Phil Jones was born in London in 1954. By the time he was 13, he had been hooked by the vibrant British music scene and developed a passion for the electric bass. "It held the band together," said Phil, "and I was just fascinated by syncopation."

Led by the example of James Jamerson, perhaps the premiere R&B bassist of all time, Phil' s devotion to the electric bass soon ran into a problem. He had exhausted the local inventory of "borrow-able basses" and his parents, leery of music' s darker side, declined to buy him an instrument. So, at 13, he researched design and construction techniques to make his own fretless bass. Problem solved.

Two years later, following an almost insatiable curiosity, Phil moved from instruments to electronics by building his first amplifier and loudspeaker. He then furthered his technical education with an apprenticeship at British Telecom and a certificate in telecommunications from the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.

But all this didn' t end his musical education. Under the guidance of Ernest C. Haigh, former principal bassist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Phil studied classical double bass at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff while playing electric bass for various rock, R&B, and jazz groups in local bars and nightclubs. He also worked as a BBC studio musician to help pay his tuition.

Phil soon became discontented with the sound produced by instruments and electronics alike. "There was always a disconnect," he said, "between what my mind said an instrument should sound like and what I was hearing through the equipment of the time." So he began developing ways to improve all facets of the musical experience: instruments, amps, and speakers. Guided by people like Reginald Solomon, a talented term and long-term employee of Western Electric, Phil entered the world of professional sound, first with Vitavox, one of the UK' s oldest and most respected commercial sound suppliers and later as head of his own sound reinforcement company. His continued contact with the music community also led him to operating a recording studio in which, naturally enough, the near-field monitor speakers he used to assure quality recording were his own design.

These monitor speakers soon became famous as the AE-1 and Acoustic Energy, the company formed to produce the monitors in quantity became another of the UK' s premiere audio manufacturers. "All of a sudden," Phil remembered," I was dealing with the world of hi fi rather than professional sound. It was a very different point of view." The AE-1 quickly caught fire with consumers and professionals alike, earning rave reviews in many international audiophile publications as well as placement at GRP and other record labels as well as recording studios including the famed Abbey Road.

Phil then moved to the United States to take on the challenge of designing Boston Acoustic' s premium Lynnfield speaker line. Afterwards, he formed Platinum Audio and created another legend in the form of the Platinum Solo, a small two-way speaker still revered by many music lovers. At the other end of the Platinum scale stood the massive Air Pulse, a horn loaded speaker offered at a mere $175,000 per pair! Its unique combination of efficiency, clarity, and beauty caused the Japan Audio Society to call it the most innovative product offered since the invention of the loudspeaker.

Now at AAD, Phil is using the same high engineering standards and love for music to design a range of speakers to answer the needs of everyone from casual listeners to the dedicated audiophile. His efforts are backed by over 150 employees working in a state-of-the-art production facility covering more than 100,000 square feet.