California Audio Show: Drew’s Picks for the 5 Best Rooms

This year’s California Audio Show was one of the more intimate audio shows on the calendar, but it was packed with audiophile ear candy. Among the impressive audio innovations on display were a variety of speakers, tube amplifiers, preamps, and audio accessories. Come along with me as I show you my favorite audio products and my picks for the best sound from the 2019 California Audio Show.

Margules Group

The Margules Group has become a welcome fixture at the California Audio Show after consistently having an impressive-sounding room year after year. Father and son, Julian and Jacobo Margules, along with their U.S. office partner Carlos Smith, were proudly showing their Orpheus 1.3 speakers ($19,000), alongside two of their visually stunning U280-sc 1.4 Black tube amplifiers ($6,000 each) in a monoblock configuration. The matching SF220 1.3 Black tube preamp ($4,000) was controlling the levels from the Magenta TT-10 turntable ($2,800) with Magenta FZ47db 1.3 phono preamp ($800). The forthcoming Magenta Media Server with built-in DAC ($3,000) provided the digital playback. The system was connected with Atlas Cables.

The Orpheus 1.3 speakers projected an astonishingly wide soundstage, with a huge and seamless dispersion of energy.  The sound had such realness that it drew me into the performance and made me momentarily forget to evaluate the speakers or gear. Margules’ goal is to provide a tangible music experience, and when the music sounds this engaging, they’ve done exactly that. Part of that sense of engagement came from the fact that there was no surface noise whatsoever with their vinyl playback, which I find commendable.

The music also sounded impressive when they switched to their brand new Magenta MarVox speakers ($4,000), debuting at this show. They feature custom 5.25” long-throw drivers with carbon-fiber paper cones, a soft-dome tweeter, and internal wiring with Atlas Cables OFCC copper. After listening to a few songs, I confirmed that Margules was able to get its signature “house sound” into these lower-priced speakers. When I asked Julian about this, he said the sound is due to the speakers being phase coherent and time-aligned, as well as from the special attention and care his engineers design into the first-order crossovers. More information about these new speakers is available here.

There’s a lot to be said regarding a system’s synergy when the entire system (sans cables) is made by the same company. The Margules products perform so well together. It’s obvious at first listen that they truly know how to engineer musicality and listener engagement into their products.

Bernhagen-Porter

Lyle Porter and David Bernhagen brought their labor of love, the Model 10/12 speaker system with powered subwoofers ($50,000) to the show again this year. Last year the Bernhagen-Porter room was impressive, and this year it didn’t disappoint either. The digital source was a Bricasti M1 DAC ($8,995) being fed into a pair of Marchand BTA40 805A SET monoblock amplifiers ($6,500), with cables by Audio Reference Technology.

The Model 10/12 speakers are the furthest thing from a simple wooden box with off-the-shelf drivers. There’s a staggering amount of R&D and physical labor that went into the production of these bespoke speakers. The drivers are all custom, including the horn loaded compression tweeter. Don’t let that tweeter design influence your ideas of what these speakers are capable of. If you were listening blindly, there’s no way you’d be able to identify that the treble was coming from a horn.

My most prominent takeaway from listening to these speakers is the astounding depth and complexity they offer when reproducing vocals. They give such a unique and introspective look into voices, the layering and clarity are exquisite. This addicting quality of depth keeps you listening, demanding your full attention.

The clean bass from the powered subwoofer integrates perfectly with the rest of the presentation, and never sounded the slightest bit boomy or unnatural. Overall, these speakers presented a nice wide soundstage that makes you feel like you’re witnessing the performance.  This room had great realism, effortless dynamics, and a thoroughly enjoyable sound.

Whammerdyne and PureAudioProject

Whammerdyne partnered again with open-baffle speaker designer PureAudioProject and put together a simple system that demonstrated its musicality. The brand new Classic 15 loudspeakers with Voxativ AC-PiFe drivers (the pre-order price is $8,995) were powered by the Whammerdyne DLM-4 tube amplifier ($10,500) which was making its debut at the show. Equi=Tech covered the power conditioning and Jena Labs provided the cables.

