BRICASTI DESIGN HISTORY

Bricasti Design is a Massachusetts-based high-end audio company specialising in digital and amplification components for studio and home use. Founded in 2004, it is still a relatively young and less well-known company, but the individuals behind it have significant experience in audio, having worked for years with companies like Lexicon and Mark Levinson.

The co-founders of Bricasti are two American legends of the pro audio industry, Brian Zolner and Casey Dowdell, and the name of the company comes directly from their names. Both come from Harman International Industries, where Brian spent 20 years as Lexicon's vice president of international sales, and Casey worked as a DSP software engineer at Lexicon.

BRIAN ZOLNER

Passionate about music, Brian realised a dream in the 80s by working closely with music and musicians, thus arriving at Lexicon, a leading company in the professional market for reverb units. He is now CEO of Bricasti Design and chief designer for all the brand’s product ranges.

CASEY DOWDELL

Casey is the specialist DSP software engineer and writes all of Bricasti’s signal-processing software in-house. His outstanding talents and skills are recognised worldwide.

DAMON GRAMOND

At the end of 2010, Damon Gramont joined Bricasti Design as the new sales director. He previously served eight years with Summit Audio as vice president of sales. Damon is often seen taking part at various HiFi Shows around the US and Europe.

Furthermore, Brian and Casey had a close relationship with the engineers and designers at Madrigal Labs, the home of the renowned Mark Levinson brand in the high-end audio field. Madrigal Labs was eventually closed in 2003 and subsequently transferred to the current Harman International Industries department.

This led some former Madrigal Labs employees to leave Harman International Industries and found a new company called Aevee Labs, designing circuit boards for electronic devices. Aevee Labs engineers are known to have made significant contributions to Mark Levinson's development during his time at Madrigal. Bricasti Design is also working with these engineers, who have great experience in product development for high-end audio products.

Brian and Casey followed suit by forming Bricasti Design. In the early years, the company's first effort was aimed at the pro-audio market by releasing its first professional audio product in 2007, the stereo reverb processor M7. This quickly became the acclaimed reference studio design adopted by many recording engineers around the globe to this day. After the newly formed company settled in, Brian and Casey learned that their products were used by enthusiasts in their home systems and were persuaded to offer audiophile consumer products to private individuals.

PRO AUDIO

ROOTS

M7 GOLD STANDARDS

Released in 2007, the M7 stereo reverberation processor was Bricasti's inaugural product aimed at the professional recording and mastering markets. The M7, a clean-sheet-of-paper design utilising reverberation synthesis rather than convolution from recorded impulse samples, has earned a reputation as the "gold standard" of reverb generators due to its remarkable digital conversion performance.

This success allowed Bricasti Design to cascade its technology and expertise by meticulously tuning all subsequent products. The M1 DAC was the first product aimed at the consumer end, and received high acclamation from the press since then. Additionally, the high demand for top-notch amplification in studio settings prompted Bricasti to identify and fill a new gap in the market.

Consequently, they designed amplifiers that matched the quality required for studio reproduction. This effort resulted in a new range of electronics that has since been refined for the consumer end user.

Thanks to their hands-on approach in studio recording and mastering, Bricasti Design precisely understands how a signal is fed into recording and, subsequently, how it should be reproduced. Standing in a unique position, Bricasti possesses a 'standard' not often found in the audiophile market, as their talent spans recording and reproducing audio in both studio and private settings.

Marrying understated looks to outstanding electronic design, Bricasti Design consumer products are arguably some of the most advanced high-end audio electronics available today. Bricasti product ranges have now expanded offerings with top-of-the-line digital-to-analogue converters, preamplifiers, and power amplifiers, and they have recently been joined by the latest M19 SACD/CD Digital Transport.

All these products share the same design philosophy, and the sum of their parts is something to behold; every single component is designed to work flawlessly with one another, leaving a clear window over the recorded performance often referred to as the ‘Holy Grail’ for many professionals, audio enthusiasts, and reviewers alike.

Whatever you use the

Bricasti electronics

are always likely

to be the strongest link

in the audio chain 

“

Jason Kennedy - THE EAR MAGAZINE

“