Sound System Engineering 4th Edition Now Available

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The 4th edition of Sound System Engineering by Don Davis*, Eugene Patronis, Jr.**, and Pat Brown***, offers a unique opportunity to put three mentors on your bookshelf. What is shared in the 4th edition took the authors a collective 150 years of experience, study and research.

Long considered one of the key books on the well-informed audio engineer’s shelf, Sound System Engineering provides an accurate, complete, and concise tool for all those involved in designing, implementing, and testing sound reinforcement systems. This new fourth edition includes eight new chapters leading the reader through both cutting-edge topics—e.g., IBM’s proposed thought-controlled sound system—and solid basics, such as loudspeaker specifications, wave equations, and digital audio.

The 4th edition relates personal recollections of the work done by Bell Telephone Laboratories during the 1930s up to the current attempt to control audio systems with the mind. This not only gives you all the clues necessary to your own individual search of the past, but the starting point for creative work in the present century.

Topics covered include:

  • Psycho-acoustics and how the brain processes sound
  • Digital theory
  • Mathematics for audio systems
  • Using the decibel
  • Interfacing electrical and acoustical systems
  • Audio and acoustic measurements
  • Large room and small room acoustics
  • Designing for acoustic gain
  • Designing for speech intelligibility
  • Wave equations
  • Microphones
  • Loudspeakers, loudspeaker arrays, and loudspeaker directivity
  • Power ratings for amplifiers and loudspeakers
  • Computer-aided system design
  • Signal delay, signal synchronization, and signal processing
  • Sound system equalization

Packed with numerous illustrations and useful appendices, this is a concentrated capsule of industry standards and knowledge that spans the complete range of sound systems, from the simplest all-analog paging systems to the largest multi-purpose digital systems.

Sound System Engineer #4 edition can be purchased on Amazon for $90.72

*Don Davis and his wife Carolyn founded Synergetic Audio Concepts in 1972. Don and Carolyn both Fellows of the Audio Engineering Society. Don is a senior member of the IEEE and gold member of the Acoustical Society of America. Don and Carolyn received dual lifetime achievement awards from NSCA, the Adele De Berri Pioneers of the AV award from InfoComm International, and the USITT Harold Burris-Meyer Distinguished Career in Sound Design Award.  Both Don and Carolyn were recipients of Indiana’s highest citizen award from the Governor when they were made Sagamore of the Wabash for their contributions to education.

** Eugene Patronis, Jr. taught in the School of Physics of the Georgia Institute of Technology for over fifty years.  Throughout his tenure he participated in academic research and industrial consulting in the fields of experimental nuclear physics, acoustics, and electronics. He is the author of several patents in audio related topics.

***Pat Brown is the president of Synergetic Audio Concepts Inc. and of Electro-acoustics Testing Company, Inc. both of Greenville Indiana. He teaches audio engineering seminars world-wide, and develops web-based audio training programs. His background as a musician, sound contractor, and electronics technicians and consultant has forged his practical approach to solving audio and acoustic problems.