Brad Wood RIP

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Brad Wood RIP

Post by JR. »

I don't know if folks around here knew Brad Wood (AKA bcarso). He recently died from cancer. RIP

He was a very strong analog design engineer (one of the best I knew).

The world just got a little less smart... First JP now Brad... :cry:

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Brad Wood RIP

Post by mediatechnology »

I'm very sorry to hear that.
I exchanged email with Brad fairly often and had been wondering why my last one had gone unanswered.
I always found Brad to be very helpful and hired him several years ago to proof/edit some work I had written for Ballou's Handbook for Sound Engineers.

I hope he found a custodian for his technical library.
If I recall correctly he lived in an apartment and I have this vision of rooms stuffed to the ceiling with books and technical papers like Bob Pease's office.
I thought of Brad as the voice of technical reason and will miss him.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-wood-9a1a178/
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JR.
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Re: Brad Wood RIP

Post by JR. »

I fell out of touch with him on facebook a couple years ago. I'm not sure if it was my politics or my lack of enthusiasm about still designing phono preamps this century. :lol: As I recall he was working on FET input moving coil design with a trick power supply to deal with the pre-amp topologies inherent poor PSRR...

But enough about circuits, he was interested in music and lots of other stuff too...

JR

PS: I always appreciated that he had another gear that we could take technical discussions further than most people's attention span. RIP
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mediatechnology
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Re: Brad Wood RIP

Post by mediatechnology »

While doing some computer maintenance this weekend I found a resume Brad had sent me in 2009.
Brad Wood

Electronics Engineer with extensive analog and digital design experience, specializing for the last 23 years in audio systems. Also have a substantial background in photonic scientific-research-oriented instrumentation, having served as a research engineer at UCLA from 1968 to 1985.

Recent work has involved home theater systems and high-volume products for multimedia and iPod-centric applications. Disciplines brought to bear have included analog and digital circuit and system design, while working closely with transducer, acoustical, and mechanical engineers, firmware developers, and PCB layout designers to optimize system solutions.

Responsible for the majority of the amplifier and signal-processing designs of several successful Harman products, including Soundsticks, Creature, On Tour, and On Stage. Other clients have included Klipsch, Polk, Mondo USA, and Aurasound. I recently had significant design responsibilities for an all-in-one home theater system for Epson America, Ensemble HD, which features a motorized screen with built-in left, center, and right channel speakers and a centralized IR remote control processor, and a 5.1 channel amplifier system in the subwoofer with multi-band parametric boundary EQ.

Additional recent activities include serving as the principal designer of a new line of switchmode power amplifiers for Blue Blade Audio, which are achieving state-of-the-art noise and distortion performance. Products under development include associated DAC and wireless modules.

I have a keen sense of cost-benefit tradeoffs and manufacturing constraints. Clients get the benefit of general experience while having their designs tailored to the specific requirements for performance. Designs ranging from highly integrated solutions to discrete transistor topologies can be supplied, as is appropriate for the given product. Particular attention is given to the use of multiple-sourced components where possible, and selection of major manufacturers for key parts.

In addition to a well-equipped lab and powerful simulation tools, I work with excellent subcontractors for code generation, PCB layout, and mechanical design.

I hold five patents to date.
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