Madison Claridge
Studio Engineer, Decoy Studios
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The Story
Inside Decoy Studios: iFi audio in a Professional Recording Environment
Set amongst the Suffolk countryside, Decoy Studios is a place built around one thing: making great records.
Owned by award-winning mixer Cenzo Townshend, Decoy brings together recording, stereo mixing and immersive production in an environment where artists and engineers can focus completely on the music.
For Studio Engineer Madison Claridge, that means every part of the playback chain has to earn its place.
From the equipment capturing a performance to the system used to evaluate it afterwards, accuracy matters. But so does musicality.
That is where iFi audio has become part of the Decoy workflow.
The iDSD PHANTOM at the Heart of Studio Playback
At the centre of Madison's iFi setup is the iDSD PHANTOM, iFi's flagship reference-class DAC, streamer and headphone amplifier.
In a recording studio, playback is more than listening. It is a tool for making decisions.
Stereo placement, transient behaviour, low-frequency definition and small changes in tone or dynamics all need to be heard clearly. A reference system has to reveal what is happening in the recording without getting in the way of it.
For Madison, the PHANTOM has become a regular part of that process.
“We’re getting on great with the Phantom, it has continued to be an integral part of our studio playback set up. The stereo image and bass response, particularly low frequency transient definition has been really enjoyable to reference with.”
That ability to hear both the scale of the stereo image and the behaviour of low-frequency transients is especially valuable during recording, where seemingly small choices can shape everything that happens later in the production.
From Recording Room to Mix Room
Having established the PHANTOM within Decoy’s recording workflow, Madison is now exploring how it could also be integrated into the studio’s stereo mixing setup.
“Thus far the Phantom has primarily been used for referencing in our recording studio, we’re currently looking at how else we might also be able to integrate it as part of our stereo mix set up so that we can really push the unit to its limits. Having seen it applied at the recording stage, we’re looking forward to seeing how it can perform in our mix room.”
Alongside the PHANTOM, the ZEN Air Blue provides a simple Bluetooth playback option for quickly bringing wireless sources into the studio system.
Supporting the Playback Chain
Behind the playback chain, Decoy also uses a wider SilentPower ecosystem including PowerStation, DC Blocker, GND Defender, Nova, SupaNova, OMNI LAN and AC iPurifier.
Together, these products help address power, grounding and network noise throughout the studio environment, supporting the systems Madison and the Decoy team rely on during recording, playback and critical evaluation.
Products Used at Decoy Studios
