General Asylum: REVIEW: California Audio Labs Delta x-port/Alpha DAC CD Player/Recorder by Keith

-- CAL Delta review, Feb 28, 1999 - (Part I)

"Whereas before I respected Jascha Heifetz playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto as one of the most technically impressive performances, now I respect him even more."

For my first half a year spent at AudioReview, and then here at AudioaAsylum, I have been looking for ways to improve my first entry-level system. At the time, my front end consisted of a Sony DZ-555 "professional" discman with a Toslink out to my Entech 203.2 D/A. There were people who argued the "speakers is 50%" camp, and suggested that I upgraded my Paradigm Minimonitors as priority. And, of course, there were others who screamed the "trash in trash out" argument to me. Finally, one day, my discman began skipping heavily on every single disc I tried, and I realized that it was time to buy a new source, be it a single-boxed cdp, or a new transport. And I found one used on the web sold at a rather unfriendly dealer's website, which I will leave anonymous.

The CAL Delta came in last Wednesday after several days of me bickering with that dealer. The fact that it came in a NAD tuner box did not impress me at all; the dealer did not tell me that it was not OBM. However, I did only play $375 for it, and I found that the unit itself was completely scratchless. It looked perfectly new; the only complaints I have is that the underside of it has two rather impression-provoking stickers -- one which says "Made in Thailand", and the other, "Manufactured: June 1995". Oh. Gee. Also, the last owner left some green paint (AudioPrism green Pen?) on the underside rails of the tray. At least CAL told me that the unit has not been revised since it was first designed, so that's ok.

Lemme jump back: Last November I had a Meridian 506.20 here for trial. I used it as a transport during its burning-in period, and the difference in sound(using a Max Rochlin memorial digital cable) was phenomenal. There was a major tone correctional factor on everything; lots more background noises, details, less congestion. Great sense of pace, nice layer separations, the imaging was rock-solid (yes, even in my little system). Scrawled on the bottom of my notes then was, "VERY musical. Tremendously flowing, carries me away with ease. Coherent. FUN!" I could have easily lived wtih such a front end upgrade. Definitely better than my Sony discman with a toslink out.

Since then, I had thought the transport is a huge part of the digital frontend. And since the CAL unit is famous for being one of the best transports for the money, I had expected a very similar improvement as I had experienced with the Meridian. After all -- we were talking about a
$900 dedicated transport, not just an added digital out of any cd player.

I was quite disappointed at first. In fact, for the first several days. Things sounded the same. The differences did not jump out at me as I had expected (other than the fact that the cd's no longer skipped every 5
minutes :-) ). I even called Galen Carol and asked him what he thought; he actually told me to try using some power-improvements, such as a line conditioner or better ac cords. I borrowed a friend's MIT ZCord-II. It
sounded terrible -- bloated, like the music fell in molasses. It was probably in my system for oh... 4 minutes, before it was taken out and
returned. I also stuck 6 vibrapods under the Delta. And let it continue
playing for 48 hours, etc.

Then I sat down, frustrated, determined to give it a critical listen. At first I started to notice that there was more microdynamics. Phantom of the Opera, Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Jekyll & Hyde... all these musicals started to show people's vibratos a lot more. There were little accents in their voices, little tonal nuances which showed themselves.

The details came out. Background instruments were a lot more evident than before. I found myself saying things like, "Oh, I didn't know there was a violin behind that Sarah McLachlan song", or "look, Keith Jarrett is singing along with his piano playing." Each of the singers in those musicals were inhaling rythmically before each phrase. People's voices and instruments had more of a sense of air... and even echoed, as if to show the size of the recording environment. And in some live recordings,
you can hear stirring around the mics. In parts of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, I'm starting to hear two notes (say, two E's) phrased together, yet distinct, instead of just one longer note. And all the runs became a train of distinct notes instead of just slurs. I realized that I was hearing 30% more notes coming from Heifetz than before, and it was then that I realized my front end was raised a notch in quality. After hearing Heifetz play, I had felt the same way as I did the first time I heard that piece. Impressed. Silent and happy and smiling.

The emotions of each piece of music was more conveyed. This was something which I perceived over time, not something critically listened for. The notes were richer, and had more body. There was an added sense of life and beauty over all the music that I listened to before. And although I did not hear the huge tonal change which I had when the Meridian was here, I'm starting to notice that the pianos are more accurate. The percussion attacks are sharper. It is more musical.

One thing which I had always complained about my system was the bright, shrilling, metallic highs. It was a problem which was fixed a lot when the Meridian 506 was here as a cd player (not a transport). However, the problem was also fixed when I had used a Headroom Max headphone amplfier. The lack of body and defintion in the highs is most likely due to my speakers and amp, but I expected the change in transport to help slightly. The weird thing is -- while the harmonics played on a violin are still shrilly and dry, with the CAL, it is "more precise" in being bright and shrilly. As if the definition of the shrilling is more exact. So could it be that the Meridian actually colored the music (in a good way)? Perhaps the Meridian rolled off the top. Or perhaps the definition in the extreme highs is too much to ask for from a $250 D/A.

So this is my primary report on the CAL Delta transport. It nearly seems like an acquired, very subliminal taste which is slowly coming to me. I had expected to notice the differences immediately, but unlike the
Meridian, it's something which I'll have to slowly discover while enjoying this newly brought out music from my cd's. And with each listen, I'm getting more faith that this transport is actually as good as its famed to be. It is probably more than what I can ask for $375, and gives me the money left to upgrade my speakers in the near future...

-- CAL Delta review, June 16, 1999 - (Part II)

Now, looking back, and having upgraded other components since then, I have to say that the CAL is constantly keeping me impressed from time to time. Tonight, as I was reading over this previous review I had written for some friends, I decided, just for kicks, to put my Sony discman back in my system just for comparisons. Oh my god. By the way, it also kills the discman even when both are on Toslink. Here are two things I learned about system synergy:

1) I would never again recommend someone to upgrade the rest of his or her audio system beyond what the source can do. 2) I would also recommend that, for digital separates, the transport be at least as good as the DAC. Four months after I have upgraded my transport, I realized that having a higher-end front end is not necessarily about just more details (which this thing is capable of), or just better imaging (which this also does). Instead, having a good source is about how musically coherent and flowing the sound can be. The CAL brings about a sense of details in a natural way, not sprinkled on top of the music artificially. It never lets any of your other audiophile adjectives take priority over how flowing the music sounds.

No rave or literary babbling from me can justify the change it did to my entry-level system. However, since I got the Delta I've never had to strain to understand what the singers were saying, and I've just enjoyed the music. And it has yet to skip on a disc.

REVIEW: California Audio Labs Delta x-port/Alpha DAC CD Player/Recorder Review by Keith at Audio Asylum