A bit about your host....

[LTig]

Interesting. All those years of EE experience and not a single publication? How come? (Searched IEEE explore, Elsevier, and MDPI for Amir Majidimehr - 0 results).

Engineers are not scientists.

 

[amirm]

Interesting. All those years of EE experience and not a single publication? How come? (Searched IEEE explore, Elsevier, and MDPI for Amir Majidimehr - 0 results).

Not a fan of giving away company crown jewels in the form of papers. If you are a researcher, then how many papers you have published is a figure of merit. For that reason, Microsoft Research was always anxious to publish papers as did the researchers in my team. Some were even in the review board of the organizations you list for their journals. But for an engineering team in competitive space as I always was, papers did you little good and lots of harm. Patent trolls for example love to go after you when you publish anything related to signal processing.

All of this is beside the point. The organizations you list simply don't like good looking men like me just because I let my mustache grow a bit:

 

[j_j]

Interesting. All those years of EE experience and not a single publication? How come? (Searched IEEE explore, Elsevier, and MDPI for Amir Majidimehr - 0 results).

There's always one in every crowd.

 

[amitm]

Not a fan of giving away company crown jewels in the form of papers. If you are a researcher, then how many papers you have published is a figure of merit. For that reason, Microsoft Research was always anxious to publish papers as did the researchers in my team. Some were even in the review board of the organizations you list for their journals. But for an engineering team in competitive space as I always was, papers did you little good and lots of harm. Patent trolls for example love to go after you when you publish anything related to signal processing.

All of this is beside the point. The organizations you list simply don't like good looking men like me just because I let my mustache grow a bit:

This is my first post here, so where better to start.

Impressive background, Amir! And the kind that I have always wanted to see in someone involved in audio and who measures and opines on products. Not that the likes of Linkwitz and Earl Geddes were/are not good for audio, but they had/have "trade secrets"

Regarding patents -- as usual, there would be a different point of view on this, but you knew this, right? First some basic background -- I am heavily involved in Signal Processing and the like and have some published papers from a long time ago; however, hardly have any patents. Maybe I am no longer capable

I am conflicted about patents, especially as industry seems to be driving front-line theoretical work in many areas in recent times. I understand the need for them for companies; however, somehow my basis for comparison has always been Euler whose patents essentially were papers (not that I have any illusion that I am even remotely capable of what he did). Modern patents are piecemeal papers in my opinion with conflated claims to cover as large a swath as possible. Papers are where you put the whole picture together and explain to the community at large. However, it is not in the interest of companies to write such papers.

Many modern patents, especially the like of introducing a bit in a message in a Spec so that one can get royalty, completely turns me off. BTW, not to diss on that kind of patent itself, since the basis behind it is typically non-trivial.

--amit

 

[robertozappala]

This is a bit about your host, Amir Majidimehr. I am writing this as to give more context to people reading my technical reviews and measurements. I have realized that without this context, many assume I am yet another blogger spitting out graphs. That is very true but let’s see if we can confuse them with an alternate reality!

Without giving away my exact age, I grew up in 1960s with analog electronics as my primary hobby. Learned that from my oldest brother who likewise had the same hobby and spent his nights and days designing electronics. This gave me an intuition for analog electronics which to this day serves me better any textbook or formal education.

Speaking of formal education, I naturally aimed to get an Electrical Engineering degree which I received in early 1980s (still trying hard to not give away my age!). During that time though, the personal computer revolution was upon us and I quickly fell in love with my second hobby: software. I programmed my Apple II and later managed the computer lab at the college where I wrote a bunch of custom software including an editor all the students used to write their programs.

During schooling, I worked at an electronics repair shop, fixing everything from audio equipment to VHF radios. That childhood experience really got cemented combined with a new skill of having to troubleshoot equipment, usually with no schematic. All in all, I repaired hundreds of pieces of equipment, getting a good feel for quality engineering versus not.

Back to the degree, once I graduated, the first job I found was actually software, not engineering. I became a Unix “kernel” (Operating system) developer working on then new, Unix operating system. That gave me another baptism by fire having to learn nearly half a million lines of code with nary any documentation. This was at a large minicomputer company producing systems costing nearly $300,000. Kernel work gets you pretty close to hardware and during that time, I got a very deep understanding of it. This was a good thing as Unix became the foundation for much of what we use today from Linux to Android, MacOS and Windows.

