Useless unless you know a lot about electronics
349322
I found that unless you've taken courses in basic electronics (transistors, diodes, amplifiers) which is basically 3rd year undergrad EE classes, you won't understand the book as easily.
It has sample circuits in the back and covers some fundamental steps to creating an amplifier (making your own PCBs) but I find that the author assumes too much (you already know a lot about electronics and non-linear circuits).
390225
Totally worthless junkDoes not even tell basics
4296656
As a learning audiophile, thought this book would give me some electronic knowledge. WRONG, book is useless for anything less than an electronic engineer.  Schmatics lost me.  Author has an ugly attitude about tube gear.  Author contradicts every audio specification I have every learned, may be right, but hard to believe a single voice.
I purchased this book in October, 2001. My copy now on sale ...
Hope it will be a valuable reference for your library.
3846974
A totally useless guide.  You will be better informed by merely looking at the camera than by reading this users "guide".
3341159
Don't buy this device unless you have lots of time to spend exploring the internet to figure out how to use it.  The user forums are full of  people requesting "How do I find a manual for this device?"; and there is no indication that Jawbone has any intention of ever providing any instructions beyond the most basic and rudimentary functions.
2732856
Worst manual I've ever seen in an electronics product. Tells you all sorts of details of how to alter the crossover frequencies, and such. Doesn't actually tell you how to use the product. The user interface is, if anything, slightly worse. For example, there is a button called "analog". No idea what it does, but after you press it, you can never turn it off.
These guys need to get lessons from Apple.
3759063
This book is incomplete. The author leaves some vital information out on most if not all of the electronic components of the build. The book is well organized but the lists provided are not specific enough! For
example,Mr. Williams tells you to purchase a 4 MHZ crystal, 78L05 voltage regulator etc. But what he neglects to tell you is were to get these parts,who makes them,and the specific part number. The problem lies in
fact that there many variations of these parts. Finding the right parts
so far on the internet has been a guessing game at best and a complete waste of my time! And forget about getting any help from the author or his website. It's been three and half months since I e-mailed him without
a single reply. He sells the circuit boards on his website, but doesn't
have a shopping cart to make the purchase. Of coarse, if he doesn't answer e-mails, would you want to send your hard earned money to this guy? Until Mr. Williams provides all the necessary information in his book and on his website you to will be disappointed too.
4476395
The textbook only covers basics. It is a book for beginners and for low level college introductory microcontroller courses. The book not very useful for real projects. The author give me an impression that he just started to learn about AVR right before starting to write this book. In this book, it is not much explanation on the hardware features; being able to connect to external memory for ATmega128. Author use for examples Atmega32. Interfaces examples no cover CAN and USB connections to AVR. No cover connection to graphics matrix displays.
2678908
I returned this and bought the Sony Dream Machine Alarm Clock/Radio, which I love.  Don't waste your time on this.  You need a PhD in Electronics to figure out the instructions.
1764555
WTF, no audio out connectors whatsoever.  Don't gift this to someone unless you really know their a/v setup.
4281863
Lots of components. Two things that caused only a four start rating: 1) There were no directions on connecting the GPIO expansion board. Sounds stupid, but the multi-colored ribbon cable was confusing and it took me awhile to research that the black wire goes towards pin1. When hooked up backwards, the Pi would just not respond to anything. Save a newbie a little struggle and put some instructions in there for Petes sake!! 2) The resistor legs are too thin to fit into the breadboard without futzing with them. Id recommend getting a cobbler instead of this GPIO extension board.
1744619
Absolutely garbage. The USB ports but out more amps then a blue tooth headset can handle and not enough to charge a phone. The 120v outputs are too close to use 2 adapters at once. Frankly, this is about as useful as a 3' extension cord.
2795616
I did the right thing at first - I read the user manual, even though I had to use a magnifying glass to read it. The author did not know much English - and knew nothing about writing a user manual. I kept going over the manual, and comparing it with the hardware (no easy matter) until I thought I was beginning to understand it.

Then I tried to use it. And found I could not. It may do all the things it claims to do (and it claims to do nearly everything) - but its user interface is so awkward it is hard to tell. It is clear that user testing was not done at all.

Which means, for all practical purposes - it is useless.

It needs a complete redesign, with the user in mind - and a decent user manual.
2064199
Just get the Arduino book that come with the kit. This is a waste of space.
3770699
Can't get it to work. Can't find any help to deal with it. Not good with electronics.
492776
I am pretty ticked off. Seems a good piece of kit overall, but the USB function is useless as I have all my stuff, loads of it, saved in wma lossless format and this CAN'T PLAY IT! Not a word of this in the manual nor in any of the masses of info and reviews I read before buying, (mostly all just a reiteration of the Marantz blurb,, shame on them). The manual is very unclear, and while I can't claim to understand all the tech language surrounding computers, the manual seems to say it will at least support up to 192kbs,, and it doesn't, not in my case. But really, if you are going to add and then boast about USB features, you ought to be clear about just what that means up front AND MARANTZ WAS NOT. They just used loads of advertising gobble (they do say it will play from USB thumb device,,,, not clear). Really, for a piece of 'hifi', shouldn't it play the best? That said, to be honest, the sound is great, or at least a major upgrade compared to what I had,,, an old Philips CDR. BUT MARANTZ, AND OTHER MANUFACTURERS,,, AND REVIEWERS, SHOULD BE MORE HONEST!!!
 So, in the end, this is OK at best.
3029585
This book does a fair job of explaining electronics, but overall I regretted purchasing it. On a positive note, it is nicely illustrated which makes the presentation visually interesting. However, the author is not consistent in building on previous explanations to help the reader understand new concepts being introduced. As someone without a background in electronics, I was pretty lost about 1/2 through this book and gave up reading it. I think this book may better serve as a basic reference for someone working in electronics rather than as an instructional manual.