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Comment on The Audiophile’s Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects by F. W. Hoge "Skeptical Reader"

F. W. Hoge "Skeptical Reader" — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:53:54 +0000

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

I built my own amplifiers using this book and..., February 3, 2003

F. W. Hoge "Skeptical Reader" (Michigan) -

This review is from: The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects (Paperback)

I found the entire experience to be fantastic. Using Randy's books I built two OPTI-Mos designs from the ground up using only the books and a little email advice from Randy. I consider myself to be an audiophile and the two 200W mono block amplifiers I built based on Randy's topology sound as good as any B-class amplifier I've ever listened to. And that includes amplifiers costing up to as much as [a lot of money]. I honestly did not expect that to be the case.

Randy, was great help both on the phone and via e-mail when I experienced difficulties. You can also buy kits through his website if you are not confident with designing your own amplifiers from the ground up. I highly recommend this book to any one who wants to experience premier audio quality on a fixed budget.

Note that the book concentrates primarily on signal processing equipment between the source and the speakers. There are many designs for Amplifiers, Preamplifiers, Tone Controls, Equalizers, etc... But there isn't really anything on how to build CD players or other source equipment. If Mr. Sloane ever publishes such a book. I will most certainly absolutely buy it.

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Comment on The Audiophile’s Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects by AudioLover "russ2222"

AudioLover "russ2222" — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:27:21 +0000

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

Response to Bill Fiorucci (Hazelwood, MO (St. Louis County), November 14, 2004

AudioLover "russ2222" (Washington State) -

This review is from: The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects (Paperback)

I have to comment here on Bill Fiorucci (Hazelwood, MO (St. Louis County) review shown below. It is so unfortunate that people like Mr. Fiorucci can condemn Mr. Slone's amplifier designs without ever once listening to one. I have known Mr. Slone for over 4 years and I can attest to the fact that the designs he presents in his books are his own original topologies (unless stated otherwise). I have heard numerous types of Mr. Slone's amplifiers and I can tell you straight up that these amplifiers have astonishing sonic excellence and I would put them up against any amplifier class; solid-state or vacuum tube. I am no stranger to high-end audio and neither are several of my friends and associates. In "every" case once a person has the priviledge of auditioning the amplifiers they immediately find they have a new reference amplifier. I have also auditioned Mr. Slone's fully discrete Class A preamplifier and I can tell you I was not prepared for the sonic experience I got. In a word: spectacular. Furthermore, I have shown the amplifier to two high-end speaker manufacturers as I was curious as to how the amplifiers would sound to "expert speaker builders". In both cases the fellows said "I have heard detail and resolution coming out of my speakers I have never heard before." One of the fellows had a McIntosh amp that he used as his reference, and he later e-mailed me telling me the Slone amplifier "blew the Mac away". I am 100% serious here. The detail, resolution, transparency, realism and sheer power of these amps can only be experienced. If someone resorts to writing unsubstantiated, rude and hateful reviews (like Mr. Fiorucci did) without even having the decency to build up one of the amplifiers and actually listen to it, then he does a great injustice to Mr. Slone's hard-earned and well deserved reputation. I understand there are over 2,000 of Mr. Slone's amplifiers in circulation in one form or another "out there" and in every review I have ever read on the internet from people who have actually LISTENED to the amplifiers, the reviews are all positive and many times overwhelming so. My advice is to do your own homework by going a search in the Audio Forums and read for yourself. Better yet, go listen to or build-up one of these amazing amplifiers for yourself. You will be utterly convinced, and will hear what a truly high-end amplifier can deliver. Pure science, pure audio.

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Comment on The Audiophile’s Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects by Shuvam "shuvam"

Shuvam "shuvam" — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:15:37 +0000

96 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

Lovely coverage of top-end DIY analog audio, July 28, 2002

Shuvam "shuvam" -

This review is from: The Audiophile's Project Sourcebook: 80 High-Performance Audio Electronics Projects (Paperback)

First, my background as a reviewer. I love listening to music, and I like
dabbling with electronics kits and a soldering iron. I have an engineering
education, but I understand the bare minimum basic electronics. And the
only test equipment I own is a digital multimeter. My review of this book
should be seen in the context of my background. This book is not "right
for everyone;" you need to know at least as much basic electronics as
I do. Another contextual factor is that this book is only one part of
"what you get." What you also get is the author's constant email-based
guidance, and his Website from where you can buy PCBs and components.

The author assumes you know what a transistor or an opamp is, for
instance. The book also expects you to have _built_ some circuits
before. The book discusses many opamp-based circuits, all the time
expecting that you can recognize an opamp-based unity-gain inverting
buffer when you see one. It _never_ gives you IC pinouts of the
ICs it uses in its circuits.