In late 1980s I had an opportunity to work at the computer division of Sony. Initially the job was building a software team to develop Unix but we proposed and won approval to design and build our own hardware to go with it. There we went deep, developing our own ASICs (large scale custom electronic IC), motherboards, audio subsystem, power supply, LCD display etc. Working for Sony was great as at that time they were in their peak of success and their quality standards were quite high. We combined that with great engineering from US in silicon valley and really pushed state of the art in design and simulation at that time.

It was during that time that I got exposed to products of a then new company, Audio Precision (AP). They had overnight obsoleted audio measurement products from likes of HP (now Agilent/Keysight). I bought one for the team but I was the only one who learned to use it. It cost a cool $25,000 which at the time (early 1990s) was quite a lot of money. Still is today.

Sony fell on hard times after acquiring Columbia Pictures so my team was let go. I was offered to stay there but I got bored and left. In return for some consulting though, I got to keep that original AP (which I later gave to my brother -- the unit I have now is much newer).

Having developed my hardware skills, the next two companies I worked for also developed hardware and software: Abekas Video Systems and Pinnacle (now part of Avid). There, I managed hardware, firmware and software engineers development high-end hardware for real-time effects, switching, graphics, editing, etc. I am fortunate enough to have managed a very smart team which won two technical Emmy Awards.

By then a new development was happening: the web. I had worked extensively on networking which was the underpinning of the Internet. The advent of browsers took that to a new level and I wanted to be a part of that. So when my ex-boss from Akekas called me to say he was leading a Stanford-university start-up that was streaming video on the web, I jump at the chance to lead engineering there.

This was in the days of dial-up modems and trying to send video and audio through such slow link was nothing short of a miracle. Still, we managed to do it well enough that the company got acquired by Microsoft back in 1997 (https://news.microsoft.com/1997/08/...timedia-strategy-with-release-of-netshow-2-0/).

I specialized at Microsoft in driving our technology through other products than just the PC. At the time everyone was the enemy of Microsoft it seemed so it was a big challenge. At the end, we did it with our products literally shipping billions of other devices and every Blu-ray player. Only Apple refused to ship and use it. To date, those products all generate significant royalty stream for Microsoft, long after I am gone from there.

During my time at Microsoft, as VP of Digital Media Division, I grew to manage a division of nearly 1000 engineers, testers, marketing and business development people. One of the groups I managed though was the signal processing team which produced audio and video compression technologies. Both of those relied on refreshing my knowledge of the core signal processing science back in college and learning a ton more about new domains like psychoacoustics. Formal and controlled testing was a part of that just the same. Through training, I became an “expert” in finding difficult audio distortions that many could not. This training is serving me well to this day in being able to pass audio objectivist challenges of blind tests of small distortions.

I am very proud of the accomplishments of my team at Microsoft as it led to winning yet another technical Emmy award (see https://flic.kr/p/x72F4 . I am the one on the right). I also received an incredible education working with my many top engineers from audio processing to streaming and audio subsystem in the OS.

I retired from Microsoft back in 2007 (officially left in 2008) and created a start-up which was acquired by Fortune 50 companies. I currently own a system integration company, Madrona Digital, that does security, audio/video, lighting, networking, etc. for mid to high-end homes and commercial buildings (no retail sales). This gives me great exposure to the industry and the “back story” of it.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that I am very familiar with many aspects of the systems we talk about. I am comfortable talking about networking and streaming one minute, and good power supply design the next. Hey, we could even talk about patents, business aspects, etc.

No, it doesn’t mean I know more than anyone in these fields. Many people have more experience than me in their deep vertical. What it means is that I have a broader set of experiences than most, and I have the knowledge to dig deep and analyze what is going on after some 40 years of being immersed in all aspects related to audio and technology.

