About The Staff

The Secrets team is made up of technical analysts from wide and varied educational backgrounds and interests, who provide unbiased reviews of product and in-depth technical articles.

We have writers worldwide to reflect the enormous array of interests that pervade the field of Audio/Video. Developing the diverse staff membership has always been a top priority since Secrets first started publishing in 1994. Our writers include electrical engineers and computer programmers to compliment the need for a working knowledge of the high tech industries.

The Senior Editors  

John E. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D. -- Editor-in-Chief.  John has published numerous textbooks and dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis. Dr. Johnson has been affiliated with NASA, The Johns Hopkins University, The University of California at Berkeley, and is Editor-in-Chief of two international medical journals, as well as Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. John has been involved in audio and video for 45 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. He is also the founder of the Northern California Audio Video Association, which is now called The Bay Area Audio Society. Here is a list of the Editor's equipment that he uses in product reviews.

Matt Abel - Matthew put together his first home theater system when he was 16 and his financial well being has never been the same since. Currently a doctoral student in chemical engineering, Matthew is modeling process systems for the pharmaceutical industry. When Matthew is not debugging his models, he enjoys golfing, watching Formula 1 and thinking about receivers.

Matthew has been a Secrets writer since 2002, still has a soft spot for DVD-Audio and holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.

Ross Jones  Ross is an intellectual property lawyer in northern California's Telecom Valley, where he works with technology companies and manufacturers.  He has a background in music theory, and has played bass guitar for 30 years in Los Angeles and Bay Area bands (which explains why he has five subwoofers in his home)."


 
Brian Florian   Brian has been entrenched in Home Theater since the early 90's, though his interest in motion picture and sound technology extends back to growing up in a musically inclined family and watching movies the old fashioned way: at the cinema.  The technical side of high fidelity movie picture and sound presentation are his passion.  Articles on the subject and in depth reviews of associated equipment are his focus here at Secrets.  Currently employed as an IT Sales Consultant, beyond watching movies some of his preferred diversions include working on scale models or doing some light mountain biking."

He also contributes regularly to the graphic art and design of our site.

Jason Victor Serinus  Jason is a music critic, audiophile reviewer/commentator, and professional whistler. His writings requently appear in Secrets, Opera News online, American Record Guide, San Francisco Magazine, sfcv.org, San Francisco Examiner, Bay Area Reporter, Gay City News, Stereophile, and other national and regional publications. He is also an award-winning whistling entertainer, and was "The Voice of Woodstock" whistling Puccini in an Emmy-nominated Peanuts cartoon. For more about Jason, see http://www.jasonserinus.com
 
Ofer LaOr - I grew up in Israel, later moving to the US for a few years where I gained primarily a heavy metal based musical education. I earned an A.Sc degree in electronics before going into the Israeli army as a programmer. After that, I moved to the us for a few years, where I earned a masters degree in software engineering. I have 3 kids aged 11, 8.5 and 2.5. I listen to a few types of music ranging from progressive rock, classical rock, heavy metal (80s through today) and some alternative.
 
In the last 10 years, my passion for Home Theater increased along with my budget. My first plasma was actually purchased on a fluke around 1999-2000 when they were still quite rare. I "accidentally" won it in an ebay style auction. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. The picture quality was so awful, I started researching the subject, and quickly became a frequent visitor at AVSFORUM. After a while, I gained enough knowledge to become a moderator at AVS's video processor forum, where I still moderate today. I started beta testing equipment and quite a lot of displays, video sources and equipment go through my house. I opened my own website for reviews and forums (www.hometheater.co.il), which hosts about 150,000 unique visitors a month (not bad for a Hebrew only niche website). The site has been up for about 3 years and provides me with a lot of access to equipment, vendors and technical access to the local satellite company. I often help out by designing test patterns for them (non grata), beta testing the new HD services and so forth. Since my first plasma, I usually upgrade my display every year, the next plasma on my todo list is a 50" full HD display, although these are quite expensive down here, so I keep testing full HD displays, but waiting for a good price to upgrade my own system to one.

 
Steve Smallcombe - Besides now setting up two front projector-based home theaters, Steve has helped many others tweak their systems with his product called SMART, and through the CC filter tweak he also developed. Steve has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and worked for more than 30 years for a major manufacturer of scientific instruments in the San Francisco Bay area. He is now retired and has moved to the Sierra Nevada Mountains near South Lake Tahoe where he enjoys working outdoors on the home and land he shares with his wife, dogs and cats. Other hobbies include stargazing, using his 20-inch telescope, hiking, skiing, and sailing on Monterey Bay.   

 
Ms. Cynthia Johnson is our Marketing and Public Relations Director. She has a degree in Business Administration, and Visual Design.  She is currently working in San Francisco, California where she shares her new home with a fat puppy and two well fed cats.  She enjoys the quiet side of music listening, and her equipment consists of separates: Sony CD player, Toshiba DVD player, Yamaha receiver, Krix and Velodyne speakers, and one Velodyne subwoofer.  (There used to be 3 subwoofers, but the neighbors complained!)

 
Colin Miller   Colin Miller currently occupies most of his daytime hours doing consulting, programming, and occasionally service work in the field of automation and integration in residential environments, specializing in the area of control systems, audio/video electronics, and whole house distribution systems. He lives in Felton, California up in the Santa Cruz Mountains with his wife, two daughters, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 1 snake, 1 chicken (temporary resident), 4 goats, and literally a handful of goldfish.      
     

