[TNT-Audio Reviewers' Bio] Mark Wheeler, TNT-Audio UK reviewer & DIYer

Mark has been 20 years a scribe at TNT-Audio, truly the Old Scribe, after writing for Speaker Builder before that organ's demise.

“What did the Old Scribe do to close that magazine?” quip more disrespectful Plebs, stage left

Mark's first article here was about improving the sound of amplifiers by changing the casework and Mark has been tinkering with equipment and dabbling in audio philosophy and psychology ever since. Mark's audio evolution began nearly 50 years ago as a teenager convinced he could make things sound better by modifying stuff he bought from "jumble sales" and even now he is arrogant enough to modify established benchmarks like Audio Research Reference Series and the venerable Michell Orbe SE. Mark did spend some time helping friends with local demo-tape recording & sound-systems, learning the effects that recording and playback have on the perception of musical sounds, which has made Mark sceptical about the positions taken in the advertising driven audio media.

“The Old Scribe does need us to keep him in check” insist Plebs Chorus, stage left, “Especially to reduce the quantity of puns.”

Mark also designs and builds his own equipment, viewing the world often through the lens of “I could build a loudspeaker out of that”, hence the decommissioned warhead (above) being transformed into a mid-treble enclosure; an audiophile example of swords beaten into ploughshares. A life changing brain injury affects Mark's capacity to undertake much construction safely now. Another effect of that injury on Mark's audio perception taught Mark how it is that such strongly differing opinions are expressed about the subjective audio experience, and indeed the limitations of any attempt at measurement as an indication of goodness either. Mark also discovered that it is possible to learn and relearn our ear-brain perception of audio aspects like rhythm, balance, phase etc. The rational thinking of audio engineering is a great antidote to the abstraction of Psychotherapy and Art Therapy, Mark's NHS health-service day-job for 30 years. Art, music, drama and psychotherapy, like audio are fundamentally mechanisms that touch unconscious mental processes that generate profound emotions.

Mark has photographed & written for numerous paper and online publications in all these fields. He has researched & written about the psychology of making and consuming the arts, which is where we are here at TNT-audio. Mark is also a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Mark now works as a registered art psychotherapist and clinical supervisor and teaches, trains and facilitates workshops wherever asked. If you see a silhouette of a palette projected onto the clouds, be sure that Mark is reaching for the BAATphone to answer the call.

Mark rather enjoys being a dilettante touching many things and making connections, and above all enjoying it all.

Three visionaries working at the edge of what's possible in words, pictures and music to touch the souls of the rest of us

DISCLAIMER. TNT-Audio is neither a shop, nor a HiFi company or a repair laboratory for HiFi components. We don't sell anything. It is a 100% independent magazine that neither accepts advertising from companies nor requires readers to register or pay for subscriptions. If you wish, you can support our independent reviews via a PayPal donation. After publication of reviews, the authors do not retain samples other than on long-term loan for further evaluation or comparison with later-received gear. Hence, all contents are written free of any “editorial” or “advertising” influence, and all reviews in this publication, positive or negative, reflect the independent opinions of their respective authors. TNT-Audio will publish all manufacturer responses, subject to the reviewer's right to reply in turn.

Mark Wheeler

TNT-Audio UK

Mark's audiophile cartoons