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12 Questions For Andrew Jones, Director Of Speaker Engineering For Pioneer Electronics And TAD Labs
Speaker designers usually focus on one part of the market. Maybe they design high-end speakers. Maybe they design budget speakers. Maybe they’d want to do both, but haven’t the opportunity. Well Andrew Jones has that opportunity, working for Pioneer, and Pioneer’s high-end speaker company, TAD.
As loved as his $40,000 speakers are, his budget line from Pioneer has won awards in their own right, and brought a new level of fidelity to a segment of the market that historically lacked it. Great sounding speakers for $100? Heresy.
So I figured it was worth a bit of time to see how he ticked.
Geoffrey Morrison: What was your first job?
Andrew Jones: It was as a research officer at university, researching in the field of noise cancellation. My role was developing speaker systems that could produce high levels of low frequencies in order to cancel the original noise course, such as ships engines or standby generators for hospitals. It wasn’t hifi, but it was a fun diversion!
Pioneer SPPK52FS by Andrew JonesGM: What drew you to the audio industry?
AJ: I was always a geek, interested in science and technology. When I was given my first record player that sealed my future, I wanted to combine listening with the technology of listening. From then till now, I’ve never wanted to do anything else.
GM: Was there a class at uni that you’ve found particularly useful in your career?
AJ: We’ll it certainly wasn’t my Quantum QTM +3.63% Mechanics class!! In a fit of exasperation one day, the lecturer blurted out “I’m sorry…..I just can’t come down to your level!” I would have to say it was my acoustics classes and electromagnetics, although in reality, the real university was KEF.
GM: That’s where you got your start?
AJ: My start came from getting to know Laurie Fincham, technical director of KEF. After having to turn down a 6 month placement with Philips Research in Eindhoven during my undergrad studies, I applied to KEF, but was too late for that year. It did, however, start a relationship that led to a job offer there few years later. That was my dream job, and an unsurpassed environment for learning and growth.
GM: How about books? Any you’ve found useful over the years?
AJ: Plenty! All the standard acoustics textbooks by Morse, Beranek, Olsen et al, but also the vast archives of research papers from the Audio Engineering Society, the BBC, Philips etc. Some of these books are on my bedside table, (I know how sad that sounds), but the laws of physics and acoustics don’t change and so these texts remain constantly relevant. |
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