diSegno

Looking back...

2011-07-27T03:15:00.000-07:00

As we are about to re-launch the CD players, I got a bit of a deja vous feeling and found myself reminiscing the initial Sonneteer journey while I was talking to a chap about the business.

Haider was making an amplifier for his university project... I was working on a satellite receiver project for my placement company. Although we were both really into music I remember I was far more into Hi Fi then him, and my friends were into it too and so were my colleagues and so on... you get the picture.

Anyway, I remember back then Haider often came to my place with his black box project of an amplifier with a bag of bits and try things out. It usually happens after him blowing it up at his place so let's just say he was changing and updating components quite often! Back then, we used any bits available so long as the values were fulfilled and he started to notice those changes of component often changed the way the amplifier sounded! So quite often he comes over to my place and say, "tell me I'm not losing it, but if I do this the thing sounds different!!!". Quite often I agreed and it wasn't long until the sound we got out of that ugly black box with a hand written "h" on it was out performing my own system.

After the degree was over, Haider decided to take a holiday in the USA to cool his heels and left his pride and joy of an amp in his room. I really don't know what got over me but one day I decided to go to his place, rang the door bell and told his mum I needed to "borrow" something from Haider's room... and I ran off with the little amplifier.

I took it to my place and gave it a good listening to and found it wiped the floor with my system... I then took it to a friend's house who had a far superior Hi Fi system than mine, and that little amp did the same to his system... he looked at me and said nothing, but that look was enough for me.

Last thing I remember was I rushed back to Haiders room and put the amp back exactly where it was as if it never left... a few days later Haider came back and I went there and said: "Let's start a business making amplifiers..."

Got me a new phone...

2011-07-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

After being burnt with 3 touch screen phones running Windows Mobile 3 and 6, with all of them being retired as paperweight, an assault weapon or as an emergency phone within months... I was sure that I would not go down the touch screen route again... not even the iPhone tempted me enough to ditch the old buttoned phone!

Until one day I walked in the Carephone Wearhouse wondering if there are something worth me looking at, and this kid showed me a HTC Desired Z for about 5 minutes and I found myself Googling it that night. I got it the very next day and have never looked back! (perhaps that is why the CD project has been delayed recently!)

Honestly thou, it does show when a product ticks so many boxes as the Desire Z, even a sceptic like me can be turned... and I've just heard my colleague as well as my girlfriend is eyeing the same phone...

Here's to more blogging on the go!!!

Small update

2011-07-07T15:37:00.002-07:00

News is that I have two latest Sonneteer CD players (Mr Byron and a Miss Bronte!) on my bench ready to go thru the last bit of testing... it has been a long time coming and what kept the passion going? I guess I kept thinking: all good things comes to those who wait.. (they better good after all this time!)... More updates next week of Mr. Byron and Miss. Bronte!

Now how do I get this on my HTC Desire Z?? (by the way what a bloody good phone!)

Solid!

2011-04-28T02:45:00.001-07:00

Finally... thought of the day... SSD's finally their prices are coming down!!! So we can finally make the near silent, near vibration free Morpheus Server to be, erm.. silent.

Customers who wish to explore the potential of SSD should get in touch!

Sorry no update... mustabeenbusy!

2011-04-28T02:31:00.000-07:00

Yep... didn't realise it is already April! Last time I was just coming back from CES Las Vegas, landed in London Gatwick, went home to cool my heels and then off to the ISE show in Holland (Check out our website news page or Facebook page!).

Not long after I found myself in Magliz... Bulgaria! Just for a short break... and it was amazing to be in somewhere so different from what I am used to... great food too... so when I got back I bought a bike! Went to a wedding (thankfully not mine) and with Mike as the DJ we had nothing to worry about... :D (I know he might be reading this lol)

Anyway, back to the buiz of designing stuff....so what happened so far? Well quite simply put, working on a few projects right now... The next generations of our CD players will soon be ready... here is a pic to show the beast I am dealing with...

Yes CD player, for some reason unknown to me, there seems to be a surge in demand of the 'ol silver disc spinner and hence a lot of priority is put on to getting this prototype to production, which I hope it will be in about 8 weeks time, so I can disappear for the summer break! lol...

What else? Amplifiers too are getting a bit of a push too... I thank my friends in forums who kept singing their praises, thank you, thank you! If you are into audio, have a browse in http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/

Bamboo?

2011-01-25T02:24:00.000-08:00

So what the hell was I on about??? Well, just before CES2011 I realised that it has been like 3 years since designing the Morpheus music centre and perhaps it would be cool to have a different way to present the Morpheus at the forth coming shows. Something for the life-style concious customers that we seem to be getting more and more each day...

From the original concept, the Morpheus can be placed or mounted in three ways:

Then I remembered that I have had an old design of a stand that I wanted to make for 2008 but due to other pending projects it was temporarily shelved (like 3 years lol). For 2011 I thought, perhaps good time to bring it back! (Well, there was little else we could show physically since the other début was the internal BlueTooth streaming module!)

Because of the show schedules, time was the essence and for some reason it seems to bring up the simpliest and, to me at least, the most elegant solution... and this was the actual concept mock up: (Yes, I took a paper tube and cut it!)

Being so well balanced I could actually take a Morpheus unit and plonked it on the tube and the whole thing would remain stable without toppling over and I haven't even made a base for the stand yet!

Inspiration?

Maybe it is because I watched too many Kung-Fu movies in my youth or the fact that in my earlier years I lived next to a bamboo forest in Hong Kong. A fountain my father created long ago perhaps? Fact is I always liked showing the thickness of the materials used as I have with the Morpheus and tube housing of the Morpheus Server too... to me it is always important to show the products are made off!