The author has strong opinions, something I really value. I've always
learnt the most from people with strong opinions, provided they show me
how they have arrived at those opinions. Randy Slone's opinions about
potentiometers and tone controls in preamplifiers (pages 77 to 80),
or on "valve sound" on page 126, are worth passing around to all
brand-conscious audiophiles with more money than good sense (plenty
of them around).

The book's standards of good performance are superlative, i.e. the "good"
designs here are probably comparable to the best designs commercially
available, in terms of raw audio quality.

The author comes from the Scientific School of Audio System Performance
Analysis (SSoASPA). He believes that if two amps with similar specs sound
different, it doesn't indicate the presence of subjective, unmeasurable
attributes --- it merely means that we are not performing the right tests
for the right parameters.

The author's writing style is conversational, laced with humour, and easy
to read. From page 49: "Some audiopiles ... believe the least number of
components (and the greatest percentage of gold plating) in the signal
path will ultimately provide the highest quality of undiluted sonics."

I'll touch upon a few specific chapters --- the reader can always
get the actual Table of Contents from Amazon's Webpage. Chapter 2,
"Beginning at the beginning", focuses on balanced to unbalanced signal
connections, and then discusses stepped attenuators. Both these are
among the latest "purist" fads, with questionable benefits in most
cases. The chapter concludes with an ultra-brief discussion on digitally
controlled potentiometers. Chapter 5 is a short chapter dedicated to
headphone amplifiers, both opamp-based and fully discrete. Chapter 6
is a long chapter on power amplifiers, with some very high-performance
ready-to-build designs. Chapter 10, "General construction information,"
is an excellent coverage of hum, grounding, and such other obscure issues
which often ruin the performance of actual amps built from flawless
circuit designs. The other sections of the chapter covers PCB fabrication
and heatsinks.

Where the book ends, the author's personal interaction begins. Over
the last few months, I've asked the author dozens of questions, and
have been rewarded with insightful, courteous, and friendly replies
each time. This follow-up "service" from someone so knowledgeable adds
enormously to the value of the book.

Could I have asked for anything more from a book which wants to cover
all aspects of the audio home-building scene?

1. The book does not touch even the "D" of digital audio. The issue of a
super-stable clock alone is worthy of a few circuits and a
fair amount of experimentation; Randy Slone's no-nonsense fad-busting
exploratory style would have suited it well.

The amateur constructor might need DACs, ADCs, sampling rate
converters, digital audio level meters, an input selection circuit
for switching among digital inputs, or an SCMS copy-bit modifier.
The absence of digital audio is the biggest gap in the book.

2. There are no super-quiet high-gain signal amplifier circuits
of the kind needed for MC turntable cartridges. A good pre-preamp amplifying
sub-milliVolt signals would have plugged a gap for vinyl lovers on
a budget.

3. Cabinet construction, front panel design and building, fitting of
jacks and connectors, selection of passive components like reed
relays and rotary switches, etc, all have subtle issues. A better
coverage of these issues would have been very useful.

4. Some circuits for testing audio equipment, e.g. a sine wave... Read more

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Comment on eMachines EL1352-43 Desktop (Black) Reviews by Julie Mally

Julie Mally — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:20:58 +0000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Surprisingly Good, May 19, 2011

Julie Mally (Pennsylvania, USA) -

This review is from: eMachines EL1352-43 Desktop (Black) (Personal Computers)

I bought this Emachine after my six year old Gateway computer got fried by a power surge. I was very worried this new computer would be a junky, bargain basement system, but I was pleasantly surprised. It runs smooth and fast, my videos play great on it. I really like the computer.

CD drive design could be better. I'm not crazy about how you put the disc on the side tray. Not alot of choices to upgrade this system, but you can add alot of USB things.

I would definitely buy another Emachine in the future.

For the price, this system is very worth it. Good graphics, fast surfing. It's great for basic computing.

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Comment on eMachines EL1352-43 Desktop (Black) Reviews by NC Ric

NC Ric — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:40:28 +0000

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

Small footprint eMachines EL1352-43, February 25, 2011

NC Ric -

This review is from: eMachines EL1352-43 Desktop (Black) (Personal Computers)

The Emachines EL1352-43 took only 10 minutes to get from the initial power up to post setup Windows 7 initialization. However, it took about 75 minutes to burn the 3 Windows 7 System Recovery discs and 1 Driver/Application DVD discs. There is no wireless card built in so after installing and setting up my wireless network adapter into one of the 9 USB 2.0 ports the next task was to update windows with 39 updates including the new Windows 7 SP1.

