Editor-In-Chief
I grew up playing with Lego bricks (yes, it’s always singular, never an S at the end), then repairing and rebuilding bicycles. I excelled at the technical courses in high school – electrical, wood shop, drafting and auto mechanics. My ability to visualize how things work and fit together, or what an end product will look like before I begin creating, is a skill I learned from my father and one that my youngest son shares as well.
My car audio career began with a catalog. I picked up a Lamborghini embossed Alpine brochure in about 1987 when I was 15. I bought and installed an Alpine radio, speakers and a powered 6×9 subwoofer in my father’s car a year later. Thinking, “Well, this seems easy enough,” I entered the car audio industry in my last year of high school. I volunteered at a local car audio shop here in Burlington, ON, for half a day every other day as an installer. From day one, I aimed to learn as much as possible about everything in this industry. I used to read Car Stereo Review, Car Audio and Electronics, CarSound and Autosound & Security religiously. As this was long before the Internet was popular, those were the only sources of information.
Since then, I’ve been a salesperson, sales representative, product specialist, product manager and director of product development. I have been a writer since 1999, specializing in the automotive and mobile electronics industry. I was also responsible for all the car audio product reviews for Performance Auto & Sound magazine from 1999 to 2009. In total, I was fortunate enough to get to audition more than 450 products from 100 different brands in that time.
My car audio career has also been one of my hobbies. I used to judge IASCA Sound Quality competitions. I was honored to judge prestigious events like the Spring Break Nationals and the World Finals on several occasions.
My other pastime is hobby-quality radio-controlled cars and boats. Between my two sons and me, we have about a dozen vehicles. In terms of couch-racing for top speed, yes, I have a radar gun.
As I said, I love knowing how everything works. My formal education as an electronics technician has helped greatly in my quest for knowledge about and understanding of how things in our industry work. Being a writer has given me the skills to share what I have learned with others in the industry and with consumers.