Sumit Chawla  Sumit received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1997 and has been working in the software industry in Silicon Valley ever since. He currently works on implementing image processing algorithms for Foveon, a startup company that makes image sensor chips for digital cameras. Prior to joining Foveon, he held engineering positions at Shutterfly and SGI, where he developed software for digital image enhancement and video capture respectively.  Sumit enjoys retreating to his A/V room to listen to music or watch movies. He lives in San Carlos, California with his wife and a soon to be daughter who he hopes will grow up to be an audiophile!
       
 Piero Gabucci. Piero, a native of Alberta, Canada, is an architect living in northern New Jersey with his wife and two sons.  Receiving his architectural degree in Michigan, Piero was heavily influenced by the modern masters like Saarinen at Cranbrook, Louis Kahn, and of course Frank Lloyd Wright.  His love for art and architecture is a natural transition to his enjoyment and passion for music and movies. His taste in music is eclectic from rock, traditional jazz and classical music.  But if Piero is not designing architecture or reviewing equipment, he’s probably playing or watching ice hockey.

Writing for Secrets the last several years, Piero believes that a reviewer’s duty is to inform and involve the reader into his audio experience rather than preach absolutes.  With potentially so many factors involved in the evaluation of audio equipment, the results cannot possibly be “correct” for everyone - making the art of high fidelity extremely subjective. Whether you believe in capturing the quality of the original live performance or the reproduction of music, matters not if the end result is the pure enjoyment, and that’s the goal.  

Chris Groppi. Chris Groppi is a radio astronomer and electrical engineer working as a research scientist at the University of Arizona. He received his Bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Cornell University in 1997, and his Ph.D. in astronomy with a concentration in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona in 2003.  He studies how stars and planets form, and designs and builds millimeter-wave and terahertz receivers for radio telescopes. He became interested in HiFi during high school the first time he listened to a real high-end system (B&W 801s with Mark Levinson electronics). His first system in college was a Headroom headphone amplifier powering Sennheiser HD 580s, and graduated to a real HiFi system in graduate school. His first love has always been 2-channel audio, although his current system has added home theater capability.  

The Secrets Contributing Writing Staff

Adrian Wittenberg
Adrian has a degree in Marketing and Graphic Design.  He currently is working in Oklahoma as a service technician in the IT field.  In his spare time he is a freelance drummer and he likes many different styles of music ranging anywhere from Rock to Classical.  Adrian developed some of his taste for music by listening to his brother, who is a classical pianist that plays concerts and competitions all over the world.  Adrian's home theater includes JBL Studio L speakers, Toshiba DVD player, Microsoft HD DVD Player (Xbox360), and a Yamaha receiver.

Gabe Lowe - Gabriel Lowe has worked in the IT industry for the last 7 years after having been employed in television.  Currently he works in technical support for an enterprise storage company.  Aside from home theater, Gabriel enjoys a variety of activities including gaming, writing, watching sports, and being a dad.  Gabriel has been hooked on home theater since he saw his first one...a McIntosh-based Dolby Surround system at his cousin's house circa 1992

Michael Galvin

Lee Hower - Lee's day job is as a venture capitalist, where he invests primarily in internet and digital media startups.  Before becoming a VC, he worked in corporate development and strategy roles in two successful tech startups (PayPal, LinkedIn).  He received undergraduate degrees in both systems engineering and finance.  Away from work, enjoying and tinkering with his home theater (including DIY projects) keeps him busy in addition passions for soccer, boating, and video gaming.  Lee lives with his wife in Providence, Rhode Island.

Jared Rachwalski - Jared has worked as a Hearing Instrument Practitioner for the past 5 years. This has provided him with a great understanding of the human hearing system and room acoustics. He has been fascinated with music reproduction and stereo equipment since his father allowed him to mess around with his Pink Floyd records and HiFi setup as a child. His musical taste is often described as weird by his wife and has been greatly influenced by his three older brothers diverse musical selections. He is probably the only reviewer ever to use both
The Melvins and Norah Jones in the same listening session. His hometheater includes DIY open baffle speakers from RAW Acoustics, Surround speakers by Paradigm, a DIY Adire Audio subwoofer, Marantz surround sound processing and amplification, an Optoma DLP Projector and 92” screen with a Oppo Digital player for both multichannel music and movies.

Rick Schmidt

Yongki Go

Kevin Lichterman - Kevin has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science.  To finance his home theater, Kevin is currently managing a software engineering group in the automotive electronics industry.   He is a fearless do-it-yourselfer and has tackled many projects including: building speakers, furniture making, assembling computers, remodeling kitchens and baths, and restoring classic cars.  His current project is a 1969 MGB. His tastes are eclectic and he usually sees a raised eyebrow or two when his music and movie collections are examined.  Kevin is married to a very tolerant wife and has 2 beautiful girls who are determined to get their fingerprints onto his HDTV.      

Paul Taatjes - Paul has a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and currently lives in Bremerton, Washington, working as a Test and Evaluation Engineer.  He started his affinity for higher end sound in high school, where his car audio system he designed, built, installed, cost as much as his car.  His music tastes are all over the map but has a tendency to favor alternative and anything with a bit of an edge.  His hobbies include mountain biking, video games, disc golf, home theater, portable audio, and motorcycling.  His home theater includes a  Denon AVR-4306, SVS PB2/Ultra, Onix Rocket RS-850s and RSC-200, Axiom QS8s, Xbox 360 (Gamertag Ptaaty), Playstation 3, Sharp XV-Z12000 Projector, Toshiba HD-A2, and PS Audio UPC-200.