I do keep my ear out for Skullcandy headphones. Not because I think they're going to produce an amazing sounding headphone—though it's possible—but because they sell a lot of headphones and I want to know if they're treating all those sk8ers right.

With the Grind, I think they sure 'nuf are.

While its name might be whimsical, nothing else about Bricasti is. As John Marks reported in his review of Bricasti's M1 DAC in the August 2011 issue, both founders previously worked at Lexicon: Dowdell as a DSP-software engineer, Zolner as international sales manager. Bricasti develops its products in conjunction with Aeyee Labs, formed by a group of ex-employees of Madrigal Audio Laboratories and based in New Haven, Connecticut.