Anyway, the final prototype was created and worked a treat too, I will add more pictures later on as we are packing the stand for the ISE show... but here's one of them:

Also, for the production version, I will be introducing a few tweaks to make the stand more versatile and user friendly, and hopefully show them in different colours too, so stay tuned :)

Oh! I forgot about the base and some rather good ideas for spikes... but that would be too geeky wouldn't it?

I've got one word for you....

2010-11-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Bamboo!

Yeah that's right... so stay tuned.

just a thought...

2010-11-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

Tonight is just one of those nights where I have decided to switch my brain off early.

Surfed a few sites and TV channels and found nothing remotely interesting to me... and for some reason I am fed up with all the technology that surrounds me but doing nothing for me on an evening like this one...

So I decided to call it a night as I felt like listening to a bit or radio and read a bit by my bed side, like I used to all those years ago...

One word came to my mind: FAIL!

I wanted to listen to the radio and found the Wi-Fi enabled iPod being left at work and prolly flat too... so next, I enabled Virtual Radio on my SE W995 Symbian mobile on it's docked speakers, and oh yes, within a couple of searches I got fed up it's incredibly rubbish sound and tired of looking for a decent preset channel.... so that wasn't working for me.

Now if I open my lap top I know I would end up pressing more buttons than listening, going from channel to channel and eventually I end up reading nothing and getting all mighty mad at my noisy HP Entertainment Laptop!...sigh... If only I had a simple radio next to me with no glaring back light, clicking hard drives, whirring fans and flashing led's all over the place... Oh wait... I got an idea... let me dig out my 1950's Philips valve radio...

Sorted!

I now have warm sounds and since it can only pick up a hand full of channels, I quickly settled on one... and the room is faintly lit by the FM dial back-lit by a genuine filament bulb!

Nostalgia? Definitely!

Happy? Yup!

Did it keep me awake? I'll tell you in the morn..........................

Man and Machine part II

2010-11-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

Once all the zillions of holes have been done, counter bored and tapped... we turn our attention to the other side... the top side... the side where everyone will get to see!

As the Morpheus Server is available in different colours, we have decided to do away with printing as that can only be done after anodising it... which adds cost and time to complete. So why don't we put all the important logos etc. into the metal, and anything boring like serial numbers underneath with a sticky label... job done!

Next job, we had 2 choices... engraving by man, or engraving by machine. After asking talking to our experienced engraver John on which way to go, he explained that he would prefer doing it by hand. To him the hand engraving adds a final personal touch to each product and we agree!

Here's John in action:

Man and Machine...

2010-11-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

After the main box section is cut and machined down to size, we have to start adding all the holes, slots for all the internal bits to mount on... This is one bit we have to rely on our computer aided machines to make sure all the right holes are in the right place...

There you go, my first video in my blog!

OK, so it isn't an amazing video I know, but I hope people now realise that even with computers and machines, these things still take considerable of time to complete, one by one. I remember having to explain to some people there isn't a machine out there that you pour in materials from one end and out comes the finished products from the other end! :)

Introducing the Morpheus Server!

2010-10-13T05:56:00.002-07:00

Yes think it's time to do a piece on the Morpheus Server!

A while back I have done a bit here and there on the Morpheus Server but a lot of that was based on the pre-production unit and it always amazes me after the prototype stage how much more work is required to get the unit in production with all the cosmetics ready!

Anyway, as you may or may not know, the Morpheus Server is designed to be beautiful and quiet from scratch. It is not just a re-badged PC that rattles you to insanity, but a rather desirable piece of electronics. Stylish and functional, attractive but discreet.

The Morpheus Server casing starts off with a solid piece of aluminium tube with 6mm thick walls, cut and CNC machined to exact size required with all the apertures required to allow the unusual assemble process. Unusual because as case is actually a tube, all the assembly needs to be done inside with access only from the sides of the tube (it's a bit like knitting a sweater inside a bucket... not that I do any knitting!).

Some pics of the server case in progress:

Another one while on the CNC:

I'm back!

2010-10-13T05:45:00.001-07:00

Not that I have really been away... well actually I have... Beirut of all places and no I wasn't kidnapped! (Well, sort of, by my other half lol...)

Well October usually is the usually time when we realise that we'd really have to pull our fingers out to get ready for the CES 2011 in Las Vegas... and like every year, I tell myself: "I'm going to get everything ready ahead of schedule... I'm not working till almost midnight on the 24th December..."

See if I get it right this year... so stay tuned!

Ghosts in the machine...

2010-06-10T09:43:00.001-07:00

Been going through my photo archives the other day just to have a clear out since my camera phone memory is almost full, so was my other camera and my 2 other memory sticks. While going through the pictures, I stumbled on these pictures proving that indeed the Morpheus does have a sense of humour... (have a look at the display, I promise you these are not staged!)

Morpheus is feeling pretty!

Morpheus feeling a bit broke!

What Morpheus thinks of our internet provider!

Priceless.... ^_^

Necessity is the mother of the Morpheus Server...

2010-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Right, 2 months no real (or fake) updates... hmmm sorry about that! New years have always been hectic beginning with CES in January, then followed by yet more shows in Japan, Canada, Munich and I think somewhere in there was the Dutch show too (hmm can't remember, must have been a wicked show then!)... So for the last few months the office shouted "Man down!" Erm... sorry, sales, production, shipping was priortrised over the blog thingy....

Anyway, over the months the Morpheus Server went from concept, show sample to full production and this week, we are shipping the last one out of the first production batch... not bad going for a brand new product! I can think of several reasons for that though... Firstly I think it is a smashing looking product in the flesh, really easy to use and finally I think the market is ready for such a product... Opps... I meant the product is finally ready for the market!

