Far North Electroacoustics

Since 1995, I’ve had the opportunity to work with others on the development of some great audio products. Here’s a few that I am particularly proud of.

DropLabs EP01: 2019-2020

This was a memorable product to have worked on, for all the challenges involved. Not only was this my first haptic audio product, but getting it to work in shoes – where the user experience could be quite variable – was an all-new engineering challenge. Additionally, getting the shoes into production, at a time where I could not travel to production facilities to support and troubleshoot issues, was supremely difficult.

Sonos Beam: 2016-2017

There were some interesting challenges that the team had with the 3 passive radiators (the third one is in the back of the system), and the elliptically shaped woofers had to have square motors in order for them to fit into the system.  The work that went into this project resulted in some of my proudest moments at Sonos.

Sonos Playbase: 2013-2017

3 tweeters, 6 midrange drivers, and 1 woofer mounted into a ported enclosure, all is a system under 55 mm tall – this product was definitely one of the biggest challenges of my career, and multiple patents were awarded in association with the team’s hard work.

Jarre Technologies AeroSkull: 2012-2013

This was the first loudspeaker system I personally handled the acoustics (transducer selection and system tuning and debugging) on, beginning to end.  I was really happy with the choice of woofer.  Spending time in a recording studio in Paris, working to finalize the tuning, was a real highlight of my career.

Tymphany FLT-100: 2011

We needed a shallow woofer to work in shallow soundbars, associated with flat panel TVs.  I knew we needed to break the second suspension element’s normal linkage to the voice coil, and so hit upon vertically-oriented suspension elements, attached from the underside of the diaphragm to the basket, to help control rocking mode behavior.  This worked surprisingly well, and we patented the technology as a result.

Vifa NE transducers: 2009-2010

Originally conceived by our Danish colleagues, it was left to our team in China to finish the design of these hi-fi masterpieces, and get them out into the world for all to enjoy.  It was my honour and privilege to maintain the heritage of the Vifa and Peerless brands during my latter days at Tymphany.

Tymphany LAT-250: 2006-2007

There was so much to learn out of this project: structural behavior of moving parts, ballistics of moving parts, airflow within a complex structure, how manufacturing processes should be designed to reflect product key characteristics, and how to manage complex and untried manufacturing techniques in a foreign country.  This was the project which brought me to China, and I stayed there for 5 years.

Bose PowerNd woofer: 2001-2004

These were a series of 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch woofers with integrated linear amplifications.  This was the first project I worked on where electronics were an integrated part of the transducer…and I learned a whole lot about airflow through fabric, and how to control buzzing electronics, from working on this project.  My first patent is associated with the amplifier and heat sink sitting within the conical space in the front of these woofers.

Bose Richbass woofer: 1999-2002

I’m so proud to have developed this product.  It’s still in use by Bose today, which means that there must be well over 10 million woofers that have been used in automotive audio systems at this time.  It’s a 5.25-inch woofer, designed for use in ported enclosures.  I took it as a personal challenge to make the design perform well acoustically, be incredibly robust in the challenges of an automotive requirement, and be designed for easy manufacturability.  I’ve returned to use similar performance targets over the years, in other designs.  There’s a story behind the name of the product, which I’ll only repeat in person.

Boston Acoustics Micromedia System: 1996-1997

At the dawn of the Internet, Windows 95 era, computers were becoming a much bigger thing in people’s lives.  Boston Acoustics developed this 3-piece system to work with your computer, and they partnered with Gateway Computers to sell this system together with their computers.  I was happy to have developed the transducer prototype designs which got this product under way–though I suspect that the designs were changed in later years (after I left) as production moved overseas.

Boston Acoustics A6: 1996-1997

(I’ll get a picture the next time I stop by to see my parents)

One of the first projects I worked on at Boston Acoustics was the development of a series of loudspeakers that was marketed for sale only in China.  I worked on the transducer designs for all of the loudspeakers in the product line.  The transducers in the A6 system performed so well that the crossover network only consisted of a few components, rolling the tweeter in at the right frequency and getting the woofer and tweeter levels to match up properly.