New book on "Audio, Acoustics and Perception"


Dr. Earl Geddes is writing a book aimed at folks like us - namely, hard-core audio hobbyists who do not have an advanced technical background. He's posting the chapters on his website so that we can read along as he writes the book. The first chapter is online now at:

http://www.gedlee.com/.

Dr. Geddes is a professional loudspeaker industry consultant, has an extensive background in acoustics (in particular small-room acoustics), holds several patents in the field of audio, is the inventor of the oblate spheroid waveguide, and has done extensive original research into psychoacoustics and perception. I have associated with Dr. Geddes somewhat over the past couple of years, and have learned a great deal from him. I'm very excited that now he's offering all he's taught me and more free of charge, at least up until he finishes writing the book and publishes the hard copy.

Duke
audiokinesis
Nobody I know calls themselves Dr. Doe, rather John Doe, PhD or MD or DDS or ED etc. I didn't get an indication of whether Geddes doctorate was in acoustics, EE, medicine, dentistry, education or that rare specialty of a PhD started by S. S. (Smitty) Stevens at Harvard called psychophysics, a multi-diciplinary degree based on knowledge of the stimulus (e.g. acoustics), physiology, and perception.
Hi Wellfed,

I think you'll find Earl's book to be much more than a translation for laymen of existing conventional texts. Earl's thinking isn't limited by convention at all.

RCPrince and Jfz, thanks for the thumbs-up! RC, Earl told me that he's been wanting to write this book for a long time.

Donbellphd, I called him Dr. Geddes, so if someone was out of line in using that title it was me. My dad's a medical doctor, and I'm used to hearing people call him Doctor LeJeune instead of Francis LeJeune, M.D. Earl Geddes has a Ph.D. in acoustics. Here's a link to his resume', in case you'd like to see it:

http://www.gedlee.com/Earl_resume.htm

Duke
Ok, so when are we going to see "Acoustics for Dummies" make it to the shelves?

BTW, how've you been? Glad to hear you avoided that storm. Did Katrina affect you personally, property, etc?
Duke,

Thanks for the link to the resume. I didn't get much out of the first chapter, but I applaud any effort to bring rational rigor to sound reproduction as realized in the home. High-end audio is an area of too much mysticism, with "audiophiles" claiming to hear all kinds of things from all kinds of sources. The reproduction of music has by its very nature subjective goals, because systems rarely sound the same, i.e. each distorts in its own ways. But preference for particular distortion does not equate to superiority. Although there is a good deal of science behind the design of a first rate component, there is also an aspect of art, a balancing of choices by the designer.
Hey Duke. I haven't had the time to read it yet but I want thank you for sharing.