Here is a list of technologies I feel very comfortable in:

1. Computer architecture, hardware design, networking, operating system, memory management, system architecture, etc.

2. Internet protocols and streaming technologies

3. Audio/Video signal processing, compression, psychoacoustics, controlled/blind testing

4. Analog and digital electronics

5. Sound reproduction in rooms (learned post retirement from some of the best teachers one can have such as Dr. Floyd Toole)

6. Audio measurements and analysis.

7. Bad sense of humor which you will see peppered in most of my writing.


So there it is. No more complaining about who this idiot is that is writing these articles.

I had already googled you, so I knew you!

 

[Scrivs]

Hey guys,

Just want you to know sir how humbled I am by the amount of intelligence, effort, time, and lifelong wisdom you have provided for all of us here! Especially now, during these increasingly disturbing times (I’m apolitical folks). What I do believe in though, is the positivity that you so have so generously provided us all with. I would also humbly offer my sincere thanks to all the other forum members that have provided me with the same

I have learned more about (Hifi and audio) electronics here than I did as 13 years as a C-130H/J Navigator , and Avionics technician. I have much more of an interest in it now go figure

Thank you once again everyone, I am especially grateful for you sir, I simply cannot believe what a resource you have provided that is free from the residue of clickable Amazon links, and is presented honestly truthfully, and is evidence based. When I finished reading your background, I realized I had to convey my respect for you, and what you to provide for us

Amir, I’ll be sending you a P.M here shortly about something I would like to send you

An honest pleasure to meet you all!

Cheers,

John.

 

[Scrivs]

Post #103 had me rolling on the floor with laughter (at 0100 Hawaii Standard Tone no less)

The ole’ ball and chain wasn’t pleased

Truly a powerful, and formidable lip-caterpillar, one that will serve as this year’s “Movember“ inspiration

 

[The Capstan]

Hi Amirm,

your CV is super impressive. What a range of technical knowledge!
I see you have dedicated a lot of your life to video and the two (if I am not wrong) Emmys are excellent awards.
You mentioned Sony and Abekas, I also work in the video industry (now managing Broadcast Operations) this makes me remember the days when I used the Abekas A-53D digital video effects in post production. Also Sony machines, especially video recorders, were the best in class in mid 90.

Thank you for the good work you are doing with ASR and good to know it’s is based on solid foundations!

my best,
Alessandro

 

[j_j]

Engineers are not scientists.

Yeah, is that so? How come I knew so many engineers in Research at Bell Labs, where I spent 26 years in Acoustics Research?

Some engineers are not scientists. Some most certainly are. Would you care to rephrase that a bit. After all, engineers are the very epitome of testing and verification, and "testability" *IS* the primary aspect of science itself.

 

[SIY]

Yeah, is that so? How come I knew so many engineers in Research at Bell Labs, where I spent 26 years in Acoustics Research?

Some engineers are not scientists. Some most certainly are. Would you care to rephrase that a bit. After all, engineers are the very epitome of testing and verification, and "testability" *IS* the primary aspect of science itself.

Let me ask the reverse question: are scientists engineers? I was amused to find that I was ineligible to sit for the PE certification because my degrees were in physics and chemistry, not engineering.

I distinguish the two disciplines, but that doesn't mean that NO engineers EVER do science, nor does it mean that NO scientists EVER do engineering.

 

[LTig]

Engineers are not scientists.

Yeah, is that so? How come I knew so many engineers in Research at Bell Labs, where I spent 26 years in Acoustics Research?

I posted my statement with regard to this posting:

Interesting. All those years of EE experience and not a single publication? How come? (Searched IEEE explore, Elsevier, and MDPI for Amir Majidimehr - 0 results).

As @amirm himself wrote in the posting following mine, engineers usually do not publish the results of their workings in form of papers as scientists do - that was all I wanted to say.

Some engineers are not scientists. Some most certainly are. Would you care to rephrase that a bit. After all, engineers are the very epitome of testing and verification, and "testability" *IS* the primary aspect of science itself.

In my understanding scientists do research while engineers use the results of this research to create products one can sell. Of course - as you said - borders between those two occupations are floating, and it was not my intention to embarrass engineers working in research - if I did to anyone please accept my apologize.

