RSS Consultancy provides information and advice on high-end audio equipment design, specialising in valve (tube) technology, including the production of technical articles and reviews for journals and magazines.
Current and past activities:
- Articles on technical aspects of audio equipment and some original designs for Hi-Fi Journals and magazines.
- Reviews and regular features for Hi-Fi Choice and Hi-Fi World UK magazines, audioXpress (USA), Australian Hi-Fi magazine and Stereonet international web-based audio publication.
- Consultancy services to NHS Dorset including recommendatons for the re-design of IT services for the Clinical Commissioning Group and all Primary Care organisations throughout Dorset.
- The design and implementation of various database systems, including several for a clinical centre of a major acute hospital in the UK. The hospital databases supported Patient Management Systems containing patient administrative and clinical details in a multi-user environment.
- Technical advice to a London based Risk Management Organisation, which resulted in the successful design and implementation of an Automated Safety Surveillance Database System for an Oil Refinery in Germany.
Hi-Fi and Television
For Hi-Fi enthusiasts wishing to build their own stepped attenuator to replace the volume control in their amplifier, I have written two Javascript programs to calculate the values of the resistors required; one for a resistor string attenuator and the other for a shunt attenuator.
If anyone wants to test 300B triodes on a valve tester that doesn't support these valves, click here to read how I solved the problem with my B&K Dyna-Jet Valve (Tube) Tester Model 606.
I have an EPROM programmer and firmware images of three versions for the Studer A810: 25/86, 01/88 and 25/91. I also have a small stock of the correct blank EPROMS for the machine (ST M2764A-2F1, the 200ns version of the chip as per the original specification). If anyone wants to upgrade the firmware in an A810, I may be able to help - please contact me at the address below. Note that the most stable version is 01/88. Version 25/91 only enhances the timecode function of the machine and I understand that it is not quite as stable as the 01/88 version.
I have written a number of articles for Hi-Fi and audio magazines over the years. Links and some reproductions of the submitted articles as PDF files are available here.
For anyone interested in television engineering, I wrote an article for Wireless World back in 1979 entitled "Colour Synthesizer Design for the PAL System" on the design of a unit to electronically generate colour television pictures from a black & white source. The article can be downloaded here.
For narrow band television engineering enthusiasts, I have written an article on how to display images from recordings of Baird 30-line television. Download the article here.
Chartered Physicist