The Morpheus Server was born not from an idea, but rather from necessity. We needed a music server to partner our Morpheus Music centre but we could not find something good enough, reliable enough, or easy enough to use. I mean, is that possible for we are not even early adopters! So after months of searching for a suitable product and failing miserably, one day I joked with Haider: "After spending so much time searching and evaluating, we could have built the perfect one by now!" Well, that was back in September. In October we had a prototype running in the office!

Montreal was unreal....

2010-03-30T03:15:00.001-07:00

Haider just got back from the Montreal Hi Fi show and sounds like it was a huge show with lots of interest... The colour schemes seems to have gone down well and the Morpheus Server worked flawlessly over the week too... So there you are, the real first production launch of the final unit... you can catch more on our facebook page: Yup! The fabulous Sonneteer Facebook Link! and while you are there why not become a fan too so you can keep up with what's going on at Sonneteer too (erm, thats what I do!)

Next... hmmm... I know it looked like I have been rather lazy on this blog but not really, I have been documenting the progress of the new Morpheus Server and hopefully over Easter weekend I will have some time to put it all together and if I can work it out, embed some videos too!

(ok if that sounds like a bore-fest... you can always watch the F1 GP this weekend and pray for rain again since the FIA have really, trully, finally and ultimately screwed F1 this time... I feel a rant coming on haha... don't worry I won't subject you to that just yet!)

MIA

2010-03-04T13:19:00.000-08:00

hmmm.... sorry been missing in action for like a month... heavy schdeule to put the server into production... i promise loads will soon come on this new baby from Sonneteer... I even shot a video or two... ;o)

back soon!

The nitty-gritty.

2010-01-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd mention a few more design considerations of the server!

The less holes there are, the less chance for noise to escape! As mentioned before the buttons are made from cast acryllic but I forgot to mention they are transparent so that we can use them as status indicators, so the production version will no loger have the holes next to the buttons for indicators... less holes less noise to escape from! The production version will also have a velvet curtain over the CD slot as the last hint of noise was heard through the CD slot in the prototype, so we have now addressed that problem too... every little helps!

Notice the side panels are recessed in the server. Apart from showing off the thickness hence sturdiness of the case, these side panels are made from 2mm thick aluminium and shaped to fit the hole. As the case is made from an extruded tube, the holes on these tubes will never be all exactly the same. Hence the side panel will always need to be slightly smaller than the tune's hole, hence the side panels were designed to "expand" when you tighten the side screws in order to seal the tube sufficiently.

Why recess them? Well it was an insurance policy during the design phase. The idea was to allow extra damping material to be added on both side of the side plate should we need to take the noise down another level! Fortunately the pre-production unit proved that was no longer necessary as the noise supression was already so effective, so now it simply leaves scope for the customer to specify a different custom side finish... Penaudio ply veneer anyone? :o)

Now you don't hear it!

2010-01-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

Finally we have launched the Morpheus Server (and ripper) at the CES show in Las Vegas a little over a week ago... and before then, I couldn't really say too much the product! Now that's all over we can have a closer look at the product and some of the design aspect of the unit.

Oh yeah, the first unit made was in a Bordeaux Red... well I like it and thankfully eveyone else did too! Since the unit is all aluminium we can anodise it in any colour we like, so we made a black one too for old time's sake!

The Morpheus server's design specification was really simple:
Simple to use, quiet as hell, small, and green (enviromentally that is).

I have had computers working as servers and NAS drives at home and honestly, never again! The computer was ugly and noisy, and the NAS drive was just plain noisy, especially when you want to listen to your music and relax! So the Morpheus Server needs to first tackle the noise aspect very seriously, infact nearly all the effort was focused on the noise issue!

Now you hear it! has been our slogan for the longest time but not this time for this bad boy! This unit has to be ultra quiet itself and also vibration free so it would not casue noise to its surroundings. So the first thing was to get rid of the need of fans in the unit. All the main components, power supply unit etc. must also be fanless versions so they can operate indefinitely without needing a fan to cool it... sounds simple until you realise that they are like hen's teeth to find! Only the latest generations of components are thinking along that way to save power and be silent!

Vibration elimination was a bit more complicated! We have 2 fast hard disk drives inside which whirls, crackles, clicks and vibrates like hell, so the way they are mounted has to be carefully looked into. Having been into cars and our office situated not far from a Lexus dealer, I have looked into ways cars have used to reduce vibration, centrifugal or torque issues when mounting their engines! After some experimentation, the hard drives inside the Morpheus are now mounted on 8 rubber damper mountings, selected by sampling several shores and numbers used before deciding on the best combination. The drives themselves are coupled in a way that their individual vibrations cancels each other, inspired by silent shafts used in car engines, and the final result was rather spectacular!

Of course all these efforts can easily be lost again if the box is made like a tin can... but not the Morpheus Server! If you look closely you will see the case is made from a seamless aluminium tube and the walls are 6mm thick. Aluminium is a low resonance material and seamless means minimum noise can escape for the box and it won't fall apart in years to come! Aluminium conducts heat very well which helps the cooling of all internal parts and thermal stability is assured. The fully assembled unit weighs a hefty 5kg and all that weight rests on 4 soft, natural rubber feet, making the unit even more silent and vibration free! Infact when Haider first took one home, he wasn't sure if the unit was on or not cos it was so quiet!

