Audiophile Style Podcast Season 1 Directory

The first season of the Audiophile Style podcast is finished. We are taking a little break for the summer before kicking off season two. Here's a directory of the season, to make listening even easier :~)

Listen to each episode via the embedded player below or subscribe on any platform.

As much as I'd love to deliver this show to everyone in lossless high resolution audio, the podcast platforms only accept MP3. So, I record everything as lossless WAV files using a Neumann TLM 103 transformerless cardioid condenser microphone, then convert to 320 Kbps MP3 to give everyone the best quality currently possible. Given that I'm using a Merging Technologies Anubis analog to digital converter to record, I technically could do everything at DXD (384 kHz) or DSD256, but that's a bit over the top, even for me.

A big thanks to David Chesky for allowing me to use the track East Harlem, from the album The Body Acoustic. The album can be purchased and downloaded at 24/96 from the Chesky Records site here. 

Subscribe for free on any of these or other podcast platforms.

Episode 1: Roon Labs

A discussion with the team at Roon Labs about the origins of the company, user interface and technical design decisions, and the Roon Ready certification program. The show finishes with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers. 

Episode 2: Wilson Audio

A discussion with Wilson Audio Specialties' CEO Daryl Wilson about the origins of the company, his father Dave's influence on him, and the importance of the WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeaker. The show finishes with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers. 

Episode 3: dCS

A discussion with the team at dCS, David Steven Jr., John Quick, and John Giolas, about the origins of the company, what makes dCS dCS, why it matters, and the impact of the flagship Vivaldi system. The show finishes with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers. 

Episode 4: Schiit Audio

A discussion with Schiit Audio co-founder Jason Stoddard. We talk about his early days at Sumo Electronics, meeting the other Schiit Audio co-founder Mike Moffat from Theta Digital, which product put Schiit Audio on the map, why Schiit creates its multi-bit DACs rather than using something more standard, and the genesis and design goals of the flagship Yggdrasil DAC. You'll want to stick around for the bonus questions at the end of the show to hear candid answers from Jason about music, food and even comedians.

Episode 5: Audio Research

A discussion with Audio Research Managing Director Dave Gordon about the origins of the company in Minneapolis, the design and details of my favorite ARC amp the Reference 160, and a new fantastic integrated amp coming very soon from the company. The show finishes with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 6: Qobuz

A discussion with the Qobuz team about how the service works, including how it gets the music we here, what happens if a listener finds an issue with an album, and the thorny issue of artist compensation, among many other topics. I also discovered a "new" jazz album from 1960 that I highly recommend, and show finishes with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 7: Ayre Acoustics

A discussion with the Ayre Acoustics team about founder Charles Hansen, products that put Ayre on the map, what makes Ayre special, the QB-9 DAC, and a look into the future of the company. The show concludes with a book and album recommendation and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 8: Music Photographer Charles Peterson

A discussion with famous music photographer, music lover, and audiophile Charles Peterson about some of his most iconic shots, including Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Johnny Cash to name a few. The show concludes with how to purchase Peterson's prints and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 9: Boulder Amplifiers

An interview with Steve Huntley and Logan Rosencrans of Boulder Amplifiers. We discuss the past, present and future of the company, including its flagship 3000 series components and the new 866 integrated amplifier. The show finishes with an album recommendation and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 10: Bryston

An interview with Bryston CEO James Tanner. We discuss the past, present and future of the company, including its push into digital music servers a decade ago, its recent loudspeaker initiative, and its modular DAC/Preamp the BR20. The show finishes with two album recommendations and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 11: Linn

An interview with Gilad, Steve, and Joe of Linn about the past present and future of the company, including the original Linn turntables, Linn's journey to introduce the first true high end streamer, the original Klimax DS, and Linn's use of digital signal processing, among many other things. The show finishes with an album recommendation and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 12: McIntosh Group's Livio Cucuzza

An interview with Chief Design Officer and Vice President of R&D for the McIntosh Group, Livio Cucuzza. We talk about his childhood in Sicily, his design inspirations, the fact that his father owned a HiFi shop as he was growing up, the product design process, the sf16 product launch, and how he handles the rich heritage of both Sonus Faber and McIntosh Labs. The show concludes with two album recommendations and a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers.

