It’s time to kick off the 8th California Audio Show in Oakland, CA with old and new friends. Pictured here is Becky Roberts, Carol Clark, Constantine Soo, Dave Clark, and Bill Leebens.
The first room I went into was MrSpeakers. Man, there’s a lot of headphones there to listen to.
Aaudio Imports was featuring the Wilson Benesch Endeavor Isobaric stand-mounted monitor speakers ($49,500/pair) with the Wilson Benesch Torus+Amp Infarsonic Generator ($12,900). Also from Wilson Benesch was their R1 carbon fiber rack ($8,500 per module). The electronics were the Ypsilon DAC 1000 multi-format valve D/A converter ($24,500), the Aurender N10 ($8,800), Ypsilon PST-100 MkII combo valve/transformer preamp ($37,000), and the Ypsilon Aelius II push-pull hybrid monoblocks ($39,000/pair).
The cabling was from Stage III, starting with their Medusa speaker cables ($18,500/pair), Stage III Gorgon interconnects ($8,300/pair XLR), Stage III Kraken power cable ($8,400/1.5m), Stage III Proteus power cable ($12,000/1.5m), and the Stage III Leviathan power cable ($14,500/1.5m). Everything was plugged into an HB Cable Design PowerSlave Marble MKII power distributor ($16,500).
David Cope of Old Forge Studio showed me “The Wand” 12-inch, carbon fiber, uni-pivot tonearm, imported from New Zealand. It is beautifully made, and I think he said they range in price from $1,700 for the base 9-inch one to $3,500 for this 12-inch top of the line tonearm. We will be bringing you more information in a future post.
Next up was the Pass Labs and Zu Audio room. I love this banner featuring a picture of Nelson Pass and their motto, “Enjoy the Experience,” and a quote from Nelson about how this motto is part of everything they make. It has been my experience over the years that Nelson Pass designs and builds amps that are very easy to enjoy recorded music.
Pass Labs had a couple of static displays. One featured the First Watt J2 and the new First Watt SIT-3, which I just reviewed and loved. So far I have read four glowing reviews of the SIT-3; it is a very special amp. Nelson Pass refers to his First Watt amps as his “babies.”
The other static display featured the Pass Labs INT-60 integrated amp that puts out 60 watts per channel into 8 ohms and twice that into 4 ohms. The other amp featured in this display was their Pass Labs XA25 power amp that, as the name implies, puts out 25 watts into 8 ohms. This is also a very special power amp for $4,900. I reviewed this amp last November and was very impressed by how much it could sound like real music,
It has been such an honor to review these great amps designed by Nelson Pass. It was also very nice to get to visit with Desmond Harrington and Kent English from Pass Labs.
The system that was playing in the room featured the Pass Laboratories XA25 stereo power amplifier ($4,900) with the Pass Labs XP17 phono stage ($4,300) and the Pass Labs XP12 line level preamplifier ($5,800). The speakers were the Zu Audio Druid Mk.VI loudspeakers ($9,999/pair). Everything was hooked up with Zu cables and the source was a vintage Luxman PD444 turntable with a Zu/DL-103 cartridge.
The Audio Federation room featured the Acapella Audio Arts Campanile 2 plasma/horn speakers ($81,700) driven by the Acapella Audio Arts LaMusika hybrid integrated amplifier ($105,500). The source was the Acapella Audio Arts LaMusika music server and the cabling was the Acapella Audio Arts Cable System.
The electronics were from Audio Note, starting with the Audio Note UK CDT-Five CD transport and Audio Note UK Fifth Element DAC Fifth Force power supply and Audio Note UK cables. The rack was from Harmonic Resolution Systems. They didn’t have all of the prices today, but I will have them for the show report later.
It was wonderful to see our old friends from the Margules. This is one of the best high-end audio companies around, and without a doubt, the best-kept secret in America. They also didn’t have prices yet, but the system consisted of the Margules U280-sc Black 1.3 Tube Class A Stereo/Mono Amplifiers, the Margules SF220 Black 1.2 Tube Class A Preamplifier, the Margules Orpheus 1.3 Ceramic Driver Tower Speakers, the Magenta TT-10 Turntable, the Magenta FZ47db Phono Stage, the Magenta BTV4 Wireless Receiver and the Magenta DAC.
The Wand comes from New Zealand not Australia. Boy does getting the two mixed up annoy the Kiwis.
So sorry. We will correct. I (Becky) worked for an Aussie company at one time, and yes they get their knickers in a wad over getting the two confused. Don’t blame them. We don’t like to be confused with Canada or Mexico, not to disparage either of our neighbors. G’day, mate!