From building the gear to listening with it.
Jules began his adventure in audio and electronics at age 16 during the era of classic 1970s rock. While his friends were swooning over electric guitars, he bought a PAiA kit and built an analog synthesizer. While still in high school, he built a mixing board and started doing live sound for local bands.
He went on to study physics before joining the U.S. Navy, spending 20 years as a nuclear submariner. Between submarine assignments he taught reactor kinetics at the Naval Nuclear Power School by day, and spent many nights honing his skills in recording studios. Along the way he published DIY work in audio and electronics magazines and continued designing and modifying recording equipment.
In 2014, his focus shifted strongly toward microphones: first modifying established circuits, then developing new approaches, including an OPA-based condenser-microphone impedance converter presented at the 153rd AES Convention.
Today the work increasingly centers on immersive sound — from Ambisonic microphone arrays to underwater spatial recording — with an emphasis on making the tools understandable and accessible enough for other builders, students, musicians and engineers to experiment with them.