The sound in this room was highly engaging and refined. The hosts were also showing off the system’s versatility, as this room easily had the most varied selection of music at the show. As a result, these Classic 15 speakers demonstrated they could be elegant and graceful, yet at the same time, they were dynamic and exciting. For example, they gave me a great introspective look into a classical music performance. Then, when switching to a gritty, angry, industrial rock song, they perfectly replicated a highly distorted electric guitar. It sounds funny to say that they “accurately reproduced distortion!” However, it speaks to the “do-anything” character of these speakers and their ability to faithfully reproduce any genre of music.

The perfect synergy between the amplifier and speakers was evident as the volume was increased. Despite “only” having 8.4 watts per channel, the Whammerdyne amplifier drove these speakers to uncomfortable levels, with no signs of letting up. Clearly, there was plenty of horsepower and headroom inside this less than 10 watts per channel amplifier. This allowed for effortless dynamic swings that came from a completely silent background. Whenever I sat down for a song in this room, I felt fully engaged, and I didn’t want to stop listening.

Salk Sound

Jim Salk of Salk Sound brought a beautifully designed example of his new SS9.5 Satori speakers ($9,995) to this show. Powering them was a McGary Audio SA1 tube amplifier ($3,985), fed from an Exogal Comet DAC ($3,500) connected to a Salk Sound Streamplayer Gen III SE ($2,495). The room featured cables from Anticables.

When I walked in, my eyes were immediately drawn to these large tower speakers and their stunning high gloss finish. The workmanship of the cabinetry and the real wood veneer were both skillfully executed. They projected a sound with a slightly forward presentation that offered excellent imaging, allowing the speakers to disappear.

The mid and high frequencies blended perfectly into a layered and nuanced sound. I always love it when the sound is not directional or localized to the speakers themselves.

The treble was just slightly too far forward for my taste, but it was easy to look past that when the imaging and overall top to bottom soundstage were so enjoyable. The passive radiators provided just enough low-frequency fill that never drew any obvious attention to itself. It was a very clean and musical way for the speaker to communicate the basslines of each song.

This system had a high-fidelity sound and it wasn’t being pretentious about it. I think I could listen to for several months and still discover new characteristics and nuances about its performance. These Salk speakers reward you and keep you coming back for more.

Selah Audio and Musica Pristina

Kevin Welsh of Musica Pristina and Rick Craig of Selah Audio put together a room to celebrate the debut of Selah’s new Cali4 speakers ($6,995). The digital front end was made up of Musica Pristina’s A Cappella III streamer ($4,245), and their Virtuoso PCM DAC ($5,995). Driving the speakers was the Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 ($2,999) power amplifier. Wireworld provided power and interconnect cables.

When I walked into this room, I knew right away that I would be coming back several times throughout the show. Almost immediately, I had a strong emotional connection to the music I was hearing. There was nothing digital or artificial sounding in the presentation; the gear was getting out of the way of the music and it was wonderful. This was the best I’ve heard digital playback sound. I strongly believe this Musica Pristina digital front end would compete handily against expensive vinyl front ends costing much more.

The Selah speakers offered flawless performance and covered everything from the highest highs to the deepest lows, thanks to their four-way design which features an 11” woofer inside a sealed enclosure. These bass drivers provided plentiful bass when needed, but they never sounded boomy or out of control. The beryllium tweeter was incredibly clear, taking you to the very edge and limit of detail but then stopping just before things would sound harsh or etched. The dome style midrange driver is well implemented, producing palpable texture on voices.  My favorite attribute of these speakers is their midrange performance and the resulting emotional connection to the music.

As expected, I ended up visiting this room more than any other room at the show. I couldn’t help myself; I had to keep coming back for more!

Conclusion

The show leaned heavily towards digital streaming as the primary playback choice in most rooms. This echoes the trend of what I saw earlier this year at AXPONA. With digital streaming, the transport is of utmost importance. Musica Pristina’s A Cappella III streaming transport performs at such a high level, that even with 16bit/44.1k tracks via Tidal, it elevates what digital streaming is capable of. For me, this exemplary streaming transport raised the Selah Audio and Musica Pristina room’s performance past the others to make it my favorite of the show.