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My Design Philosophy

General

The art of design is finding the balance between simplicity and complexity. I see a lot of bad designs and wacky claims on forums and websites, and bad design and misleading people makes me angry. I don't care how long it takes, I will spend the time to do the design right. I enjoy helping people and like to give them things that they will really enjoy for years to come.

I have been into audio and electronic design for as long as I can remember, and I'm always looking and learning, analysing and building. I consider John Linsley-Hood a great designer, and have learnt a lot from the various contributors to Electronics (Wireless) World magazine (before it turned into the advertorial "industry" mag it is today) and diyAudio forum. I work in the military aerospace environment and I'm lucky to get to talk to some fantastic technical people and take lessons from the way that some things are done.

I believe that something that sounds good will also measure well, but I do not believe that something that measures well will definitely sound good. I always listen to my designs and invite others to do so.

On a practical side I think about making my PCBs logical and easy to build, paying attention to detail such as trying to orient all polarised parts the same way, ensuring adequate space around components, and just taking the time to make the board look neat. How the PCB fits into the rest of the system - wiring etc - is also important so design with that in mind too. I strongly believe in designing things to last and to be easily serviceable should the need arise. I hate the throwaway society.

Amplifiers

My take on amps is that you need to consider failure modes and try to avoid the possibility of damage to the equipment itself as well as any connected equipment wherever possible, also that if any setup is required that it does not put the equipment into any danger. I see so many popular designs that fail to meet these criteria. Then I look at how I can maximise performance without going overboard on complexity, consideration is given to working with all kinds of source and load impedances.

I don't like to see waste and inefficiency.

More to be added...

Loudspeakers

Speakers make the most difference in a system. End of! OK, I'll qualify that by conveniently forgetting dirt cheapo budget sources and amps, I'm talking about once you are in the realms of OK stuff. And the room and positioning is also important.

More to be added...