Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers

Updated throughout and focused on electroacoustics with the needs of a broad range of acoustics engineers and scientists in mind, this new book retains and expands on the detailed acoustical fundamentals included in the original whilst adding practical formulas and simulation methods for practising professionals.

Benefitting from Beranek’s lifetime experience as a leader in the field and co-author Tim Mellow’s cutting-edge industry experience, Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers is a modern classic to keep close to hand in the lab, office and design studio.

• Builds on Beranek’s 1954 Acoustics classic by incorporating recent developments, practical formulas and methods for effective simulation
• Uniquely provides the detailed acoustic fundamentals, enabling better understanding of complex design parameters, measurement methods and data
• Brings together topics currently scattered across a variety of books and sources into one valuable reference
• Includes relevant case studies, real-world examples and solutions to bring the theory to life

Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers is a thoroughly updated version of Leo Beranek's classic 1954 book that retains and expands on the original's detailed acoustical fundamentals while adding practical formulas and simulation methods.

Serving both as a text for students in engineering departments and as a reference for practicing engineers, this book focuses on electroacoustics, analyzing the behavior of transducers with the aid of electro-mechano-acoustical circuits. Assuming knowledge of electrical circuit theory, it starts by guiding readers through the basics of sound fields, the laws governing sound generation, radiation, and propagation, and general terminology. It then moves on to examine:

Numerical examples and summary charts are given throughout the text to make the material easily applicable to practical design. It is a valuable resource for experimenters, acoustical consultants, and to those who anticipate being engineering designers of audio equipment.

Educated at Harvard and Cornell, Dr. Leo Beranek is an acoustical design consultant. Recent work includes several concert halls in Japan. In 1948 he co-founded Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies) to provide consultation for major auditoriums. BBN also reduced jet noise, developed the ARPANET (internet forerunner), and founded Channel 5 among other achievements. Leo has won numerous awards and fellowships including AES, ASA and ASME gold medals, Presidential National Medal of Science, and ICA Lifetime Achievement in Science Award. He has published 13 books.

Tim Mellow was educated at Boundary Oak School and Lancing College before obtaining a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from the University of Dundee, Scotland, in 1985. A career as a Design engineer at BICC, Marconi, Thorn EMI, Racal, VTech, and Nokia followed. Recently, he co-founded Mellow Acoustics Ltd with Philip Trevelyan to develop high fidelity loudspeakers and amplifiers. Tim takes a keen interest in music and plays the piano. He appreciates technology that brings musical performances to life, especially those which can no longer be heard live.