JOE CAULFIELD
I'm Joe Caulfield.
I run Caulfield Engineering: a solo audio + hardware engineering shop in Orlando, Florida.
WHAT I DO
Through Caulfield Engineering I bring a combination of audio expertise and complex hardware engineering directly to the audio industry, taking on contract engineering work across the full hardware product stack:
Mixed-signal circuit design
High-speed, high-density, critical PCB layout
Mechanical prototyping
RF hardware and signal-path design
Embedded firmware & native software
Board bring-up and testing validation
Low-noise design
DSP architecture and algorithm development
Regulatory pre-compliance
Power-supply design
Audio software and plugin development
End-to-end product development
MY BACKGROUND
My path in the audio production started early.
I began my first internship at a local recording studio during high school, and eventually got an opportunity to mix concerts at a music hall downtown.
The transition into live sound led to a passionate career over the next decade, mixing front of house and monitors at venues ranging from small clubs to large amphitheaters, and on the road with national touring acts.
Early on, I grew increasingly curious about how the gear I used daily had been designed and built.
The deeper I looked, the more I noticed that the vocabulary I’d been using as an audio engineer – impedance, deciBels, gain, bandwidth – had its roots in electrical engineering.
Audio engineering, beneath the surface, was electrical engineering and signal processing applied to a specific domain.
On this realization, I immediately pursued an education in EE, with the specific goal of applying it to audio.
I’ve since worked across multiple sides of the audio industry:
- Solo pedal design and vintage equipment repair under Noisy Neighbor.
- Co-founded Pogo Pedals and lead the engineering of the Harmony Series pedal line.
- Developing VST software plugins under Wonderland Audio.
- Continuing freelance live-sound production along the way.
I then spent three years in the Test & Measurement industry designing high-speed digital and mixed-signal RF hardware for first-responder radio test platforms.
My work covered low phase-noise requirements, high-speed data acquisition and signal generation (up to 8 GHz), and tight cross-discipline integration across hardware, firmware, and DSP.
Over time I moved from being a contributing engineer to leading cross-functional project teams developing automated radio test platforms.
In 2025, I shifted to focus full-time on Caulfield Engineering and bring that experience back to the audio industry.
SEE MY WORK
View my Product Portfolio for a curated showcase of products and companies I’ve worked with.
Browse my Design Journal for all posts, including technical write-ups and other musings.