Product Review

Introduction to Loudspeaker Design is written for students, technicians, engineers and hobbyists seeking an overview of the technology of loudspeakers. Starting with a brief history of audio developments the book begins by introducing the concepts of frequency, pitch and loudness and proceeds to develop the idea of a loudspeaker as a system.

The book covers such topics as loudspeaker design tradeoffs, spatial loading, diffraction loss, cavity effect and enclosure construction. A complete chapter is devoted to the subject of crossover design including design equations. The second edition adds a new chapter on simulation and analysis which includes design equations for closed and vented type speakers. The appendices contain technical references, design aids, glossaries and a chart depicting 18 different loudspeaker enclosure types.

The author is a physicist/audio design engineer with over 35 years experience in the research and development of audio products spanning both hardware and software. His WinSpeakerz, TrueRTA and DATS software applications are widely used throughout the audio industry as tools for simulating and measuring loudspeaker performance. Captain Murphy served as a space systems analyst for NORAD during his military career.