For Angela Cardas Meredith, Cardas Audio has quite literally been a family affair for most of her life. Her dad, George, started the company in their home in Ontario, CA almost 35 years ago. These days, she manages the company, her dad designs the products and her husband, Josh, handles public relations and marketing. Their son marks the third-generation for the Cardas Audio family.
I had to smile when she told me that her first job with the company was when she was nine years old. “I started with things like hammering grommets into the product bags so they would hang in the stores and coloring in the product logos on the invoices and flyers.”
Angela followed her love for music by working professionally as a disc jockey for several years, where she met her husband, Josh Meredith. Five years ago, her dad asked her to come back to Cardas Audio to manage the company.
Growing Up
Since those early years, there have been a few changes as both Cardas Audio and Angela grew up. The biggest change on the business side was their relocation to Bandon, OR. Angela says her parents wanted to find a family-friendly area with a small-town feel where their company could grow and their employees, who usually number around 14, could afford to buy homes. So, mom and dad took a road trip up the coast, and Bandon just felt like the right spot to settle down. Cardas Audio is now so much a part of Bandon that they are included in the town’s promotional photos.
About Cardas Audio
Building name recognition is a focus for Angela and the company. “We’ve really tried, especially in the last 3 or 4 years to make sure that people understand that cables are a component too.” That focus seems to be paying dividends. T.H.E. Show in June in Long Beach was just a few days before this interview, and as I told her when we talked, I was surprised to notice how many of the rooms there were displaying Cardas cables signage.
If you know Angela, follow her on Facebook, or just casually run into her at an audio show, you’ll realize pretty quickly that she’s definitely a people person. In fact, interacting with people in the industry is what she enjoys most. “We pretty much go to every trade show here and around the world that we can. Those personal connections and that one-on-one time are pretty much what’s helping us,” she says adding, “Since I was raised in it, and it’s family for me. All of our dealers and distributors that have been around as long as I can remember. It’s super special to me to see them and get to work with them at this level. “
In addition to the high-end audio market, Cardas Audio also has a strong OEM business in the United States. They also sell their copper to manufacturers throughout the world for many different applications. “We manufacture our cables and other things for other companies, so we are pretty diverse. Even if it doesn’t have our name on it there’s a good chance that we made it,” Angela says.
The Future of High-End Audio
Before wrapping up our interview, I wanted to know what Angela as an insider thinks the future looks like for high-end audio. Her first comment was about the industry itself. “It’s fun to see how companies are diversifying and getting young blood coming in.”
As for the buying public, “There are a lot of people in the industry who are down on it and think it’s dying and that it’s only old white men. But, I think you see what you want to see. I go to Munich, and I see women and families and fathers and sons walking around to the booths.” Thinking about recent shows in the U.S., she added, “The Florida show, we did that in February, and there were a lot of couples there making purchasing decisions together. I think that’s closer to what the future is going to hold for us.”
Music Preferences
So, I always like to wrap up an interview by asking, “What music do you listen to?” After all, if you are in the audio business, you’ve got to be listening to music. Angela confesses that for her it depends on where she is. “If I’m alone in my car, I am listening to the most cheese ball country music. I absolutely love it. It’s what I call my guilty pleasure. I know it’s not cool to like that but I do, and I go to concerts. And I went to see Garth Brooks at the end of June, and I understand that I’m totally not cool saying that.”
Her second choice in music, Americana pop, goes back to her radio days. “This is probably about 70 percent of what I listen to, The Shins, The Decemberists, Neko Case, that sort of thing,” she says. And, she also enjoys some heavy metal from time to time. In fact, they recently took their son to his first real concert, Nightwish in Portland. “We were in the very back row and he was standing up on a table or something. He had his ear protection on and was rocking out.”
Thanks for the interview, Angela! I’ve been enjoying following you on Facebook for the last couple of months, and I’m looking forward to saying hello in person at future audio shows. For our Audio Beatnik readers who don’t know Angela, you should. She is just high-energy FUN, and we all need to know more people like her.
