good luck.

Frank Van Alstine