Notable AES Member Jamie Angus-Whiteoak presented a “compleat” tutorial overview of noise considerations in audio circuits for the PNW Section’s April 2025 meeting, held via Zoom on April 12 2025. Jamie, an AES Gold and Silver Medal recipient, spoke from the UK, so the meeting time was adjusted to 1PM PDT. About 37 AES members attended and 5 nonmembers.
Angus-Whiteoak reviewed the classic noise sources and theory, including thermal, shot and 1/f (or flicker/excess) noise. Modeling of noise was described, as well as use of transformers, working with resistive vs. reactive stages and common circuit topologies. Characteristics of devices, including bipolar transistors, JFETS, MOSFETs and valves (tubes) and some modern op-amps were described. Finally, some extra circuit ideas were presented (floobydust) and a lively Q & A went on for some time.
About the Presenter:
Jamie Angus-Whiteoak is Emeritus Professor of Audio Technology at Salford University.
Her interest in audio was crystallized at age 11 when she visited the WOR studios in NYC on a school trip in 1967. After this she was hooked, and spent much of her free time studying audio, radio, synthesizers, and loudspeakers, and even managed to build some!
She has worked in both industry and academia in diverse fields from integrated optics and acoustics to analogue and digital signal processing. Jamie’s expertise ranges from valve (tube) circuits to the applications of esoteric number theory in signal processing. She has pioneered degree level courses in both music technology and electronic engineering in the UK.
Reported by Gary Louie, PNW Secretary.