Although the windows update download times will vary depending on network connectivity and MS server traffic, the installation of the updates, especially the installation time for new Windows 7 Service Pack 1 seemed slightly faster on this 2GB DDR3 Single Core AMD Sempron 150 at 2.9 GHz then it was on my 3GB DDR3 Dual Core Intel T4400 2.2 GHz powered Windows 7 laptop just 2 days earlier. Both systems run Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

The system runs very quietly. The 500GB 7200RPM Disk Drive and the two fans, a power supply and CPU cooler seemed very quiet and only a slight fan sound could be detected less than about 24 inches (.6 m) from the top, side and rear vents

The 16x DVD drive was also quiet and playback was smooth using the integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150SEnForce 430 Video Adapter with no lag or artifacts using a 1280 x1024 monitor with 32 bit true color. Unfortunately, there is no HDMI port and only VGA video output.

Keep in mind with the mini case size and the 220 watt PS there is very limited internal expansion. The only add in card slots are 1 PCI Express x16 slot and 1PCI Express x1 slot.

Even before the bloat ware removal power up boot time was only about 45 seconds and power down time about 13 seconds.

Pros:
Small size, Quiet, Value for speed, 9 USB ports, 1 Gigabit Ethernet port, 2.9 GHz Sempron.

Cons:
No HDMI, Single Core, Limited expansion capability, No built in wireless network adapter, User needs to burn 4 System Recovery/Driver DVD discs.

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Comment on Dell DUAL CORE 3.0 Ghz Fast GX Computer, Big 500GB Hard Drive, 2GB RAM, DVD Burner (DVD-RW), and New Licensed Windows XP with Genuine Microsoft Authorized CD by Maureen S. Skaar "tech from way back"

Maureen S. Skaar "tech from way back" — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:19:25 +0000

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

great machine, March 16, 2010

Maureen S. Skaar "tech from way back" (las vegas nv) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Dell DUAL CORE 3.0 Ghz Fast GX Computer, Big 500GB Hard Drive, 2GB RAM, DVD Burner (DVD-RW), and New Licensed Windows XP with Genuine Microsoft Authorized CD (Personal Computers)

it was better than I expected and when I manged to screw it up installing and then uninstalling a program they were right on it, even though they weren't at fault..so, I would definitely recommend and will buy from them again.

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Comment on Dell DUAL CORE 3.0 Ghz Fast GX Computer, Big 500GB Hard Drive, 2GB RAM, DVD Burner (DVD-RW), and New Licensed Windows XP with Genuine Microsoft Authorized CD by CJ Cotz

CJ Cotz — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:39:25 +0000

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

New computer, October 26, 2010

CJ Cotz -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

Product is exactly as advertised. It was defnitely what I wanted to purchase and I was pleased with the price.

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Comment on Dell DUAL CORE 3.0 Ghz Fast GX Computer, Big 500GB Hard Drive, 2GB RAM, DVD Burner (DVD-RW), and New Licensed Windows XP with Genuine Microsoft Authorized CD by freddie g

freddie g — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:01:32 +0000

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

very satisfied, February 24, 2011

freddie g -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

the computer arrived two days earlier than expected and
everything worked - I installed norton 360 and I was up
on the internet with no problem at all

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Comment on Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance, Revised Edition by layla

layla — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:03:40 +0000

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

Not complete, but still handy, September 2, 2005

layla -

This review is from: Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance (Paperback)

This book is very short, and it often states the obvious. It is far from complete, but it's still a handy thing to have around and much more portable than a big O'reilly's book.

The good thing about it is that it's so damn easy to read. You can follow the flow chart to go straight to the advice you're looking for. I just wish it was longer and offered more solutions than it does.

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Comment on Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance, Revised Edition by R. McAdams "genghis17"

R. McAdams "genghis17" — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:04:44 +0000

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

Tremendous Resource, November 25, 2003

R. McAdams "genghis17" (Searcy, AR United States) -

This review is from: Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance (Paperback)

The cover of this book asks the follow question: Do you know a CPU from a hard drive? Do you? If so, this book is fantastic. In my opinion, the key to diagnosis of any kind is a quick elimination of possible root causes. This book accomplishes that by forcing the reader into yes/no questions. Drawing on his obvious experience, the author uses flowcharts to continually narrow the tech's focus until the answer is apparent. The author takes subconcious deduction and lays it out on the page for anyone to follow. After some time it should become second nature to you as well. The book covers the gamut of hardware issues with a straightforward style. In between the various categories is text related to specific points on the flowcharts. There is some real gems in there. I have no doubt the author earns hourly income many times the cost of this book. Buy it.

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Comments (3)