Here are a few shots of the unit:

The eagle eye'd reader will observe that there are only 2 buttons on the unit (specially made from cast-acryllic for the Morpheus). One to switch the unit on and off, the other is to eject the disc in an emergency! I say emergency because the CD is automatically ejected once it has been recorded! We couldn't have possible made this unit easier to use... 2 wires to connect, one button to push and then stick a CD into its slot and go make urself a drink! After a few minutes the CD is ejected signifying that the CD has been recorded and stored into the immense 3TB hard disk. You can then access all your music from your Morpheus Music center or any other UPnP streaming devices!

Are we Green? Oh yes! We never over look the enviromental impact of our products and the Morpheus is probably one of the greenest servers around!

More design details later... :o)

2nd day at CES

2010-01-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry peeps been too busy to get any pics sorted... the show so far has been quite good for us... with many visitors and press coming to see our range of products and the Morpheus System is going from strength to strength.

Now with the Morpheus Server, it all seems to make so much more sense to the visitors and it makes it so much easier for us to explain the Morpheus home audio system to new faces! It is also quite exciting to customers tempted to order the Morpheus server in different colours too! Okay to begin with we have taken order for a Black one from a conservative customer, but soon we have taken orders for a Electric Blue one, a Titanium coloured one and soon we will be taking order for a Bordeaux one too- one of my favourite colour! (you can catch what it looks like on the Sonneteer news blog page).

This year, it seems more people are appreciating the convenience of storing their CD collections electronically especially if it its a simple no-brainer operation to do it... just stick a CD in and wait till it comes back out and it's done... and with the Morpheus they can listen to their favourite tunes just as easily....

With so much interest we need to paddle quickly on this one and we hope to start shipping them out in March! So with the Morpheus Server almost put to bed I can now start working on something new which has been in the think tank for the last year or so... :o)

CES begins tomorrow!

2010-01-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

Yes I am in Las Vegas an spent today with the team setting up... shame some of our friends are still stuck in Gatwick airport due to the snow storm in UK but at least most of the equipment is here for the demonstration!

Hopefully tomorrow I will upload some pics of our demonstration room... right now the clock next to me says 9:45 p.m. but my body is telling me 5:45 a.m. so I am going to bed :o)

Las Vegas here we go again!

2010-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Yup it's that time of the year and we are going to the CES show in Las Vegas and showing off our current and latest creation the Morpheus Server http://www.sonneteer.co.uk/newsblog/.

A couple of posts ago I briefly mentioned the server and finally I am allowed to talk a bit more about it yay!!! Well here it goes...

The new Morpheus Server will hopefully serve as the heart of our music system where the user can store all his or her music in one place. It also has a CD ripper built-in so the user only needs to pop it into its slot and go make a cup of tea (or coffee) and by the time the tea (or coffee) is ready, so is the music ready to be served up using the Morpheus Music centre or any streaming device! For those who are disorganised by nature such as myself, it will categorise the music for you together with album art and of course all the details of the Artist etc. As a server, you can stream any song or the same song to multiple devices around your home, controlled by the remote control that came with your streaming device, or using an i-Pod touch or i-Phone running an application called PlugPlayer http://www.plugplayer.com/.

Taking a detailed look at the Morpheus when you have a chance, you will find the Morpheus is rather special. First time you switch it on you'd swear that it is not working! (When Haider borrowed the prototype to play with he actually wasn't sure either!). Why? Because it is silent! If you have ever used a PC or another high-end server, you will probably frown at the amount of noise it makes, and not to mention vibration. They are not products designed to be installed in a living room, or indeed, your listening room... I certainly wouldn't have one of those anywhere near me at any cost.

When designing the Morpheus, the challenges this time are not only surrounding the electronics, but also with the mechanics involved. Think about it, most of servers and especially PC's used as a server will have at least 2 or 3 fans... some of them are exposed outside of the case and they all go like wooooooooooo wooooooooo.... and they also have grills and vents leaking even more noise from within. The Morpheus fan count is ZERO, and it's a sealed unit so no leaks! But what about the mechanical noise? Barring the minute CD noise that only occurs when it is copying a CD, the Morpheus Server also has two high speed 1.5TB hard drives spinning continuously at 7400 revolutions per minute. Like it or not they will create noise and worst of all, they will vibrate and resonate with its surroundings. Now that the real challenge and a half becasue each home is a different surrounding and we cannot predict that!

A little more about the Morpheus mechanics later... I'm tired and I'm flying in 12hours and will have ample time to write about it on the 747... :o)

Whats's up with that?

2010-01-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

No I'm not singling along one of ZZ Top's songs but rather questioning what on earth is going on these days with companies pushing out products that simply don't work!

Recently I was offered a free speed upgrade from my broadband provider... great! The e-mail said: To get 2Meg speed (from 1Meg), all I have to do is to unplug my modem router and plug it back in and it will automatically be upgraded to 2Meg. Ignoring my general scepticism, I stupidly obliged and I soon realised I have lost my internet connection (and because this was a one way upgrade, I can't go back either). For the next 2 hours I trawled the internet on my phone to look for answers and later I managed to change some settings on my modem and got some connectivity back, at 1Meg and with some dropping of connection. I can put up with that for now.

The next day I spoke to the broadband provider and they tell me they have had some issues with some modems and I need to call the manufacturer to see if I can have a "firmware update". I said to the guy that it should be him talking to manufacturers not me to be honest! Anyway, knowing that was it pointless talking to him, I rang the manufacturer and they told me I need a new modem router because technology's moved on and there are no more updates for my "upgradeable" modem! ... so I last night I went out and bought a new modem while still feeling that I have been robbed.