Episode 13: Grammy Winning Engineer Bill Schnee Part 1

An interview with Grammy winning engineer, producer, and audiophile Bill Schnee about his new book Chairman at the Board and his 50 years of experience working with Steely Dan, Whitney Houston, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, and many more of the most talented people in the music business. Buy Bill's Book Here - https://audiophile.style/schnee

Episode 14: Grammy Winning Engineer Bill Schnee Part 2

The conclusion of my interview with Grammy winning engineer, producer, and audiophile Bill Schnee about his new book Chairman at the Board and his 50 years of experience working with Steely Dan, Whitney Houston, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond, and many more of the most talented people in the music business. Buy Bill's Book Here - https://audiophile.style/schnee

Episode 15: McIntosh Group CEO Jeff Poggi

An interview with McIntosh Group co-CEO Jeff Poggi about growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, getting his MBA at Duke, working for Harmon and Bose before joining McIntosh. We talk extensively about the new McIntosh Group car audio partnership with Jeep and Maserati. Jeff goes into great detail about the process of working with major auto manufacturer and creating a reference level audio system that's McIntosh through & through.

Episode 16: Radio Paradise

An interview with Radio Paradise founder Bill Goldsmith. Hear about Radio Paradise's high quality lossless streaming, Bluesound and Sonos integration, how the company finds and serves music, and how Bill's career in the broadcast industry lead him to start Radio paradise before anyone had a smart phone or a truly fast internet connection. The show ends with a round of bonus questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy :~)

Episode 17: Acoustic Sounds Chad Kassem Part 1

An interview with the founder and CEO of Acoustic Sounds, Chad Kassem. Acoustic Sounds owns its own record pressing plant, vinyl reissue label, original production label, print shop, recording studio, and its own LP mastering business after purchasing the Mastering Lab form the late Doug Sax. Hear Chad talk about all of this and the decades of work that goes into reissuing work from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, Pink Floyd, and many more.

Episode 18: Acoustic Sounds Chad Kassem Part 2

The conclusion to my interview with the founder and CEO of Acoustic Sounds, Chad Kassem. Acoustic Sounds owns its own record pressing plant, vinyl reissue label, original production label, print shop, recording studio, and its own LP mastering business after purchasing the Mastering Lab form the late Doug Sax. Hear Chad talk about all of this and the decades of work that goes into reissuing work from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, Pink Floyd, and many more.

Episode 19: Rockport Technologies Part 1

An interview with the team at Rockport Technologies. Rockport has crafted boutique high end audio products for 3 decades, starting with the Sirius turntable and transitioning into loudspeakers such as it groundbreaking Arakkis and Lyra models. Many Audiophiles who’ve heard Rockport products over the years place these speakers at or near the top of the list for the best loudspeakers speakers in the world.

Episode 20: Rockport Technologies Part 2

The conclusion to my interview with the team at Rockport Technologies. Rockport has crafted boutique high end audio products for 3 decades, starting with the Sirius turntable and transitioning into loudspeakers such as it groundbreaking Arakkis and Lyra models. Many Audiophiles who’ve heard Rockport products over the years place these speakers at or near the top of the list for the best loudspeakers speakers in the world.

Episode 21: Aurender

An interview with Aurender's Ari Margolis about the company's past, present, and future, as well as some highlighted products such as the S10, W20 / W20SE, and the new N20. We also talk about Aurender's first class customer support and where the company is headed in the future.

Episode 22: Accurate Sound's Mitch Barnett

Mitch has been involved in digital signal processing for many years, including writing a book and contributing several articles to Audiophile Style on the topic, and recently starting his own company called Accurate Sound. I talked to Mitch about digital signal processing, some of the myths and reasons people may have dismissed it in the past, and what we can look forward to in the future. Mitch also discusses his room calibration service, his new software convolution engine called Hang Loose Convolver, and something new he is working on.

