I've been around audio since childhood. I've been messing around with speakers forever but first encountered books on Thiele/Small parameters around 1979 while going to school at Texas A&M University. This finally made at least some sense of how to go about making something sound decent! These days it doesn't seem so important, in fact the parameters offer little or no real insight into the level of performance a particular driver will be able to reach. Within reason these can be manipulated whereas poor linear or non-linear distortion performance might not. Most of the industry still consider the T/S parameters the, "Bible" but unfortunately they are at best grossly inadequate.
I graduated Texas A&M in May 82' with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering Technology. After spending some time working in the family owned TV repair shop and a couple other jobs I ended up in the Semiconductor Equipment Industry in August, 1984 and I have remained in this industry ever since. I have spent a large part of my career traveling mostly around South East Asia and also parts of Europe. Since Nov 2012 I have been living in upstate New York supporting a local customer so the travel is way down. This is not a permanent situation, I do plan to return to the United States, specifically Texas as soon as possible..
These days I’m more into Home Theatre than 2-ch critical listening systems. In 2008 I moved into a new custom home where I built the theatre featured on this website. Like any audio enthusiast I tend to be opinionated. I don’t believe in high-dollar cables especially high-end amplifier power cables. I’m not aware of many commercial speaker systems that I consider to be particularly good compared to what can be built in DIY. I certainly don’t know of any I would trade my DIY theatre system for in an even trade.
Other hobbies past and present include skydiving, RC aircraft, and a little bit of photography. Recently I've been playing around with these little RC helicopters and Quad rotors.