Got home, connected it up and all my PC and laptop worked... Yeeessss! I thought but then I realised my sister's Mac and my Morpheus won't connect. I know how this game works now.... I probably needed another "firmware" update! So I Googled it and I found out that there is an update for people with Mac problems but the solution came from the modem maker cos they've screwed up... hidden somewhere in their website there is an "un-certified" version that seems to solve the problem. I tried it and suddenly the Mac worked, and so did my Morpheus.

So, had I not had a Mac here I would still be online searching for an answer for my new modem! What's up with that?

p.s. If you got a Belkin modem and are having WiFi connection problems with your Mac or WiFi radio, ping me an e-mail, I can probably save you some pain.

Here's to 2010

2010-01-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

Wow it's been a while since my last post and next thing I know its 2010!!!

Well CES is just around the corner and you may recall we were busy getting the next idea ready! Much debate during 2009 in the Sonneteer camp on what to do next and believe me when I tell you that we don't seem to lack ideas here... far from it... Haider often got his straight jacket on the ready for me sigh!

We had several choices... upgrades or add-ons for the Morpheus, another Morpheuesque product, or something totally different. In the end it was felt that if we were to promote Sonneteer's idea of a modern music system, the heart of the system would need to be there, and the Morpheus isn't that, it is more of a facility, with lots of style of course!

So what is it? Well we tried and tried in the office, long journeys, telephone conversations and emails to decide how to call it. If we went geeky then we would call it a Media Server... which we hated. However each time we tried to explain what it does to the parties interested, they always say: "Oh, you mean a music server?"... so in the end, we can't escape from the fact that the "server" name is on everyone's tongue and it is not likely to change... so, okay then, its the Sonneteer Morpheus Server! No can we move on?

Right... so it's a computer right? Sort of, but not as we know it! We needed this to be not like a computer at all... but a dedicated piece of equipment for entertainment. For us, PC will never belong in a living room. It has to be simple to use, reliable, super quiet and easy on the eye. Sounds simple until you know whats going on inside it!

More later...

Think inside the box! (First!)

2009-11-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

The other day a friendly chap called Bernie brought in his Campion amplifier for an upgrade and a general service. When we took it in we realised his amp was one of the first few sold in the UK and it is about 13 years old. I have to say it is always quite exciting to see such a unit back after so long as we hardly ever see them back being such a reliable product especially the Campion was our first commmercial product and commpletely hand made!

From past work experience I realised that even the most robust circuit designs often fail outside the laboratory caused by so many factors: temperature, moisture, dust, foreign obbjects... they all call really screw things up inside a product. I'll give you an example: Heat generates air current flows which draws in dust and don't forget gravity of course. The dust lands on electrical parts, which has static, will then hang on to the components and over time this layer of dust gets thicker and stickier... which causes more heat to gather... See the cycle? Then of course moisture can get in and start corroding electrically charged parts... All thses nasties accumulate over time and not many products escapes the ultimmate price!

When designing the Campion we wanted this baby to last so we gave it a few tricks to achieve longivity: Quality component choice, correctly temp. rated parts, and protect it with the most stable enviroment possible. For this reason, the Campion and all other Sonneteer products, is inside nearly sealed case. No grills, vents, slots whatsoever. Then to make sure the internal enviroment remains constant, so that the unit performs constantly too, we gave it some low efficiency but oversized heat sinks which also formed part of the entire chassis. What this does is to give it sufficient cooling with excellent temperature stability because a high mass low efficiency heat sink is far more stable to ambient temperature changes than a low mass high efficiency heat sink, so the unuit performs consistantly.

Anyway, enough talking! Just take a look inside Bernie's Campion which has been in use almost every day and has never been serviced for 13 years! The shine is still there as if we built it 10 minutes ago with hardly a spec of dust on it! We have checked its calibration and being in such stable enviroment, the drift recorded hardly warranted a tweak but we are fastidious like that... To be honest the drift was probably because the mains voltage drift from where we first made them!

I'm glad that Bernie wanted to upgraded the Campion with an internal phonostage, otherwise I would feel bad charging for such an easy service!

Blue Ray Blues....

2009-11-13T18:12:00.000-08:00

Finally, you can get a BlueRay player for less than £100! and it's a branded one not some Somy Hyachi Fanaponic branded one!!! In fact it's a Philips with nearly all the bells and whistles on it!!! My god! I remember seeing the technology being shown at CES in Las Vegas some 5-6 years ago when it was the size of a microwave and they told me it will be ready in about 3 or 4 years... hmmm was there ever a cash cow period for them? I don't know but in the beginning many opted for the PS3 for its "bargain" BlueRay capability and at the same time the PS3 made some serious losses too...

The past 30 days we sold out our all Byron CD players, something we started making about 10 years ago... for the price of about 11 of those BlueRay players... so would I suggest making a BlueRay player? Nope... streaming is the future for me (well, to me anyway).

Service service service!!!

2009-11-05T16:30:00.001-08:00

I think time and time again people are forgetting about servicing a customer PROPERLY!

I went to a McD's the other day with a friend... and to save time we decided to go thru the drive in order to get faster fast food, or fast food faster! First there was this girl with a wireless PDA, a wireless headsets with mic, and other gizmos to take our orders. Then we were moved along to the next window where there was this psychic person with good math ability who knew what we ordered and the exact money we had to pay.... then we were moved along to the next window to collect our order... Erm... but we were told to drive along to a parking spot to wait for our orders to be delivered, becasue they were busy in the restaurant... 15 minutes later the order finally arrived but there were no ketchup or knapkins in the bag... sigh... 5 people to serve fast food 15 minutes late and badly!