Episode 23: Audirvana

I talk to Damien and Manuel of Audirvana about their backgrounds, the beginnings of the application, and the ins and outs of the newest Audirvana Studio release. Audirvana Studio has a few features unavailable in any other app on the planet, and it was nice to talk about the implementation of these directly with the team. The guys also give candid answers to questions about the new subscription model, Musicbrainz tagging, and where the company is headed in the future.

Episode 24: Volumio

I talk to Michelangelo from Volumio about his background, the beginnings of the software and hardware products, and the current Volumio offerings. Michelangelo also gives candid answers to questions about Volumio’s subscription model, where the company is headed in the future, and the ten bonus questions, to which there are no wrong answers.

Episode 25: Innuos

I talk to Nuno Vitorino, the co-founder and R&D Director, of InnuOS about the beginnings of the company in his garage, the expansion to 39 countries around the globe, the current InnuOS offerings, how the company supports its customers, and where they are headed in the future.

Episode 26: Dirac Research

I talk to Dr. Mathias Johansson, Dirac Research co-founder and chief product officer, about the beginnings of the company in Upsala Sweden, its work with BMW, the current Dirac offerings for audiophiles, the differences between Dirac software and Dirac built into hardware, and many general DSP & room correction topics.

Episode 27: RAAL-requisite

I talk to Danny McKinney and Aleksander Radisavljevic of RAAL-requisite.

Based in both the US and Serbia, RAAL-requisite is a partnership between RAAL and requisite audio. HiFi lovers are familiar with the terrific RAAL ribbon tweeters that Alex has developed over the years, but many are likely unfamiliar with requisite audio’s long history of making professional equipment for some the best musicians in the world, and Danny’s background as a professional musician prior to creating products for musicians and studios.

As you’ll hear, this partnership is great, not only because of the background of these guys, but also because each one compliments the other with a unique set of skills.

Given that my absolute favorite headphone ever made is the RAAL-requisite SR1a, listeners can imagine how thrilled I was to hear all about the product’s development, successes and failures in the process, and to learn much more about what makes it so special.

You’ll want to stick around to the end of the show to hear about two new products RAAL-requisite will debut at the 2021 SoCal CanJam show in September and for a spirited round of bonus questions.

Episode 28: OraStream

An interview with Frankie Tan and Kelvin Lee of OraStream.

Based in Singapore, OraStream offers both behind the scenes technology and services to music streaming companies such as the Neil Young Archives, Naxos, and Primephonic, and it offers a direct to consumer application and service called Brio.

If there is one technology that should be embraced by all the music streaming services, it’s Orastream’s MPEG-4 SLS offering. It’s a solution to real problems, that requires no special hardware or decoder, and leaves the audio signal 100% unaffected for those streaming with a good network connection.

As you’ll hear, The OraStream Service is an end-to-end audio delivery platform. It works with full resolution audio recordings to deliver the highest quality of streaming audio on web, desktop, and mobile music players. The Audio adapts automatically to network bandwidth fluctuations for uninterrupted playback on cellular Wi-Fi, or wired networks. When bandwidth allows, music plays at full bit-perfect resolution. When bandwidth degrades, music plays at less than full resolution audio quality. The process of network-based, audio quality adaptability is dynamic and transparent to the music listener.

Both Frankie and Kelvin have a wealth of education and experience, and knowledge about streaming audio and the technologies surrounding it. Listeners on the geekier side will enjoy their technical descriptions of how OraStream works, but those a bit less tech savvy will equally appreciate how they explain the clear benefits to consumers.

For example, it’s fascinating to hear Frankie describe how Amazon Music HD works by slipping lower resolution audio into the middle of a high resolution track, and this being the reason Amazon can’t offer exclusive mode in its applications.