The Art of Electronics: The x Chapters

It does exactly what it says on the flyleaf - it adds to the content of the main volume 'The Art of Electronics', giving evidence supported by clear description and experiments. Much raw data is given together with careful analysis - highly recommended for the electronics engineer wishing to delve more deeply into the whys and wherefores behind the bare facts.

Fascinating if you are an electronics geek like me

Numerous welcome additions over the original. Some really great insight throughout, and in particular finally talks (at least a bit) about power electronics. Be warned, this is very much a companion to AoE 3rs edition, and is of limited utility without it.

I have this to hand when designing - not run of the mill digital etc, but I'll pretty musch always drop in on the relevent sections when looking for anything that is a bit stretching - wide range precision, high accuracy - temperature stability etc, protection... I like the whole series, but these books really help flesh out the design process, seeing problems, looking at experiences and making better choices, particualrly handy when going back to analogue circuits where familiarity is waning a bit. I too find the paper a bit thin and transparent, but printing quality, binding etc are all fine.

Simply the best, enough said.

I have noticed that a lot of people keep lowering the star rating because of thin pages. They may be thin but are top quality. If the pages were any thicker it would be ridiculously large so this not a reason to lower the rating. The content is excellent and as I am just completing a HNC I wish I bought the set sooner.

I've had The Art of Electronics for a long time, and I love it. But when it came to actually designing and building something, it generated a lot more questions that weren't answered by the original book. I found the answers (eventually) on the internet, but it would have saved a lot of time if I had just bought the X Chapters in the first place, as it had almost all of the answers I needed (with the exception of the most application-specific ones). My only complaint is that there are enough advanced and practical electronics topics to fill an entire volume equal in size to the original book, but I suppose the authors have to stop somewhere.

The value is available only once you have covered the basics of electronics dedicated literature. Otherwise, just buy the main chapters of TAoE.