Signals & Systems Demystified

I went back to school for my MS, and I'm taking a Digital Communications Theory course. Needless to say, signals and systems are very relevant to the topic, and if it's been a while since you've done anything with them and find yourself needing to re-smart yourself quick, this book is outstanding. I managed to knock off the rust, and pull a few things together as well. The math is complete, but the author don't skip steps assuming you know why he did it. You came to be demystified, not told "there's a unifying point to prove here, and we'll leave that to you as an exercise." No, he bloody well gets to the point and just tells you the relationships and so on. This isn't as in-depth as books I've seen in the past (more explicit textbooks), but if you're using this to get competent so you can do other things, it is simply outstanding. If you've got a solid grasp of calculus (it's not for dummies), then you can follow well enough to get the main point.

As an older student going back to graduate school to learn signal and systems, I knew I was getting into trouble. My biggest problem was just trying to get the Professors or TA's or anyone to walk me through some of the equations, so I could get a feel for the math. Like baby-steps pedantic steps, and for some reason trying to get anyone to do that was nigh impossible. But Signals and Systems Demystified did just that, all the way down to the steps of reminding you a basic calculus and algebra operations. Stuff, Professors and TAs might take for granted in class, but as an older student it was all I was missing. To be walked through basic to medium problems to get a feel for the Math again. I admit I have only gone through the first part of the book, and I hope the rest is like that, but just getting those answers helped ease a lot of problems I have been having with the first few weeks of class. David McMahon has done a great thing by writing a book that takes you through the simplest of steps.

Just for a frame of reference, I am an online electronic engineering student and I am nearing the end of multi-year journey towards my bachelors degree with a 3.5 out of 4.0 GPA. I was having problems in my digital signal processing class. I was looking for THE book to explain everything to me. This is not that book(for me). In all fairness, I never did find THE book. DSP is a tough subject, you probably won't find a book to give you the "A-ha!" moment of clarity. As with most DSP books, this one does great at explaining the concepts of the signal, but very poorly explaining the math behind it. They assume you have a 100% grasp on the advanced math required(which I don't).

This book presents a good amount of material. It also has a good amount of solved problems for each section and usually explains what is going on. For the price I can't find anything wrong with it.

Easy understanding. The way he teaches makes it less stressful and fun to read. I'd highly recommend this book. He also has several others that are just as good. I enjoy his technique!

I love the way the information is presented, in a smart and logical order.

Excellent textbook. It fills in many of the math steps typically left out of most used textbooks in colleges. Gerard Sagliocca, P.E. [...]

I'm generally sympathetic to authors of books like this. They're trying to do a service to the community, spend a lot of time writing a book, and are unlikely to get a lot of circulation. At the same time, if an author's going to take the time to write a book, they should take some pride in their work. This is, frankly, sloppy. The author gets a good start, but as the book progresses, the material becomes increasingly terse and stiff. Quick example: on page 220, "We list the most important Laplace transforms in Appendix B." News flash: there is no Appendix B! Nor is there an Appendix A listing the most important Fourier transforms. (You can verify this yourself by looking at the Table of Contents.) I didn't keep track, but it seemed to me that there was some error in the math about once every 10 pages, more or less. To be fair, most are fairly minor, but the sheer number is just sloppy. Then there's this cover. "Mastering communications with details on modulation and the Z-transform." Really? There's almost nothing about communications and zero about modulation on the chapter with the Z-transform. "Explore RADAR, AM/FM signal processing, image processing, and WIRELESS signal processing" -- what a joke. The author does a fair job covering AM/FM, but nothing on RADAR, and image processing doesn't even appear in the text. I realize this is probably the fault of the editor, not the author, but don't be fooled by the claims on the cover. Overall, this is a noble effort that, for whatever reason, only got about 2/3 of the job done. The first five chapters are done well if you can overlook the numerous-but-minor errors, but after that it goes down hill. Disappointing.