This is the thing that bothered me. It's fast food right? It's a set menu right? Their job isn't all that difficult right? I haven't ordered a Kobe beef burger did I? But they had people equipped to the teeth to take my money in a split second and they think they have served me? Not even close... I know it's only a McD's but I am definitely "Lovin' it!"

Sadly, this seems to be happening everywhere else too with all these point and click online stores and you still wonder when will it ever arrive! Yes okay if you are getting a bargain then perhaps, and I don't mind waiting for something that's worth waiting for, as long as I'm being kept informed... but if you are selling on speed with (ahem) quality then you better be damn good at both!

Rant over!

To tell or not to tell...

2009-11-05T16:26:00.001-08:00

Hmmm just completed the basic design of my next baby... and as usual I can't comment too much on here since we always unveil the product only when it's ready... kind of common practice in all new product concepts...

...but this time is different, I can't even tell Haider... oppss!

Found an interesting book!

2009-11-03T09:46:00.001-08:00

Anyway... yeah... my last entry remined me while on my way to meet those exclusive people... I bought a book cos I had a little over an hour to waste....

The title of the book was "Who Moved My Cheese?" After reading it I can only say: Get it!

(Especially if you are a HiFi dealer!)

Back in action

2009-11-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

Haven't managed to type much during most of last week and this week due one's index finger was bandaged most of the time... so while my finger's been taking a break, the good ol' mind hasn't... so whats been going on last week?

Well first of all we are close to completion in the design and testing of the new Sonneteer prototype for CES, remaining to do is to get the casing sorted which hopefully will all be done by the end of this month, in time so we can take a much needed break during Christmas... for once!

Apart from projects, I have been catching up with a few dealers up and down the country to see what can we do for them to prepare for Christmas and the new season coming, and Haider has been doing pretty much the same with some overseas customers. The response we got back from the UK was that the conventional products aren't really moving so some had to discount and some decided to sell the lower end stuff, or the "safe bet" stuff, which of course competes on prices only... (means you don't make much money!). So yep, a lot of moaning...

Now without saying I told you so, we saw this coming 3-4 years back and that vision sparked off the BORO project where the Morpheus is the first to come from it. We wanted to offer something different, stylish and still offers the highest sound quality worthy of the Sonneteer name. Now with the Morpheus we have managed to enter markets and shops we couldn't before, and soon you can catch a glimpse of the Morpheus in more exclusive places... :o)

Time flies...

2009-10-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

Wow! it's been 2 weeks since my last post... boy did time fly!

To be honest I can't really remember all that I did last 2 weeks... it went like a blurr... Oh yes we went to the SetSquared event in at the ICE London last week... no! the week before!!! and it was a really good experience... and what a place the Civil Engineers have in London just next to Big Ben! We met lots of very interesting people while exhibiting our business and then listened to 6 finalist's presentation... and then back to more exhibiting... and bigging ourselves up! Okay that was 2 days accounted for... the rest is still a mystery lol...

Morpheus at the SetSquared event in at the ICE London
Photography by André Regini, Kingbridge Photographic - www.kingbridge.co.uk

Oh yes, we have tested our latest prototype for about 4 weeks now, all going well and looks like we have almost finalised its specifications now... What is it? Well, watch this space around CES time cos I ain't telling! Oh yes, that reminded me, I was working on the exterior design and at the same time preparing for a day visiting customers in Birmingham and Dorking the following week...

Meanwhile back at HQ..., we're taking turns in building our orders. Business has been slow in the summer months but as expected, it picked up quite a bit in mid September with an order on almost every product in our range! Interestingly the biggest seller of this lot is the Sedley USB phono stage! Good to see something we designed back in 1998 (USB update added in 2005) is still doing tremendously well :o)

More later...

Less is definitely more.

2009-10-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Been having a quiet weekend apart from the excitement of having a near disaster with a burst water main at 1 a.m. outside my home! Today I am chilling, getting ready for a busy week ahead for Sonneteer where personally I need to get some ideas on paper by hook or by crook...

Part of any project development is to set out a list of goal functions that the new product must have, nice to have and whatever it can also have. However it is far too easy to over do it just for the sake of having it. Think of it this way, I am at home listening to my Morpheus: It's got over 16,000 channels, 10 presets, linked up to my Buffalo network drive with all my album collections in it... but I am just listening to one of my 3 favourite radio stations online.

Unlike other systems out there, to access all these functions is no more difficult than use than a 90's car stereo, designed to be easily controlled while you are doing something more important. In a car that would be driving, with the Morpheus, that would be listening to your favourite tunes. On the Morpheus there are no fancy graphics, no touch screen, or computers required to work with it. In fact the display of the Morpheus can be programmed so that it switches off after 30 seconds and let you enjoy what you bought the unit for- the music (technically that also improves the sound quality).

One thing that I really like is the remote control for the Morpheus. We did not want to rely on a touch screen thing that you need to look at it every time you want to press a button, or having to charge it daily like a mobile phone. So the Morpheus remote have proper buttons so that after a few days usage you will be using it without even looking at it, and it only needs charging up around once every 6-12 months -from any USB port, including the one on the Morpheus. The battery cycle based on normal usage should last you over 150 years...

So all functions and no gimmicks right? "Erm... but the Morpheus remote has a powerful torch built in*, isn't that a gimmick?" Well, think what you like but when I had that burst water mains incident last night... while all my neighbours were scrambling to find a working torch, I knew exactly where mine was... and it wasn't flat either!

