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A bit about your host....

Bernard23

Addicted to Fun and Learning
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Dear Amir, like many others who have taken the time to read up on your background, we can only dream of a universe in which you are the chief editor of something like What Hi-Fi. I'm definitely not a scientist, and barely qualified as an engineer, but worked with enough of both over many years to recognise the importance of validation. Thanks for taking so much time and effort to provide such useful data.
 

LanceLewin

Member
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Feb 17, 2021
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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.

Good morning! This extended bio is really a great idea - and one others need to use (especially those) who write/respond to posts in precise detail: here we are able to validate our ideas, concepts and general thoughtful responses on a variety of subjects. Simiarily, I administrate two (online) photography critique groups for the Photographic Society of America and one of the first (and important) items I discuss with new members is becoming familiar with the other participants biographical summary, which is posted on a special page: here, each participant learns about the others 1. level of technical experience (and photography education) and 2. interests (landscape, portrait, straight photography vs digitally manipulated...etc) and in general, what makes them tick, as it relates to photography. In this way more thoughtful (and relevant) critiquing is enjoyed by everyone.

Kind regards,
Lance A. Lewin
visualizingart.com
 

Gadget Goober

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Mar 7, 2021
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Amir, cheers, I'm so happy to have finally found a forum that I feel I can call "home". Despite being an engineer and well versed in electronics, the varied nuances of the audio world is not something I have delved into very far. Joining other forums is daunting at best - I felt a "repulsion", feeling like I'd be lambasted if I joined and asked "stupid questions". Seems tough to try gain knowledge and become an "Audiophile" via joining a forum and asking questions nowadays, just for the fear of being shunned immediately. I'm so happy to have joined, and you can SURELY expect a donation very shortly.

By the way, if I have a question about my username, would you kindly accept a PM from me explaining the situation? Basically, I'd like to change my username and wanted to ask about that before I donate, to avoid any "supporter" title issues afterwards. (my apologies if this wasn't the place to ask, I'll refrain next time, if so.)
 
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Cc-Mode

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Feb 21, 2021
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Thanks for all the time and efforts to make and share you knowledge and findings.
 

jmz

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2021
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31
Location
London, UK
Hello Amir,

looks like you are man of renaissance with extremely wide area of experience. I must admit that it is great pleasure to learn from you, someone with that impressive achievements.

It is really great idea that you published your professional achievement list. Now I will better understand your judgement and situation when you will criticise some engineering solutions.

I discovered your web page when I started looking for informations about DACs. This is why I bought D10s... something for the beginning.

Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. Thanks to you, my future audio equipment choices will be more wise. Also I will learn a lot...
 

TheBatsEar

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
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Germany
Dear Amir, like many others who have taken the time to read up on your background, we can only dream of a universe in which you are the chief editor of something like What Hi-Fi.

I doubt the problem is the chief editor in place, but the reliance on advertisement for income. It's easy to be free, if you have the dough so to speak. If you have to make a living, your boss (the advertisers) have a say in the rating of hardware as well, not the the facts alone.
 

gurneykhera

New Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
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Location
Adelaide, Australia
Hi, Im a new member from Australia, conveying my gratitude and respects to you Amir for establishing this site and your excellent objective audio reviews and measurements which have significantly helped me in audio purchasing decisions as well as informative entertainment ! It was gratifying to read about the man behind the name and your significant engineering accomplishments and I applaud your enthusiasm for sharing your knowledge with your readers on the audio forums. BTW, I too wish to change my username , kindly advise how ? thanks
 
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Magma

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2021
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7
Thank you Amir for this website. Your credentials are truly top-notch. ASR is a wonderful resource and having an experienced and analytical person like you sharing his thoughts and findings is a privilege.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
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Hi, Im a new member from Australia, conveying my gratitude and respects to you Amir for establishing this site and your excellent objective audio reviews and measurements which have significantly helped me in audio purchasing decisions as well as informative entertainment ! It was gratifying to read about the man behind the name and your significant engineering accomplishments and I applaud your enthusiasm for sharing your knowledge with your readers on the audio forums. BTW, I too wish to change my username , kindly advise how ? thanks
Thank you so much for kind remarks. Much appreciated. Please start a conversation with me and let me know what you want your alias to be and I will change it.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
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Location
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Thank you Amir for this website. Your credentials are truly top-notch. ASR is a wonderful resource and having an experienced and analytical person like you sharing his thoughts and findings is a privilege.
You are very kind.
 

ibbeebee

New Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2021
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1
Yes A great website , really good advice and one of the friendliest sites I have spent time on. I was great, and a little awe inspiring reading your CV. I also have only recently joined the site but am going to be a regular from now on Cheers Beebee
 

JayGilb

Major Contributor
Joined
Jul 22, 2021
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West-Central Wisconsin
Hello Amir,

I've been reading this site's articles for a month or so while researching desktop DACs and found your credentials quite impressive.
I too am an older engineer who has spent his career working with UNIX (Cray Research, sgi, Intel) and performing physical design engineering (software/hardware) on high speed switch and router ASICs. I've been a lifetime lover of audio and all things electronic. I enjoy building various circuit designs for my home audio system.

Thanks for all the effort you and other contributors have put into this wonderful website.
 
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Strato007

Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2020
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11
Amir!! You have given to me a beautiful sense of what audio means with professionalism, honestity and always keeping a low profile.
Thanks for your time to give us a new opportunity and inspiration!
 

Saidera

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
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309
Location
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
What intrigues me is how amirm's avatar gave the impression of Jidaigeki where a Japanese female is dressed ready to exact revenge (仇討ち). Now I understand that it's highly likely that the size of the white hat means that it is not a revenge (where a white band is wrapped around the head) and is actually a Japanese bride dressed for a wedding.

Meanwhile I'm inspired to change my avatar from the pink SAPARi cat into one from Jidaigeki.
 

ezra_s

Active Member
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Mar 23, 2020
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shame on me for reading your bio just now after I've been a while here. Amazing curriculum. This gives me the idea, it is good to dig the curriculum of reviewers out there before trusting most of what they say.
 

Afriza.

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2021
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Hey Amir, thank you for these reviews. They have given me a lot of insight on audio, and made me question a lot about headphone reviews on Youtube and popular forums, many of those seems to contradict measurements and I find it fascinating.


And so again, I thank you.
 
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