Custom Automotive Sound System - Audi A4

I designed, built, and installed a high-fidelity sound system to replace the dreadful Bose system with which it had been originally equipped.

• Fiberglass Mid-Bass Speaker Enclosures - Illustrates one completed enclosure on left and one sculpted foam form on right (prior to application of fiberglass mat and epoxy resin.  I crafted these air-tight enclosures to house mid-bass speakers in each of the two front doors.  The unusual shape was necessitated by the placement of the mechanical components within the door.
• Subwoofer Enclosure, Assembly Stage - I designed this wood enclosure and cut its many pieces using conventional manual woodworking tools and machinery.  One of the final gluing stages is shown.
• Subwoofer Enclosure, Completed - The enclosure is shown structurally complete, awaiting painting, speaker driver mounting, and installation.  It was mounted beneath rear parcel shelf in the trunk where it consumed minimal space.  This carefully considered design retained the utility of the fold-down rear seats and ski pass-through in the rear armrest.

Custom Home Audio System - Wilton, CT

• Ceiling Speakers - The objective was to provide audiophile-quality sound without sacrificing any floor space.  The angled ceiling provided an ideal location for speakers, as the sound is made to project directly towards the listening area.  Instead of mounting readily-available in-wall-type speakers (they can sound very good, but are a compromise), I designed sealed wood speaker enclosures using CAD (computer aided design).  After I built the enclosures and mounted them in the ceiling, the wainscoting ceiling material was applied, concealing the enclosures.  I then routed-out oval patches in the wainscoting and flush-mounted the cherry speaker baffles, gluing them to the (hidden) face of the speaker enclosures above.   The speaker drivers (of a make used in many commercial recording studios) were installed as the last step.  How do they sound?  Phenomenal!

Various Custom Electronic Devices - for installation in private estate in Silicon Valley, California area.

As a member of a small design team, I designed and built numerous microprocessor-equipped devices to permit control of lighting, audio, video, and other architectural systems via a local operating network (LON).

• Modular Lighting Control System - This centrally-located lighting control system was entirely custom built.  Hundreds of interchangeable dimmer modules are housed in rack-mount card frames.  I was responsible for circuit board design, mechanical design, testing, production management, and software development.
• Lighting Control Panel - Designed to mimic period push-button light switch, this panel mounts in standard electrical enclosure and permits recall of lighting presets as well as manual control of levels for six lighting "areas."  I was responsible for circuit board design, mechanical design, testing, production management, and software development.
• Audio Preamplifiers - Each stereo preamp allows for control of volume, balance, treble, midrange, and bass adjustment and serves a single room or zone.  I was responsible for circuit prototyping, circuit board design, mechanical design, fabrication, production management, assembly, testing, and software development.
• Network Power Supplies and Routers - These supply power to the control network and route network data.  I was responsible for circuit board design, mechanical design, fabrication (including engraving of panel legends), assembly, and testing.
• Multi-Channel Preamplifier and Speaker Matrix Switch - The upper device adjusts the audio level sent to each of six banks of power amplifiers.   The lower two card cages are part of a fairly enormous matrix switch that permits routing of the outputs of any one of eight banks of power amplifiers to any one of thirty speaker outlets throughout the premises.  I was responsible for circuit prototyping, circuit board design, mechanical design, fabrication, production management, assembly, testing, and software development.
• Printed Circuit Boards - Some of these are contained in devices depicted above, most are for other devices.  I designed them all and hand-assembled the two shown at lower left.