______________________________________________________

WARNING: Tech Speak!
*For the internal rechargeable battery to last as long as it does, occasionally the battery needs to be subjected to a higher discharge rate than the remote control function can muster. So this gimmicky torch is actually there to wake up the battery every now and then... giving it some exercise! :o)

WARNING: Geek Speak!
A note for the techno-junkies who wants touch screen network control... I would suggest you to buy an i-Pod touch if you haven't got several already. Then spend $5 on a piece of software called the plugplayer (link: http://www.plugplayer.com/) and you can control your Morpheus, arrange play lists etc from a different room, if that's what you really want to do.

Altaniuminuminuminum..???

2009-10-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

Had the pleasure of meeting a certain Mr. Nicholas Shrager last friday at the "W Surrey and NE Hants Innovation & Growth" breakfast seminars learning about how to take your design beyond prototype. There were all sorts of innovators there with their ideas in different stages of development... So what did Mr. Shrager do?

He came up with a new metal call Altanium and if I recalled it correctly, it's stronger and than steel and lighter than Aluminium too. "Wow!" I said. Realising that I was sounding like a geek I then muttered: "Interesting..."... Fortunately Mr. Shrager then started to tell me in detail about this new metal and all its capabilities and yes, it did deserved a "Wow". I guess he's got my attention! Its application is huge and the befefits are real.

From a very young age I have been constantly introduced to new raw materials by my father, an artists of any medium (pic: Stainless Pegasus in Hong Kong by Antonio Casadei), and he kept bringing home new materials to mess about with. He has made stuff from just about any materials you can possible imagine and when he ran out of stuff to try, he created them from scratch! Every time he sees something new, you can hear his mind buzzing away already... It's a bit like the joke about when a Chinese person is watching a wild life documentary, the only thing he or she is thinking about is how to cook them! Well, I'm a bit like that too... and same goes with materials... ;o)

Mr. Shrager then handed me a sample of Altanium - a piece of pipe, grey anodised. My immediate reaction was: "this needs to be Blinged-Up man!"... Even though the heavy industrial application of this metal is huge, I can't help thinking how to make this material look the business, and it wasn't long before I started coming out with all sorts of objects in my mind... a watch, a brake component, a pinion etc... or as Mr Shrager suggested: a tyre stud, but on a key ring, highly polished and with Altanium stamped on it :o)

Wonder if I can use this metal in Sonneteer ;o)

Hopefully I will be catching up with Nick soon and have a beer and see how his creation is coming along...

Back on the shelf...

2009-10-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

While thinking about projects, I recall in the past I toyed with a clam shell shaped design, with a grill, milled from solid block for a smaller unit. Most of our stuff have been pretty straight and angular, so perhaps a dabble in the curved world isn't so bad... after all, the planet isn't flat right?

The only problem I have with rounded shapes is that they seem to age rather quickly, and often get the "Retro" tag which can work for or against it. Anyway the concept went on until when I got back from China and Haider shown me the PURE Sensia which pretty much knocked it on the head for me.

Other than that there are still remaining concerns that it may not be small enough and for some maybe a bit too retro. Personally, I just don't want it to look like a retro fan heater!

Okay, make it sho!

2009-09-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

So what's new? The next project's brief (project grief?!?!) we have in mind is to create a range of products complimenting the Morpheus. We have several ideas so the difficulty is in deciding which one to start with. So all the lines of thought will be running in parallel until we can pick the one that most sense first. As per usual, I have no idea what it will look like yet... so I am just looking around for some inspiration.

I saw this today on the KLM mag and I'm already sure this could come back to haunt me and destroy me, but in the mean time here's a picture to remind me and I can't say too much about it :o)

I find a lot of Dutch designs rather interesting. It is all too easy just to stay with the pack and love the Danes and the Swedes, who are masters of simplicity and neutral look.... and even though all their sofas looks lovely, I probably won't buy one because they never looked that comfy! Get one from Italy please :)

The Dutch ways seems to make me smile! Their designs always managed to convey a certain sense of humour and they are not afraid to be a bit bold with whatever they are doing. Even at their macho best they can still be rather cute. Best of all the Dutch doesn't seem to give you all the typical b.s. like ..."traditional clean simple lines in tune with nature..." blah blah. Instead, they seem say: "Vee make it lijke sho!". If you are interested in designs in general do have a look at their stuff... very cool indeed.

Oh by the way, it's Dutch Design Week soon (17-25 October), have a look if you want to find out more: http://www.dutchdesignweek.nl/

Back to that pic, since its not a secret that I like reflective surfaces (re: Sonneteer Byron, Orton Bronte system etc), so no wonder that caught my eye. Mirror reflects its surrounding, it adds another dimension and at the same time "bling". I just can't stop looking at it (not into it!!!) cos it changes all the time and from every angle it's different... but very careful not to over do it!

China here I come (or went)

2009-09-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

Right, been rather busy preparing my trip to China so haven't been around my blog much, and to be honest I wasn't really in the mood of writing about the older Sonneteer products stuff... I hope I've done enough just to kick off the blog and I'm sure I will come back to write about the earlier Sonneteer designs.

Anyway, right now I am on a plane to Amsterdam and then on to China a bit later.... I have already spent 3 days in Milan and the last time I was here I remember spending 10 days sketching the all new Sonneteer conceptual product, aka the BORO project (aka the now Morpheus). So its quite funny that once again starting from Milan, I'm gathering my thoughts and and inspirations for my next design just like back in 2006.

I'm not saying Milan inspires me, its prolly more to do with me being away from it all that helps me getting my ideas down. I have no internet, no phone calls and food cooked for me :). I don't know where the Morpheus look came from but loosely it was inspired by black coffee or crude oil and that insect that walks on water by not breaking the surface tension (water strider)... then I threw in a Movado watch for good measure!

