Douglas Self has a world-wide reputation as a leading authority on audio power amplifier design, but it is perhaps less well-known that he has devoted a good deal of study to preamplifiers and other small-signal circuitry, including many years as the Chief Design Engineer at one of the major mixing console manufacturers, where his achievements included winning a Design Council Award. His rigorous, skeptical, and thoroughly practical approach to design has been applied to the small signal area as well. Douglas studied engineering at Cambridge University, and then Psychoacoustics at Sussex University. He has spent many years working at the top level of design in both the professional audio and hi-fi industries, and has taken out a number of patents in the field of audio technology.