John Marks is a multidisciplinary generalist and a lifelong audio hobbyist. He was educated at Brown University and Vanderbilt Law School. He has worked as a music educator, recording engineer, classical-music record producer and label executive, and as a music and audio-equipment journalist. He was a columnist for The Absolute Sound, and for Stereophile magazine. His consulting clients have included the University of the South (Sewanee, TN), Grace Design, Fountek Electronics Company, Ltd., and Steinway & Sons. He keeps a blog called The Tannhauser Gate where he writes about worthwhile new music.