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.