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Comment by rramadass | Hacker News Reader

Very fascinating. I got interested in trying to understand the Science of Sound/Acoustical Engineering after reading the reviews of various Earphones/IEMs/etc. and of course "Hi-Res" audio equipment. A lot of it made no scientific sense and seemed to be completely subjective not withstanding their astronomical prices. The field seems to be plagued by gallons of "Snake-Oil".

Can somebody suggest some good books/sites on the following?

1) Study of "Signals and Systems" but using Sound Waves as examples.

2) The effect of Sound on Humans (and on living tissue in general).

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For #1 there are a couple great youtube channels that cover a lot of the technical background on drivers and control systems (amplifiers) as well how to objectively compare and test audio setups. 1 - PS audio https://youtube.com/c/PSAudiochannel and 2 - Tech Ingredients https://youtube.com/c/TechIngredients

In this tech Ingredients video they go over some really well performing but very simple and low cost to make speaker and amp set, as well as a test setup to do objective comparison tests on different designs. https://youtu.be/GslJ8Hf4WwE

For #2 I've actually done quite a bit of work with sound and the body, in designing medical devices. It's interesting, sound travels very well through the body, why bone conduction headphones and ultrasound work so well. Most of the good info on sound and it's interaction with the body I've found to be in clinical and scientific papers.

I hope something here helps!

Thank you and appreciate the pointers.

For #2 can you suggest some beginner's textbook?

Gladly

This book is a bit broad, but I think it's the best place to start I know of:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-23932-3

"The physics of the human body"

Thank you; The book looks quite encyclopedic in its coverage!

Gimme More :-)

For #1 I can highly recommend this interactive article by Bartosz Ciechanowski: https://ciechanow.ski/sound/. It might lack the depth you want in intermediate or advanced topics, but in my opinion it is the most efficient and effective beginner education material out there.

Nice site; the interaction aspect is particularly good.

Thanks for the link!

I also found this "University of Southampton" site on Sound really helpful : https://blog.soton.ac.uk/soundwaves/

It's a very broad topic you need to be more specific. Ultrasound can heat up tissues that's the reason why there's a time limit when doing ultrasound on babies and the machines beeps nonstop when the time is up.

I thought my questions were specific?

1) This is a standard "Signals and Systems" course for Analog/DSP engineering but where i would like to see practical hands-on labs using Sound Vibrations/Waves.

2) This consists of two major parts; One is the perception of Sound through the auditory pathway (including bone conducting) and the other is via the whole body (via what the article calls mechanoreceptors/thermoreceptors). How does it affect the Brain/Nervous System itself?

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