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  3. 191910-107

Who remembers California Audio Labs?

CAL certainly made a big splash in the early days of digital. I owned an Icon for a number of years and enjoyed it so much that when Power Boss was announced I had my Icon upgraded to a Power Boss. And then California Audio Labs was bought out and disappeared. Not overnight but from the perspective of time, it seems so. Anyone else wonder what could have been the company’s future had their trajectory followed a different path? 

128x128zavato
koestner
671 posts
 

I remember CAL. They made a decent transport. If they were still in business my guess is that they would be similar to, but a more lower priced Wadia.

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,893 posts
 

I had a CAL Alpha 24/96 DAC and Delta transport.   It was a great combo, it replaced a CD player and Audio Alchemy DAC and was a step up for sure.  

GoVideo bought them and that was the end....  

tooblue
1,931 posts
 

Yes I remember CAL and their products, at the time they were quite cutting edge. I believe that their transport and CD players were built on the Phillips machines utilizing the CD4 transport system. Although never owning any of their products I did run the big Phillips CD80 cd player, first as a player and then as a transport digitally linked out to the original PS Audio Digital Link and adding the Audio Alchemy Digital DTI filter in the chain when they became available. This system I ran for a good 12 years and had me just purchasing CDs and neglecting my analog setup. Happy to say I am back on the analog side of things as my primary. Enjoy the music

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