Meet the Makers, episode four
Matt Boudreau

Matt Boudreau seated to give an interview

Listening today often favors convenience. But music is built with intention—depth, space, detail woven into every mix. How much of that nuance actually reaches the listener depends entirely on how music is played back.

That idea runs through every episode of Meet the Makers, and it’s what Denon’s Sound Made Better philosophy is built around.

Meet Matt Boudreau

In this final episode, we sit down with Bay Area engineer, mixer, and producer Matt Boudreau, whose three-decade career spans recording, mixing, and mastering for artists including Alanis Morissette, Green Day, Death Cab for Cutie, and Florence + the Machine. He also hosts the popular Working Class Audio podcast, featuring conversations with audio professionals.

Boudreau came up as a musician before crossing to the other side of the glass, a perspective that still shapes how he thinks about the listener’s experience. “The thing I want the listener to feel is...I want it to wash over them and give them an emotional reaction,” he says.

There’s a shift that happens when music moves from headphones into a room. Headphones offer intimacy and focus; a room lets sound breathe, reflecting off surfaces, opening up, gaining dimension. Immersive formats like Dolby Atmos expand that even further. Sound moves front to back, side to side, and overhead, pulling the listener inside the space where the music was made.

Where it comes together

Across Meet the Makers, the throughline has been consistent: Sound is built with intention, but it’s only realized when the playback experience can carry that work forward.

Watch the full episode to hear Boudreau talk about how listening habits are evolving—and what changes when you finally hear music the way it was intended.

Missed earlier episodes? Catch up here.

Learn more about Denon

Surround sound waves in a living room
<span>Une histoire faite de premières</span>
Une histoire faite de premières