AudioStream

One of the more epic resume’s in digital hi-fi belongs to designer Gordon Rankin. Along with helping to develop asynchronous USB, his list of contributions read like an audiophile’s menu of success stories. From AudioQuest’s Dragonfly to Wavelength and Ayre, the man behind the scenes entertains us in this interview with his stories, history, and outlook on all things digital.

High-end digital audio maker Computer Audio Design is based in the UK, but its founder Scott Barry is an American. Honing his design chops in England, CAD has more recently focused their sights on the US and other countries to expand the reach of their limited, but tight set of digital audio products. The entire suite of components and accessories is highly optimized for reducing unwanted outside noise into any digital-based system. The sole DAC the company currently offers (the CAD 1543 MKII) utilizes niche R-2-R ladder DAC technology along with an undying respect for superior power supplies. In this episode, Scott takes us though his design philosophy, and what it's like being a lifelong fan of high fidelity and the slow path of integrating USB technology into an accepted form of source material.

Wolf Audio Systems is a relatively new company on the digital audio scene, but has already produced some early successes with their lineup of high fidelity audio servers. Joe Parvey joins the AudioStream podcast in this episode to go over the company’s comings and goings over the past few years as well as the digital strokes it takes to make a premium product in this growing category of native media and streaming playback.

Zach Cowie: Emmy-nominated music supervisor, former record label man and band manager, DJ, slow-music entrepreneur and audiophile with bonafides. I traveled to Los Angeles in June for work and was able to connect with Cowie in person to not only meet in a shady hotel room to record a podcast with him and Brian Hunter, but also to spend an afternoon at his loft in downtown LA and check out his Shindo-based hi-fi rig.

MSB Technology is a high end, high-performance audio company. Manager Vince Galbo sits down with us to discuss all the refined details of digital reconstruction along with his take on speaker placement, managing a listening room and the audio show circuit. A long-time veteran of high fidelity, he offers up his unique perspective for fine tuning the balance between the art of listening and the magnifying glass of technology.

Which digital connection delivers the best sonic rewards? Is USB inherently flawed as an audiophile socket? Can an Ethernet cord make a difference in sound quality? Ted Smith of PS Audio tackles some of high fidelity’s biggest digital questions in this extensive interview recorded at the unveiling of his new flagship Obsidian Series Ted Smith Signature DAC at the AXPONA 2019 audio show in Chicago.

Peter Madnick’s history with digital audio reaches back to some of the earliest incarnations of the external DAC. Along with extensive experience designing everything from amplifiers to turntables, his prolific handiwork has been behind many of hi-fi's successful components. Now a Senior Electronics Engineer at ELAC Americas, his expertise has carried over from his time heading up Audio Alchemy with the ELAC Alchemy Series DAC/Pre/Streamer, Phono Pre and Power Amplifier. There is a diversity and depth to Peter’s portfolio which is more and more often becoming a rare example in high fidelity audio.

Rob Darling has made his way from the production end of music all the way to the heavyweight audiophile streaming-software company Roon. His time in the studio helped hone his digital skillset which he now wields as a rich tapestry along with a keen sense of listening. In our interview Darling walks us through the new digital lifestyle of high-end audio, tuning-in to the current touchstones of the hobby with a critical ear and discusses what the future holds for Roon Labs.

EJ Sarmento has been steering the Wyred4Sound ship since the beginning, but his history designing audio products goes back much further than that. His line of direct-to-consumer digital products have provided a steady stream of options for audiophiles that balance somewhere in-between bare bones budget and the high end of two channel. With value in mind, his music servers, DACs USB and power products are always attuned to the needs of audiophiles and the ever-evolving digital landscape. He joins up with us to discuss designing audio at age 15 and everything else that has fallen into place thereafter.

Producer and studio engineer Al Schmitt’s deep connection with music spans almost the entire breadth of modern music as we know it. From producing acts like Jefferson Airplane to engineering feats with Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra and Diana Krall, Schmitt has been behind the board for some of the biggest entertainment talent to grace the airwaves. Al walks us down his historical path that earned him 150 gold/platinum albums and 22 Grammys, sharing his experiences and engineering know-how working with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sam Cook, Toto, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and more. Part 2 of 2.

Producer and studio engineer Al Schmitt’s deep connection with music spans almost the entire breadth of modern music as we know it. From producing acts like Jefferson Airplane to engineering feats with Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra and Diana Krall, Schmitt has been behind the board for some of the biggest entertainment talent to grace the airwaves. Al walks us down his historical path that earned him 150 gold/platinum albums and 22 Grammys, sharing his experiences and engineering know-how working with the likes of Duke Ellington, Sam Cook, Toto, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and more. Part 1 of 2.

Episode No. 2: Nuno Vitorino of Innuos sparks up a conversation with host Brian Hunter about the silicon-based neural pathways that help make up digital-audio music servers. The company’s new Statement product recently hit the market with something to prove: That digital starting points can contribute to overall sonics just as much as a turntable. Vitorino's deep well of intelligence touches on much of the delicacy of keeping ones and zeros as pure as the driven snow and intrinsically implies that getting good sound from a source isn’t merely as binary as one might think.

Host Brian Hunter interviews AudioStream editor Rafe Arnott briefly and then dives deep with Bob Stuart – the man behind Meridian Audio and the father of the controversial codec MQA. Stuart discusses the benefits of end-to-end authentication streaming, DACs, MQA mastering mysteries and the current war among audiophiles over whether MQA is a money grab or the next messiah come to save cloud-based music-streaming services.