The Complete Guide to High End Audio, by Robert Harley, is exactly the book you seek. It covers the subject so well that even my first edition now nearly 30 years old still covers so much it is hard to believe. The book is beautifully organized in a way that helps you understand not only exactly what each component does but why and how, and even helps with system building advice.
One of the best parts of the book for me is the section on how to listen, what to listen for, and a glossary of terms to describe what you are hearing. As strange as this might seem but it turns out to be very hard if not impossible to hear things you do not have words for!
I don't know about the latest editions but in my first edition he compares learning to listen critically to learning to read an x-ray. In both cases everyone knows enough to sort of be able to tell what is going on. But the more you learn the less the x-ray looks like a lot of shades of gray. After you learn a lot of physics, anatomy and pathology eventually the flat x-ray looks almost 3D and you see so much more. This made a lot of sense even before I became an x-ray tech. Now I can say for sure he is right on.
Highly, highly recommended!
One of the best parts of the book for me is the section on how to listen, what to listen for, and a glossary of terms to describe what you are hearing. As strange as this might seem but it turns out to be very hard if not impossible to hear things you do not have words for!
I don't know about the latest editions but in my first edition he compares learning to listen critically to learning to read an x-ray. In both cases everyone knows enough to sort of be able to tell what is going on. But the more you learn the less the x-ray looks like a lot of shades of gray. After you learn a lot of physics, anatomy and pathology eventually the flat x-ray looks almost 3D and you see so much more. This made a lot of sense even before I became an x-ray tech. Now I can say for sure he is right on.
Highly, highly recommended!