Now if we had the budget, the slope of the surface towards the ball would be much more organic and the black glass would look fluid. However that would require a cast acrylic and some serious polish process which is prohibitively expensive and making the project impossible to happen for a small company like ours. So the compromise of having a large chamfer seem to work perfectly while maintaining the look and made it just about manufacturable. I said just because we had over 25 samples made with different process refinement to get the look right at the right cost! I just wanted it to look really glossy and almost "wet", with the spheres poking out of it.

Morpheus system:

Morpheus close-up:

Trying to get the gloss surface to work with the chamfer to create that surface tention look.

More about the BORO project coming soon... :o)

Let Jagged pt 2

2009-09-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Like UK, Italy has a tradition for Hi-Fi but that's probably where the similarity ends. For sometime now, their electronics seems to have stuck in the valve age and this suspicion was confirmed after my recent visit to the Milan Hi Fi show. Their speakers are often built like premium Italian furniture (which is nice) and sometimes they even have cows on them (erm, not for me)! They are very traditional warm sounding and a tad romantic in design with their earthy and retro looks. While I'm sure they are still shfiting some units, I personally think they have played that theme to death - just like Jaguar cars did with their "traditional-ness" old hat... until the new XF (below is the prototype).

Jaguar finally realised that all those ivory dials, acres of chrome, polished wood, cow, and with looks dating back to the beautiful Mk2 is just not cutting it anymore with the new breed of luxury car buyers. Jaguar needed to change by getting rid of what they thought people wanted and get some wow factor back on board. Given that they had Rover as a fuddy-duddy barometer, I suppose it wasn't that much of a thumb in the air decision after all.

I think the production XF is a great looking car even though I disagree with their "surprised!" look head lights, which wasn't on their prototype. I got a feeling that was a Ford's touch to remind us who's boss and fair enough, but to me the Ford Ka did a better job as those ones on the Jag reminds me of the Daewoo Matiz 2.... No matter though, this four door Aston looking Jaguar XF would suit me just fine, even with those odd head lights... I'll have mine Black and chrome please!

I think by maintaining the "traditional look and feel" of a brand can wear down a well earned heritage becasue the image of the product is actually standing still and the whole thing just becomes too predictable ("same old, same old...." comes to mind!)... Instead, the focus should perhaps be kept on the very same company ethos that have earned the companay's heritage in the first place.

With Sonneteer our priorities have always been sound quality, innovative design, simplicity and British made... we have had some "same old same old..." issues too, but now our innovative design lives not just under the skin but fronts it aswell.

Let Jagged...

2009-09-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry this blog seems to have stalled while I was touring China the past 2 weeks or so (via Milan)... and back in Milan is where I am now, feeling exhausted and jet lagged.

Good news is (for some), since it took almost 20 hours to fly there and 14 to get back; plus a lot of idle hours in between airports, trips and not understanding Mandarin TV, I have been doing a lot of key bashing on my XPERIA to blog down stuff... so when I get back to the UK and overcome my jet lag, I will update this blog with those special moments in China haha!

By the way, news is that I have extended my stay at Milan to check out the Milan Hi-Fi show, oh joy!

first designs...

2009-08-19T08:33:00.001-07:00

We started with an amplifier and soon realised that there is only so much could be done with standard box! To keep things simple, a symmetrical design concept was used to simplify design and future system matching. Instead of spending money to to hide the screws like everyone else was at that time, a simpler way was to turned them it into a design feature (sort of inspired by Cartier watches of that era)! By using contrasting materials natural shines and tones, together with a clever use of colours, this was the first Sonneteer system:

Not bad for a first effort I think. Apart from being not being typical Hi-Fi black, we used a blue LED light for power indicator, and also we used a blue CD display. The amplifier front panel was brushed while the knobs were semi-polished in order to give it the required contrast between the knob and the front panel, otherwise they would have appeared the same since they were made with the same material.

The Byron CD player was a rather more challenging project both technically and aesthetically. I have previously designed a simple single aluminium front panel prototype but that was rejected later because it wasn't we were looking for and did not have enough contrast to match our amplifiers. Also, for the black option, it would simply be too dark (ie dull) if everything was black.

So a mirror polished stainless steel inner panel was used to great effect be it in a Silver or Black system: Anyway, the above systems were developed over 4 years or so and we have enjoyed great success with them internationally. They also formed the basis of the Sonneteer "look" that have carried onto other products in our range, including a couple of amplifiers and a CD Player.

So there you are, a very brief history of Sonneteer in the early years... for now I don't want to elaborate too much as I am sure I will be referring back to some history as this blog moves forward.

Lessons learned:

Aluminium is a beautiful material.
Use different finishing processes to get the effect you want from the same material.
Mirror is NOT silver, it's a chameleon that changes colour with your surroundings.
Stainless steel don't rust, so use it!

Early years...

2009-08-19T08:30:00.001-07:00

Let me see... might as well start with a little history-

Sonneteer is a British High-end, Hi-Fi company co-owned by myself and Haider Bahrani (I think he's got a blog somewhere in here too), and since 1995, we have been making a range of traditional high end hi-fi for music lovers.

We started at a time where almost every Hi-Fi products were housed in a case similar to the industrial standard 19" rack mounting system, some even went as far as including 19" rack mounting "wings and handle bars" to make it look like a "pro" machine! Well I guess if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck... that's the theory anyway... you see, serious audio needs to look... erm... serious.

So Hi Fi didn't have to look pretty as long as it sounds fantastic! Hmmm...

Anyway, with Sonneteer is where I first got involved with high-end product design, both inside and outside :o)

right, let's run with it...

2009-08-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Inspiration.

"when it's not there, there's not much you can do about it." - Remo Casadei

Like now... so I will be back later... :o)