RAY ALDEN is a retired math teacher from Stuyvesant High School, New York's finest technical academy, which has educated some of the most outstanding scientific experts in the United States. Ray taught a course in speaker building while at Stuyvesant, which was even attended by other teachers, and graduated students seeking more information.

Speaker Building 201 is a full, sequential explanation of the physics on which the loudspeaker is based, starting with magnetism and its discoverer. All the breakthroughs, step by step, which made the loudspeaker possible are deftly detailed. Along with this, Ray conducts a wonderfully simple, under-standable approach to the maths involved, still explaining and demonstrating simply as he goes along. He shows the reader how to do the math and why it is important. His formulas are explained for use with a scientific calculator-with completely worked-out examples-while alternate methods using pro-fessional software or free calculators found on the Internet are also shown.

This book satisfies a need we have been eager to fill for a long time. It takes the neophyte speaker builder by the hand and guides him, step by step, from knowing nothing about speakers to real mas-tery of both the craft and the art. It is a comprehensive and easy-to-comprehend tour through loud-speaker theory in terms that any reader will understand easily and quickly.

Subtitled "With 11 Completely Designed Speaker Systems," this book will be a godsend to the neo-phyte who really wants to learn how to design speaker systems. Further, Ray has had substantial partici-pation by several firms who have supplied data on drivers and components, plus designs for complete speaker systems. The final chapters of the book offer full plans for eleven loudspeaker projects, five of which were measured by Joseph DAppolito in prototype form.

Over the last 35 years that I have been publishing books on audio, Ray's book is as good as any we have ever had the pleasure of publishing. I believe every serious speaker enthusiast who owns a copy of Vance Dickason's groundbreaking volume, Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, now in its sixth edition, will also want to own Speaker Building 201.
Edward T. Dell,Jr. Editor and Publisher