Where I work (R&D) 80% of my colleagues have a PHD in chemistry or physics but only a minor part of them do real research, most of them do engineering (being an EE I myself certainly do no research). I think that this is rather the norm in industry and Bell Labs and Microsoft Research are notable exceptions.

 

[j_j]

Let me ask the reverse question: are scientists engineers? I was amused to find that I was ineligible to sit for the PE certification because my degrees were in physics and chemistry, not engineering.

Well, PE certifications are often about controlling the available market, more than anything else, but depending on what you actually work on, that is of course a silly distinction. I will say I know a few chemists and physicists who are brilliant, but should not be left near a soldering iron. Likewise, I know more than a few engineers who are amazing at building things, but really don't use basic physics a lot. It takes all kinds.

 

[j_j]

Where I work (R&D) 80% of my colleagues have a PHD in chemistry or physics but only a minor part of them do real research, most of them do engineering (being an EE I myself certainly do no research). I think that this is rather the norm in industry and Bell Labs and Microsoft Research are notable exceptions.

Well, I don't know about MSR, but at the old Bell Labs, you did what you were good at. Some of the best CS and computer design types were physicists. More than one EE did pure research.

I will say that it does often take a couple of engineers to support a researcher, and by that I do not mean in a subordinate roll, either, to the point one might considering there being "engineering research".

I speak as a Masters Level EE who spent almost all of my life swerving between basic research and applying the research, alternately. I get lots of "sniff, you're just an engineer", never mind the research results to this day. So yeah, I'm a bit sensitive about that.

 

[LTig]

I speak as a Masters Level EE who spent almost all of my life swerving between basic research and applying the research, alternately. I get lots of "sniff, you're just an engineer", never mind the research results to this day. So yeah, I'm a bit sensitive about that.

Luckily this is not the case here. Although I'm "only" an engineer I've never experienced any of my PHD colleagues looking down on me - merely quite the opposite. The results do count more then the education of the person who delivers them.

 

[lambda_unit]

This is a great resource! I just decided to buy an entry-level hifi setup -- my dad had a vintage set-up that I've missed since I've been living on my own in small apartments. I bopped over from reddit's BudgetAudiophile. As a physicist, I always want to see the data, to understand how the technical specs relate to the subjective experience. This seems like the ideal place to get unbiased reviews. Thanks for putting this all out here!

 

[fmplayer]

@amirm, just found your CV, and my first post is just to praise it. It's a joy to read you, and I better understand why I was inclined to trust your writings not knowing you. People who know what they say are not that common. So keep doing, please.
About researchers vs engineers : The formers find problems, the latters solve them ;-)

 

[Entropic]

@amirm Found u 2 hrs, ago. Plowed thru your CV & this page with a Guinness. Having met Paul W. Klipsch, Henry Kloss, Ray Kurzweil, Gordon Gow among others over my ricochet audio/consumer wake I am pleased to place you with them as people I trust. Hope to meet you one day after/if Covid leaves us. Worked audio salons & big box part time in the 80's. Like the lack of bull you bring to the banquet. The E stands for entropic.
Are you in Seattle? When I get there again I'd like to drop off a MAC 1900 and a Pioneer 1080 for you to play with, or maybe commercially ship them out if there is interest from you and the B & B membership. They are as is... untweeked. Like you.

 

[amirm]

Thank you for the continued kind remarks. It is much, much appreciate with great humbleness. We live outside of Seattle but close enough. Yes, can't wait for Convid issue to subside and meet people again in person. The Pioneer 1080 would be great to test as will be the Mac.

 

[john.whitebrook]

Interesting to hear an Engineer / Scientist debate and thought I would add my favourite definition - "an Engineer is someone who can design something for £1 that any idiot can do for £10"
On a specific Audio theme, whilst working in R&D at AMS-NEVE, we did a lot of implementations of filter design on our, at the time, state of the art dsp engines and found that none of the theoretical work done for numerous PhDs actually worked. Science can point the way but it takes an Engineer to complete the journey.
P.S. Thank you Amirm for you dedication and clarity.

 

[Ronin]

Personally, I look forward to your reviews and recommendations. It helps in making sense of the multitude of products on the market. Typically I look for your avatar when searching for information on this site. Thank you for your work on audio gear.