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Why (better than the most recent 3rd)?

Yes, the 2nd edition (silver cover) is the best. The 'meat' in the 2nd edition, at least it seemed to me more practical stuff. The 'bad circuits' alone is awesome.

OTOH, the "X Chapters" of the 3rd edition is one of those analog-guru secret handshake books where The Masters take the Apprentice deep into the bowels of kick-butt analog engineering. Where simplification are eschewed for the Real Answers. https://x.artofelectronics.net/

thanks for the tips! i had assumed the 3rd edition was better at least in the eyes of the authors

The 3rd edition is better. It's not even close. I have no idea where these posters are coming from.

2nd ed, chap 12, Construction Techniques, is missing from the third ed. Or I'm blind, but I don't see it here.

That's one serious weakness of the 3rd edition, I agree, but it's the only part I think is clearly inferior to the 2nd. The actual electronics content was updated and expanded significantly without omitting anything too important.

What little the 3rd ed. does say about construction techniques isn't particularly helpful (or even true), such as when they exaggerate the challenges of working with SMT parts on page 65. It was probably better that they didn't try to go any deeper.

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